Whether you're planning your first alfresco dinner or finally investing in the garden you've been putting off for years — this is where to start.
There's a moment every spring when you look at your garden and think: this year. This is the year I actually use it properly.
Maybe it's the first genuinely warm weekend. Maybe it's seeing someone's Easter table laid outside on social media and realising that could be you. Maybe it's just the creeping suspicion that your garden has more potential than a patch of grass and a couple of chairs that were never quite right.
Whatever the trigger — the instinct is a good one. Because a well-thought-out outdoor space doesn't just look beautiful. It changes how you live. It gives you back time, and evenings, and Sunday mornings you'd otherwise spend indoors.
So here's how to actually do it. Not the overwhelming version with forty-seven decisions to make — the straightforward one, built around how people genuinely use their gardens.
Step One: Start With How You Want to Use the Space
Before you look at a single product, ask yourself one question: what does the ideal version of this garden actually look like in use?
For some people, it's a dining table that seats eight for a proper Easter lunch. For others, it's a kitchen outside so the cooking happens where the conversation is. For others still, it's a covered corner where you can sit with a coffee on a grey Tuesday and feel like you've genuinely escaped somewhere.
The mistake most people make is buying for aesthetics and ignoring function. A beautiful dining set in the wrong spot, without shade, facing the wrong direction — it'll get used twice and then avoided.
Get the function right first. Everything else follows from there.
"The mistake most people make is buying for aesthetics and ignoring function. Get the function right first — everything else follows."
Step Two: The Dining Setup — The Heart of Alfresco Living
If you want one piece of outdoor furniture that delivers more return than anything else, it's a dining table you actually want to eat at. Not just sit near — properly eat at, with food and drinks and people around it.
The size matters more than most people think. Too small and it feels cramped; too large for a compact garden and it dominates everything. For most households, a six to eight seater is the sweet spot — big enough for Easter Sunday with the whole family, not so enormous it takes over the patio on a Tuesday evening for two.
From the Easter Alfresco Edit:
The Sicily 2.2m Dining Set
The Sicily is a strong example of getting the balance right. At 2.2 metres, it's generous without being overwhelming — enough room for six to eight people comfortably, with a design that's clean enough to work in most garden settings. If you're creating an outdoor dining space from scratch, this is the kind of anchor piece to build around.
A substantial, elegant outdoor dining set with room for the whole family. Built to weather the seasons and look good doing it.
Margriet Natural 8-Seater Oval Dining Suite
For larger gatherings — or gardens with the space to match — the Margriet oval suite takes things up a level. The oval shape is worth noting: it means everyone can talk to everyone without the end-of-the-table isolation that rectangular tables create. Paired with Sergio chairs and sand cushions, it's a complete picture that photographs beautifully and performs just as well in practice.
→ Margriet Natural 8-Seater Oval Dining Suite with Sergio Chairs
Eight seats, oval table, natural finish. The dining suite built for long Easter lunches that turn into evenings.
Step Three: Shade and Shelter — Because Britain
No conversation about outdoor entertaining in the UK is complete without addressing the weather. Not in a defeated way — in a practical one.
The gardens that get used consistently aren't the ones that wait for perfect conditions. They're the ones with shade when it's sunny, shelter when it's breezy, and some form of cover that means a light shower doesn't send everyone inside.
There are two main options: a parasol for flexible, moveable shade, or a pergola for a more permanent covered structure. Both have their place — and increasingly, the best outdoor spaces have both.
The Pergola: Your Garden's Best Investment
A pergola is the single biggest transformation you can make to an outdoor space. It creates structure, defines the area, provides shelter, and — perhaps most importantly — it changes how the space feels. A garden with a pergola feels intentional. It feels like a room.
Sagres 6m x 3m free-standing pergola
The Sagres 6m x 3m free-standing pergola is worth considering if you're thinking seriously about this. Six by three metres is enough space to house a full dining setup with room to move around it — and because it's free-standing, it doesn't need to be attached to the house.
→ Sagres 6m x 3m Free-Standing Pergola
Six metres of garden architecture. Transforms how you use your outdoor space — not just for Easter, but for every season that follows.
The Parasol: Flexible, Stylish, and Underrated
Not every garden suits a pergola — and not every budget stretches to one straight away. A good cantilever parasol does a remarkable amount of work in the meantime.
Hawaii 300cm x 300cm Lumen LED Cantilever Parasol
The Hawaii LED range is a good example of a parasol that genuinely does more than provide shade: fully rotatable, with built-in LED lighting for evening use, it extends the life of your outdoor space well beyond the afternoon.
→ Hawaii 300cm x 300cm Lumen LED Cantilever Parasol
3m x 3m of shade by day, atmospheric lighting by night. Fully 360° rotatable with a 90kg granite base. From £799.
Step Four: The Finishing Touches That Make the Difference
The furniture and the structure are the foundations. But the spaces that feel genuinely considered — the ones that make guests say "this is lovely" before they've even sat down — are finished with the details.
A side table at the right height. A lantern that creates warmth as the light fades. A corner sofa that makes the post-dinner hour feel like the best part of the evening. Cushions that are actually comfortable, not just decorative.
None of these things are expensive relative to the main pieces — but they're the difference between a garden that looks like an outdoor space and one that genuinely feels like an extension of your home.
The Easter Alfresco Edit — 10% Off Sitewide
From 2nd to 12th April, everything at Ocean Designs is 10% off with code ALFRESCO10. Garden furniture, parasols, pergolas, outdoor kitchens, accessories — all of it, one code, no exceptions.
If this is the year you actually do something about that garden, this is a reasonable place to start.
"The best outdoor spaces aren't built in a weekend — they're built with a bit of intention, a bit of investment, and the very reasonable belief that summer is coming."
Browse the full Easter Alfresco Edit at ocean-designs.co.uk — and use ALFRESCO10 at checkout for 10% off sitewide until Sunday 12th April.