The first summer we lived at our property we had a newborn baby so didn’t spend a lot of time dining outside. With no mature trees we didn’t have much shade, though in the cool of the evening we’d sometimes cook on a little Webber coal BBQ in the shade thrown by our North-East facing barn as the sun set.

Since we bought our property, we’ve spent countless hours imagining our ideal outdoor dining and entertainment areas. Even when we were living in London, we’d regularly indulge in conversations about pizza ovens, huge family sized wooden tables and open fire pits. Of those areas, the ones we imagined using the most are attached to the house we will one day build.

Living in the barn with a newborn felt like maybe we’d just have to wait for the house to really get to incorporate outdoor living into our everyday life. But just as everyone told us, those baby days zoomed by so quickly that before long we found ourselves spending more and more time outside. Meals with an inquisitive toddler are so much more relaxing for everyone when they have freedom to roam.

Last Christmas we decided to spend some of the money in our Smile account, an account we use to set aside money for things that make us smile, to create an outdoor living space in the metal area we use as a car park.

The first time Mark and I purchased outdoor furniture together we were living in a rented house with a square of concrete out of the back ranch slider. We went to The Warehouse and bought a large round wooden table with a lazy susan in the middle, chairs and an umbrella. From memory we spent around $1,000 and it did the job. But that furniture only lasted one season before it started to deteriorate.

When we researched tables and umbrellas this time, we wanted to balance cost with longevity. A big factor for us was also making sure that whatever we bought would stay put in high winds. Mark discovered a local company, Shadowspec, offered a cantilevered umbrella that we could install in a way that would stand up to our high winds. That umbrella paired with a large macrocarpa table with attached bench seats has created a space we use every day.

I’m so glad we didn’t wait for our ‘ideal’ set up to enjoy outdoor living.