Esterni Design Partnership Blog

As the winter evenings darken the garden, it’s worth thinking about  lighting, as a way of providing intensity, drama and visual pleasure.

You can highlight the structure of the garden, specimen plants such as grasses and trees or provide notes of colourful, sculptural interest.

Below are a collection of images to brighten up all our evenings, with the promise of interaction and play once the weather and temperatures turn towards spring and summer…

Images are courtesy of CASA&DESIGN

Fiona has recently shown me this link to Fermob, a company mainly specialising in metal outdoor furniture.

There is a revival of metal, due to its longevity, recyclable properties, and lower maintenance demands than wood. The metal furniture of Fermob also seems appropriate for smaller, Victorian urban settings with upbeat colours and bold shapes. The traditional-looking shapes echo recent 60′s and 70′s styles, while the colour choices stay firmly on trend.

Below is the Sixties Garden Chair:

Surprising Lounger:

Latitude chair:

Inside Out Chair: available 2012.

Craft table:

Flower armchair:  Lovely with dinosaurs…

Flower armchair detail……..enjoy the sunny days and wilderness walks!

NEW for 2011 – the Shell collection from Fuera Dentro, a Dutch company with some very attractive, modern, exterior furniture for the garden.

Here is an excerpt from their Shell chair press release…

“FueraDentro seeks to develop its products and blur the boundary between the inside and out. This Dutch design label is responsible for the development of the conceptual ideas of prominent designers and budding talent to provide a high quality and weather resistant finished product, making maximum use of the latest available technology. In the development of their products, FueraDentro strive as much as possible to use 100% natural or recyclable materials. The end result is an outdoor piece of outdoor furniture as beautiful and functional as any interior piece.”

The Shell Collection, specifically for FueraDentro designed by Dutch designer Jan des Bouvrie, has its own distinctive design, but fits within this vision.

A different colourway from the same range gives this modern furniture a chic, earthy feel ..

Shell Sofa white

Using concrete and recycled steel in an innovative way is architect and designer Efrain E. Velez from Austin, Texas…

Though they might be stark for many, durability, longevity and lovely lines make the O-lithas series a real temptation….

Tropicalia Chair, Urquiola for Moroso

Though these chairs were launched a couple of years ago, they are still relatively unseen, particularly in more residential urban areas.

At Esterni Design Partnership we offer our clients the wide range of our design knowledge (chairs are only the start!) and passion for high quality objects that can enhance our spaces and raise our spirits, through their good looks and reduced environmental footprint. Tropicalia is woven from 3 colours of polypropylene thread on a steel frame, and comes also as a garden nest!

tropicalia cocoon- Urquiola

Tropicalia comes also as a more sedate armchair…..

Tropicalia armchair

And these are the Little Albert, made with resistant material for interiors or exteriors.

And Madame Dakar, which employs the plastic thread weaving as it was developed for making fishing nets…

Madame Dakar, Moroso

The colours and materials may take a little getting used to, but with the right materials, paving, parasols and planting will make a huge difference to the use and enjoyment of your exterior… lets be brave in 2011!