Sofas for outdoors: design the living room in the green with outdoor sofas

In winter, it is cosy to get comfortable indoors at the end of the working day and at the weekend: For this, the dining room or living room offer the ideal retreat to spend relaxing hours with family or friends. In spring and summer, we are drawn outdoors. If you have a balcony, a terrace or even your own garden, you can create a cosy outdoor living room with modern outdoor furniture. Here you can find out what is important when planning an outdoor living room, what the special features of outdoor sofas and the like are and what the differences are. Let yourself be inspired!

Any place outdoors is suitable for setting up an outdoor living room. It's just a matter of making the best use of the available space. Basically, however, you can transform any outdoor area of your home into an outdoor living area with outdoor sofas and the like:

• Balcony: Many apartment dwellings, even in inner cities, are now equipped with a balcony. Sometimes they are quite small or impractically cut. But with the right outdoor furniture, even such balconies can be transformed into cosy outdoor living rooms.
• Terrace: Ground-floor flats often have their own terrace, and in detached houses a terrace is almost standard. These are usually quite large, so the furniture can be more opulent than on most balconies. Another advantage is that the furniture does not have to be limited to the terrace, but can also include other areas of the garden.
• Roof terrace: This is a kind of hybrid between a balcony and a terrace. The special charm of roof terraces is that they usually offer a great view.
• New area in the garden: Of course, an outdoor living room can also be created anywhere in the garden. To do this, it is ideal to create a platform or other surface on which the outdoor sofa and other outdoor furniture can be placed.

Before choosing outdoor furniture, you should think about how you want to use your outdoor living room. You can use the new living area under the open sky to sit down and relax with your loved ones. Here you can relax in the evening or at the weekend with a drink, enjoy nature and chat with friends or family, or simply read a good book. Comfort is therefore the most important factor when it comes to furniture. You are well advised to choose an outdoor sofa that perhaps even has extendable footrests or a seat that can be converted into a reclining surface. Then, when it's too hot in the summer, you can even sleep in your outdoor living room.

Would you rather use the outdoor living area for dining? Then the outdoor furniture should be designed so that you can sit comfortably here. This means that the table of the outdoor lounge set should be high enough to sit at: Not a sofa table, but a dining table. It also makes more sense to choose individual pieces of seating furniture, perhaps combined with a bench, rather than XXL seating furniture.

If your outdoor living room is to be used primarily as a party zone, then outdoor furniture in the style of bar furniture is suitable as furnishing. An outdoor lounge sofa is a perfect addition if there is enough space in your outdoor living room.

By the way: If you want to keep all your options open, it's best to opt for modular outdoor furniture. There are outdoor sofas that consist of individual elements that you can use variably - as part of a sofa or as a single armchair.

Of course, a garden sofa should be visually appealing and comfortable - just like any other sofa that is used indoors. However, there are some special features. After all, an outdoor sofa should be able to remain outside all year round, or at least during the warm season, without suffering any damage. Therefore, a normal sofa cannot simply be used for furnishing the outdoor area. Outdoor lounge furniture must meet the following criteria:

• The outdoor sofa must be weatherproof: Ideally, an outdoor sofa can remain outdoors all year round. However, this is only possible if all elements of the piece of furniture can be exposed to heat, cold, rain and snow, as well as strong sunlight.
• Outdoorfurniture should be dirt-resistant: Outdoor furniture must be able to withstand a lot of dirt. After all, in summer you're bound to sit down on the sofa when you're freshly covered in sunscreen. Trees, bushes and the like spread pollen or flowers that soil the furniture. And birds, squirrels and other visitors to the outdoor living room are not necessarily particularly clean either.
• Special requirements for durability and maintenance: Although they are constantly exposed to the weather and can easily become dirty, outdoor sofas and other outdoor furniture should be durable. The amount of care required should also be low, because you want to enjoy your outdoor living room instead of having to constantly maintain it.
• Weather protection included: If the cushions of your outdoor lounge furniture cannot remain outside all year round, then a storage solution should be available. This means that a suitable cover is included in the delivery or that there is storage space for the cushions under the seat or in a stool element.

If you want to use your outdoor living room all year round, you have several options when it comes to design. Perhaps you have a covered terrace with weatherproof side elements or a balcony that is completely protected from the weather? Here you can use almost all outdoor sofas. Because here rain, snow and even heat and cold are sufficiently kept out.

If your outdoor living room is not covered, then your outdoor sofa should indeed be completely weatherproof. This applies to both the frame and the upholstery or covers. The frame of outdoor lounge furniture is often made of plastic or polyrattan, aluminium, stainless steel or wood. Wood impresses with its natural properties and great look. However, wood can weather or warp. Wood also needs to be painted or oiled regularly. Outdoor furniture made of stainless steel or aluminium looks stylish and modern, but can rust. Only outdoor furniture made of plastic or polyrattan is really easy to care for and weatherproof.

When it comes to cover fabrics, things get a little more complicated: most upholstery and covers of outdoor sofas are water- and dirt-repellent and pleasantly easy to clean, but they are not completely water- and weather-resistant. However, there are some outdoor sofas whose seats and backs are covered with special fabrics that come from boat building. These fabrics look and feel like cotton fabrics. However, they are easy to clean, waterproof, weatherproof and UV-resistant.

The selection of outdoor sofas and co. is enormous today. This applies not only to the variety of materials, but also to the design styles. So you can furnish your outdoor living room just the way you like it. There are minimalist outdoor sofas and armchairs that are inspired by the Scandi look. But it is also possible to furnish your outdoor living area in a country house look. Materials such as aluminium or stainless steel are used for outdoor sofas with a modern design or industrial look. Variety is also the order of the day when it comes to shapes: outdoor sofas can be shaped like classic sofas for indoors. But there are also outdoor sofas and armchairs that inspire with organic shapes.

Just as the living room in your flat or house does not only consist of a sofa or sofa set, an outdoor seating area does not become an outdoor living room with an outdoor sofa alone. Your outdoor living room becomes really cosy when you add other elements to the sofa. The classic is, of course, a matching outdoor living room table. An outdoor rug is a visual highlight and is pleasant if you like to walk barefoot. A privacy screen made of plants or wooden elements provides additional cosiness. You can also decorate your outdoor living room with lanterns and wind lights or solar light chains to create a feel-good atmosphere.