Vogue Williams' guide to summery garden furniture

My coats have officially been suction bagged which means that it’s spring in my world anyway. Yes, I am absolutely freezing but I am refusing to get the much-needed coats back out. I’m now focusing my efforts on the garden, I have been busy finding some great pieces to enhance or completely overhaul your garden and mine.

For the last two years, I have been threatening to change our garden furniture but it’s a big expense and ours is still very much functional. We live in a block of apartments and our neighbours is a lot nicer than ours so naturally I want in, I’m jealous of their chairs! I actually found the exact set my neighbour has and I am so tempted to get the sofa version. The set is from Oka which you can get online but they also have a gorgeous shop near my house that I wander around wanting everything. I love the cream colour with the light wood, it feels very French chic. My ideal sofa set would be from Suns Lifestyle but they are at the very top end price-wise – I have seen them in real life and the quality is brilliant. If you want something more affordable I would go with Easy Living or JYSK, they have some seriously stylish pieces at the moment.

I wrote about gardens last year and if you want to update your garden without spending a fortune a great way to do this is with outdoor cushions or a beautiful outdoor rug. I always try not to buy the things I find when I write this column but I caved and bought one of the Dunelm rugs for where the kids play. I remember I got my first outdoor rug years ago and it lasted me four years, a great tip is to power hose them before storing them for the winter, they will be spotless. The best power washer on the market in my opinion is the Kärcher one, it’s almost time to force my husband onto the balcony in his wellies armed with the power hose. Also, balcony storage boxes are a must for me, they can fit all of your cushions in through the winter months if you don’t have a shed.