There’s been a huge change in the enquiries I am fielding this week with locals getting hopeful about Spring springing early on us and getting their outdoor living areas ready to enjoy and entertain with. 

For interior decorators, exteriors are literally an extension of what we do and indeed I treat them as an extension of your home. When decorating a deck, courtyard, pool area or garden setting it is still all about connection, bringing the style and tastes established inside through to the outdoor living areas where then those spaces connect onwards to their surroundings. 

People sometimes hesitate to invest in outdoor furniture because they assume it will be quickly damaged and not worth the investment. That’s a good myth to debunk. Yes, the Australia sun will eventually affect all things that lay under it. And yes, our glorious South Coast location comes with corrosive salt air. However, it is a bit of a false economy to think the answer is to purchase ‘disposable’ furniture every two years. 

There are miraculous fabrics on the market with UV ratings to blow your mind, and other innovations that combine marine grade steel and synthetic weave rope to produce sturdy and stylish furniture that last well into their second decade. Keeping it classic, teak furniture remains the go-to timber as it decays slowly even in Australian outdoors conditions.

If you are renovating your outdoor space it can be very similar to the decision-making process for an interior renovation. Be sure to research the green-certified products that can handle almost everything. For mine, they are the superheroes of hard materials! Dekton is my ‘go to’ and featured in the photo above from a recent client project. 

I often think that if we are decorating to enjoy the outdoors, we should look after it. So, I’m all for outdoor living purchases that are sustainable selections. Invest in quality and you will not need to add to landfill for a very long time.