Taking the party outside is a huge and growing trend of recent years. According to industry analysts, the outdoor home industry is already worth over five billion dollars, and that number is growing bigger every year, faster than the economy as a whole.
In essence, what this means is that people see outdoor as a luxury. And as their incomes go up, they’re more inclined to invest in it. Why? Because it’s fun and it helps make better use of their outdoor space.
It’s An Extension Of The Living Room
Living rooms come into their own in the winter. There’s nothing like having a roaring fire in the corner, curled up on the sofa under a blanket reading a book. But when the summer rolls around, living rooms aren’t at their best. If you haven’t got air conditioning, they’re stuffy and unpleasant. And even if they are cool, it’s still nicer to be outside and enjoy the warm weather.
Outdoor living areas are in many ways superior to indoor spaces. The first is that they have access to sunlight during the day and starlight at night – all part of the natural human experience for millennia. The second, and perhaps more important reason, is that it doesn’t matter so much if you make a mess. Spilling your glass of wine on a living room carpet is a disaster which requires full mobilisation of various carpet sprays as well as your noisy and expensive carpet cleaner. But a spilt glass of wine outdoors is neither here nor there. Life’s easy outdoors.
You Don’t Have To Keep Rushing To The Kitchen
When you’re entertaining guests, the last thing that you want to be doing is constantly rushing inside to make sure that the food isn’t burning. This is why so many people are transforming their timber decking areas into outdoor kitchens.
These days, the options available to people who want to cook outdoors are just staggering. It’s not just about the grill anymore: now you can get dishwashers, range cookers and proper stoves for preparing pretty much whatever you want.
Outdoor kitchens are usually paired with some sort of veranda or overhead covering to keep the elements out. But they’re becoming increasingly no-compromise, meaning that it is entirely possible to replicate your kitchen outdoors.
Materials Are Getting Better
Just a few years ago, garden furniture was all wrought iron and wood: not exactly comfortable materials. But over the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion outdoor furniture options, thanks to advancing material science. Modern materials, like rattan, are allowing manufacturers to not only make outdoor chairs but outdoor sofas that are comfortable. What’s more, they’ve come up with ways of making cushions that can survive getting damp outdoors, meaning that outdoor living spaces retain much of the comfort of their indoor counterparts. You couldn’t fall asleep while reading a book on your gran’s wrought-iron garden chair, but you certainly could on new outdoor seating, thanks to modern technology.
All the new stuff, mainly made from plastics and vinyl, is ultra-resistant to corrosion, meaning that it will last a long time.
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