Sturdy, design-led all-weather furniture can transform a garden space into an extra room for the summer. Tim Harrison explores Barbed
Our Patch JUNE 2016
G local PARTNERs
Barbed co-founder Graham Sterry at the funky King Street showroom our patch
FEATURED PARTNER
BARBED
Sturdy, design-led all-weather furniture can transform a garden space into an extra room for the summer. Tim Harrison explores Barbed
With space at such a premium in west London, gardens become an extra room and take the pressure off the house to enjoy the warm spell that we’ re surely owed. Which is where Barbed comes in.
The Hammersmith shop is an outdoor furniture specialist, packed with continental designs in a bewildering range of colours.
Graham and Annie Sterry set up the business in Barnes 12 years ago, after failing to find any good-quality, well-designed furniture for their own garden.“ We’ d done our house up, and we were looking for something really contemporary; something that inspired us … and we just couldn’ t find it,” said Graham.
He and Annie source all-weather garden furniture from Scandinavia, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, touring the furniture fairs and particularly tuning in to the concept tables and chairs produced by young graduate designers.
Four months ago they opened in King Street.“ We have a shared interest in the beauty of good design, what makes quality furniture and the aesthetics of design,” said Graham.
For both, the classic simple elegance of the Fermob bistro folding chair – the kind you see outside every Parisian café – reigns supreme; a stylish, sturdy and evocative piece of workmanship that hasn’ t altered in 127 years. Hammersmith’ s tastes are expressed in the 23 colours which Fermob furniture supplies, with bright, dramatic hues capable of lighting up darker garden corners.
Genuinely all-weather cushions, able to withstand hard use and heavy rain, are very popular, while the curved-edge cool of the Bellevie table is the top choice for local gardens.
Barbed is located at 391 King Street, Hammersmith. Call 020 8878 1994 or visit: www. barbed. co. uk
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