Outdoor Furniture

Outdoor Furniture Setting Design with Solid Teak Slats and Sun Lounge Row, Side Tables

Outdoor Furniture Concept 04 is part of our Outdoor Furniture collection — one of 90 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Timber, cane, aluminium and stone settings, dining, lounging and material detail shots. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Outdoor Furniture collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Poolside Lounge Furniture Design with Reclaimed Timber and Long Bench Dining Setting and Warm Garden Lounge and Daybed Setting with Woven Cane and Daybed Retreat, Low Coffee Table →

More Outdoor Furniture concepts

Garden Lounge and Daybed Setting with Woven Cane and Daybed Retreat, Low Coffee Table

Garden Lounge and Daybed Setting with Woven Cane, Rustic Teak Timber and Sand-Toned Weatherproof Cushions, Sculptural Succulents and Fine Gravel Surrounds, featuring a Daybed Retreat, Low Coffee Table and Soft Shaded Comfort, framed by Generous Paved Terraces and Warm

Poolside Lounge Furniture Design with Reclaimed Timber and Long Bench Dining Setting and Warm

Poolside Lounge Furniture Design with Reclaimed Timber, Concrete Table Tops and Warm Terracotta Cushions, Tropical Foliage Backdrop and Deep Green Screening, featuring a Long Bench Dining Setting and Warm Evening Lighting, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft Layered Textures

Alfresco Dining Furniture Design with Powder-Coated Steel and Sunken Conversation Lounge and Firepit Centrepiece

Alfresco Dining Furniture Design with Powder-Coated Steel, Black Rattan Weave and Textured Linen-Look Fabric, Potted Olives, Clipped Hedging and Soft Grass Borders, featuring a Sunken Conversation Lounge and Firepit Centrepiece, finished with Sculptural Feature Planting and Inviting Outdoor Living

Poolside Lounge Furniture Design with Reclaimed Timber and Long Bench Dining Setting and Warm

Garden Lounge and Daybed Setting with Woven Cane and Daybed Retreat, Low Coffee Table

Poolside Lounge Furniture Design with Reclaimed Timber and Long Bench Dining Setting and Warm

Complete image catalogue

Full feature article · Pergolas & Patios

The Importance of Shade and Cover in Backyard Home Designs

Pergolas and patios turn an unusable backyard into a space you enjoy all year — shade, style, protection for furniture, and a home for dining and cooking zones.

The single change that transforms most backyards is not planting, paving or a pool. It is cover. A backyard without shade is used for a few hours on mild days; the same backyard with a well built pergola or patio becomes the room the family lives in from spring through to the middle of winter. Cover is what converts outdoor area into outdoor living.

Shade also protects the investment already sitting outside. Ultraviolet light destroys cushions, timber finishes, outdoor rugs, televisions and barbecues far faster than rain does. Furniture under a solid roof lasts several times longer than the same furniture in the open, which means the cover often pays for itself in replacement costs alone before any comfort is counted.

Choosing the structure is a decision about light. A slatted or louvred pergola casts a moving pattern and keeps the space bright, which suits dining areas and pool surrounds. A solid insulated roof creates genuine all weather cover for a kitchen, lounge or television zone, at the cost of some light to the windows behind it. Glass or polycarbonate keeps winter light in while stopping the rain, and needs shade cloth or planting above it to be tolerable in summer. Many of the best backyards use two structures with different roofs for different jobs.

Pergolas & Patios design ideas photo from the The Importance of Shade and Cover in Backyard Home Designs feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Orientation and sizing decide whether the structure works. Western sun is the enemy, so plan for a vertical screen, blind or planting on that side rather than relying on the roof. Allow at least three and a half metres of depth for a dining table with chairs pulled out, more if a barbecue or bench sits under the same roof. Set the height generously — low pergolas feel oppressive and trap smoke and heat from cooking.

Build the services in while the frame is open. Downlights and a dimmer on the beams, a fan for still summer evenings, strip heating for winter, weatherproof outlets for cooking appliances and speakers, and gutters plumbed into the stormwater rather than spilling onto paving. Retrofitting any of these later means cutting into a finished ceiling.

Finally, connect the cover to the house and the garden. Paving that runs at one level from the interior floor through to the covered area removes the trip hazard and doubles the apparent size of the living room. A screen of tall planting or a hedge on the boundary side gives privacy, and a climber over one end of the pergola softens the structure so it reads as part of the garden rather than a carport in the wrong place.

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Outdoor Furniture Setting Design with Solid Teak Slats and Sun Lounge Row, Side Tables

More Outdoor Furniture concepts

The Importance of Shade and Cover in Backyard Home Designs