Wooden Garden Benches: Smooth and Rough-Hewn, Traditional and Modern

The longer we linger in gardens and green spaces, the more we value a place to sit. Over the last 18 months one of our most useful garden accessories, the bench, has been widely used and appreciated as never before.

I’m celebrating wooden benches that range in character from beautifully finished to rough-hewn and from classic to contemporary, by way of quirky and downright artsy. If your imagination works this way, try removing the bench from one pictures and replacing it with another. Garden furniture is more than just practical: the style of each bench alters the way we see its surroundings. 

This nicely worn bench sits in an interactive garden – we need have no fear of sitting here.

I’ve shared pictures of some of these gardens before: read about the Sensory Garden at Howick Hall here

or check out my post about York Gate Garden which has an Arts and Crafts theme.

The benches at Studeley Royal Water Garden and Dunham Massey are variations on a theme, similar in dimensions and outline, but while one has the elegance its setting demands, the other is a thing of the woods.

RHS Wisley’s serpentine bench is very clever. It seats many people while still providing some feeling of privacy for smaller groups and its natural lines reflect the meandering outline of the lake it surveys.

White is the classic paint colour for a wooden garden bench, so I’m signing off with some characterful, upmarket white-painted designs. Though we might think of it as impractical, the colour certainly draws the eye.

The high-backed wooden bench creates a visual anchor against a yew hedge that would dwarf a standard-sized bench; the one below plays a similar role at Arley Hall gardens in Cheshire.

Shared for Becky’s TreeSquares.