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“When you design a garden, you are building a vision and all the elements should tie together to tell that story,” says landscape designer Emily Erlam. “Finding the right furniture is a key component to the final look. It elevates the experience of the garden exponentially.”
Yet until recently, sourcing a beautiful and well-crafted piece of outdoor furniture was oddly challenging. When Erlam set up her London studio in 2010, there was, she says, a very “unambitious and somewhat throwaway approach” to garden furniture: cheap faux rattan and poorly made wooden sets. She started looking to Europe, where she found the quality and design of products to be much higher, exemplified by Danish brands such as Skagerak and Hay. Today, her little black book includes design store Twentytwentyone (for European-made pieces) as well as UK-based Gloster and Danish brand Cane-Line.
“There is no doubt that garden furniture has historically lagged behind interior furniture in terms of its overall importance in the home,” says John Danzer, the designer-founder of US-based outdoor furniture brand Munder Skiles. “But the outdoor decor market is growing substantially, evidencing consumer demand for better options.”
One of Erlam’s current favourites is Dutch firm Koningdamen; she has used its stone-topped round table and lacquered hardwood Moerlandt chairs, redolent of early 20th-century slatted designs, in her own lushly planted King’s Cross garden. “The materials, the shape and the colour are perfect. The dark green of the low-backed chairs sits comfortably in the garden; they are almost see-through, so that the plants remain the key focal point.”
Like many designers, Erlam, who frequently works in collaboration with architectural firms including Johnson Naylor and Thomas Heatherwick, also commissions furniture when the setting demands it. “It’s a very special journey to work with a maker who is passionate about what they do, especially if we are creating bespoke pieces from trees that have been taken down on the site,” she says. “It’s a lovely story for the clients to tell, about a circular economy, valuing the trees.” She has recently commissioned a bench from a fallen cedar tree that was hand-carved in situ in a Hampstead garden by Joel De Mowbray, founder of studio Yes Make.
The provenance and patina of pieces is key if furniture is going to sit harmoniously in a garden. “Too much modern furniture can feel jarring,” agrees Tabi Jackson-Gee. The garden designer has just launched Them Outdoors, an online gallery of outdoor furniture, sculptures, planters and other decorative items. “I wanted garden designers to have somewhere to find work by independent makers that is driven by good design and craftsmanship,” she explains. “I’m always envious of interior designers, because they have so many resources at their disposal when it comes to furniture.”
Some of the pieces in the Them Outdoors collection are existing designs: the Daybed Company’s Indian-inspired beds in hand-turned iroko and woven rope; and Olivia Gonsalves’ mid-century-inflected steel and canvas chairs, which were debuted in Miria Harris’s transporting Garden for Recovery (with the Stroke Association) at the Chelsea Flower Show last spring. But she also showcases new, more sculptural pieces, such as the extraordinary steel Horse Seat by artist Fred Clark, who often references animals and mythology in his work. “It’s a perfect example of what can be achieved outside — a hybrid of furniture and sculpture made by a highly trained artist,” says Jackson-Gee.
The latest design she has added to her inventory is Daniel Hayden’s Tipsy garden chair, which draws on the constructivist furniture of Gerrit Rietveld and Enzo Mari, but in English oak and with comfort at its core: all rounded edges and with generous wide arms. “It’s been an instant hit,” says Jackson-Gee. As well as bringing intriguing design to outdoor spaces, her selection is conceived to enhance views out to the garden: “In the British climate, we spend much of our year inside, so furniture should be beautiful and draw your eye out into the garden, even when you’re not able to use it.”
Perhaps the fleeting English summer has contributed to the long-term lack of beautifully designed and crafted garden furniture. But it was in London that Baltimore native Danzer first became interested in the sector. In the 1980s, working in finance in the City, he discovered the garden antiques arm of Clifton Nurseries, run by plaster-caster Peter Hone, and became part of the scene there. Danzer eagerly became part of the scene there. “I learnt that the shape of a chair’s frame is key to its comfort, and that a chair’s silhouette is essential to its visual appeal,” he says.
This research would lead to his first Munder Skiles collections, which nod to classics from the past three centuries of furniture design, but with an overarching sense of simplicity, craftsmanship and, crucially, comfort. The close attention to ergonomics means that his chairs — from the elegant, curvaceous metal Swan to the Chippendale-style Clifton dining design — can often be used without the additional padding of soft upholstery, which Danzer argues is a hassle to store, move and clean. “Cushion as condiment, we say, not the main course.” And with such beautiful design, why would you want to cover it up?
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