Garden Seating Ideas: What Are The Different Types Of Garden Seating

Bench In Garden Surrounded By Flowers
garden bench
(Image credit: Panmaule)

Your outdoor living spaces should be as nice as the interior of your home. Exterior seating for gardens offers comfort to you and your family but also provides an opportunity to show a little whimsy and fun. From benches to hammocks and back out to chaise lounges and fainting couches, your outside seating should be a reflection of you and your gardening style.

Consider Your Outdoor Seating Options

Resin chairs are easy to care for and cheap, but outdoor seating options can be so much more with very little expenditure. Of course, you can peruse the stock at a high-priced garden furnishing center if that is your taste. There are gorgeous garden seating ideas for the outdoors but many of them are pricey. Make sure you have a budget in mind before you start shopping and look outside the box if your budget is puny. Depending upon your needs and style, your garden seating ideas should reflect your taste.

  • If you are a laid-back, outdoorsy person, you might consider built-in or rustic furniture that blends with nature. Built-in furniture may be a stone couch that you dress up with cushions. An easy rustic idea is to distress an Adirondack or other wooden chair. You can do this with sandpaper or just let nature do its work and age the wood.
  • If you have a flair for the dramatic, fainting couches and Asian inspired bamboo chairs might do the trick. Brighten everything up with exotic custom fabric touches in cushions and throw pillows.

Why Do You Need Seating for Gardens?

Obviously, we want to enjoy the outdoors and our beautiful landscapes, but your own practical uses for your landscape may be different from mine. In addition to thinking about the look you want and what is comfortable, consider the use you have for the area. If you tend to sit in the location with the newspaper and coffee to catch the sun in the morning and that's all, your seating options can be minimal. On the other hand, if you have a large family or entertain a lot, you'll need chairs, tables, side tables, and probably service nooks. Working with garden benches is an effective way to provide plenty of seating and you can personalize them in many ways. Some gardeners even work outdoors at a computer or desk and need weatherproof, posture enhancing chairs or even a thinking couch.

Types of Garden Seating

There are many different kinds of outdoor furniture.

  • You can make a complete eco-friendly living room if you have the space with a couch, easy chairs, ottomans, and attending side tables. Make sure all the materials are long-lasting and weather-proof.
  • A hot summer day is easy to relieve when you have a lazy hammock strung between two shady trees.
  • Adirondack chairs have become very popular as seating for gardens. You can get them in polished professional wood, resin, plastic, and many other materials. They are durable and comfy for almost any body type.
  • As already mentioned, working with garden benches offers a spot for many rumps to rest. They come in wood, metal, concrete, resin, and many other constructions. Benches can be hard on the behind, but this is easy to fix with cushions and pillows.
  • If you tend to like a nap in the sun, couches or chaises should be at hand, but the hammock will also provide a nice resting space.

Be true to your vision and your budget as you vet the types of garden seating but have fun and bring your personality outside for everyone to enjoy.

Bonnie L. Grant
Writer

Bonnie Grant is a professional landscaper with a Certification in Urban Gardening. She has been gardening and writing for 15 years. A former professional chef, she has a passion for edible landscaping.