With favourable weather most of the year, Australians have always had a healthy appreciation for a good outdoor space.
Thanks to spending a lot of time at home in recent months due to a global phenomenon you may have heard about (I’ll give you a hint, it starts with ‘c’), we’ve taken this appreciation up a notch and become positively obsessed with our yards, gardens and balconies.
It makes sense; for those of us who worked from home during the pandemic, our outdoor spaces may have been the only real delineation we had between ‘work’ and ‘play’. For others who simply spent more time at home because, well, where else was there to go, we were moved to do something more visually exciting with whatever landscape we had to work with to stop our eyes from starving for something novel to feast upon.
From out of all this intense focus on our outdoor spaces a few key trends are emerging – and you can nail them all in one go with a shop at Amart Furniture.
Let’s take a look at the hottest outdoor styling trends this Summer
An updated Mediterranean colour palette
Watch any season of The Block and you’ll notice black has featured heavily for quite a number of years now as a simple way to bring elegance and sophistication to an outdoor setting.
This Summer black is going to make way for white to provide a fresher backdrop for the updated Mediterranean colour palette that is about to be HUGE both inside and out of the home. Forget the gaudy gold, hot pinks and neon oranges that dominated the old palette; This newer palette still rests on sea blues and greens, with a hint of contrasting pink, yellow and orange in warmer tones.
The hanging egg chair
This one isn’t a new trend but it’s also not going anywhere anytime soon, and I’ll tell you why: the humble hanging egg chair is an incredibly versatile statement piece for both small and large spaces. For narrow balconies that might only fit one piece of furniture, this style of chair is it. And for larger spaces, a hanging chair with a rug helps create division between areas and adds a focal point of interest.
Rattan anything
Rattan, a hallmark of 1970s interiors, had a modern day revival circa 2019 when it suddenly made an appearance across the Instagram accounts of every influencer famed for a grown up sense of style. While rattan’s cousin, cane, has been prolific in outdoor furniture for what feels like forever, rattan has been less obvious and by that same token, it has retained a little more of an edgier and luxe vibe.
The key to nailing this look is not going overboard with multiple pieces in different styles of rattan materials, but instead choosing just one statement piece or a set using an identical rattan material.
A hint of old world glam
Frequent lockdowns and the halt on international travel gave us all an appreciation for a simpler life. But gosh darn it – you know what we’ve gained an even greater appreciation for? That ball gown we only got a chance to wear once, that glittery pair of heels we bought and then ignored, and any excuse to wash our hair and put make up on, really. Lockdowns have meant that we’ve grown used to doing fancy stuff at home, and we see this in the emerging trend to merge cosy and functional with glam and luxe. A bit like Gucci’s lamb wool lined Princetown slipper.
After all, if you are going to go to the effort of dressing up for a FaceTime wine, you want the right props around you.
Insta-worthy break out areas or backdrops
Instagram currently has around 1.074 billion users, which is 73.5 million more than it did last year (eMarketer, 2020). Social photo sharing isn’t going anywhere. As we all grow a little more prolific in the art of getting ‘the shot’, we’re also becoming a little more attuned to the aesthetics of our spaces, and how they show up in photos. Expect to see more of anything that makes a good backdrop such as vertical gardens, feature walls and tall furniture with interesting lines.