Tag Archives: outdoordining

5 tips for styling your balcony with the outdoor furniture specialists

Posted on by webadmin
outdoor-furniture-specialists
20 Aug

Living in a unit or home with a small balcony as your outdoor space means that you need to get creative! Your best option is to contact outdoor furniture specialists, such as Daydream Leisure Furniture, because we not only have wonderful outdoor furniture stores in Noosa and Warana, but we are also happy to share our design and styling knowledge with our customers.

As outdoor furniture specialists, we can help you to create the perfect relaxing space for your balcony, a place where you can spend quality time with friends and relatives. We have an extensive collection of outdoor furniture on the Sunshine Coast, just waiting to grace your balcony!

However, if you are struggling to put together a design for your balcony and you are looking for some advice, here are five design tips that should get you started.

1.     Take size and proportion into account

If you have a small balcony, you don’t want your furniture to overwhelm the space, but by the same token, you don’t want your furniture to disappear into a large space. It’s all about proportions and the size of your furniture compared to the size of your balcony. If you bring in a few photos and the measurements of your balcony, our outdoor furniture specialists can help you to select the best furniture settings for your needs at one of our Sunshine Coast stores.

2.     Consider the effects of layering

Layering is all about textures and drawing the eye around the space by adding interest. Layering can include rugs, cushions, wall hangings, planters, privacy screens, pots and even creating small defined spaces for reading or dining on your balcony.

3.     Ramp up your style with lighting

Lighting is essential to any outdoor space, but to improve the ambience of your balcony, it’s a great idea to add a selection of lanterns and candles that can be changed to suit your mood. None of these need to be fixed, which is ideal if you are only renting your unit! Consider adding a selection of different lanterns and candles to a small side table or even running a string of lanterns along the side of your balcony to brighten up the space.

4.     Don’t forget vertical spaces

As an outdoor specialist, we know that including vertical spaces in your design is a way to visually increase the size of the space and add extra interest. Consider mirrors, artworks, privacy screens, murals or wall hangings – all in designs and colours that complement your furniture.

5.     Optimise your garden space

Adding greenery to your small balcony is a great way to ground your space in nature, but make sure to select the type of plants that grow well in the environment of your balcony. Examples include grasses and succulents, even a herb garden or a planter filled with agapanthus because they don’t need much attention and look good all year round. You might think that a vertical garden is a good option, but the small pots often don’t provide enough water and nutrients for plants to grow well on balconies.

If you want help selecting the perfect balcony furniture on the Sunshine Coast, don’t hesitate to drop into one of our local furniture stores and chat to one of our outdoor furniture specialists or send us an email. It’s our passion to make your entertaining and living needs a reality.

Encouraging Social Media Engagement Through Furniture and Décor

Posted on by webadmin
selfie for social media
02 May

With the huge popularity of Instagram and Facebook, it’s no wonder that every business wants to encourage their patrons to share snapshots throughout their social media networks. In fact, this has become one of the major strategies that restaurateurs use to engage their own customers and drum up new custom.

If you want to drive new customers to your eatery, here are five décor and furnishing ideas that should give you a head start.

1.     Themes or eye-catching interior designs

With social media, everything is about being visually appealing, which is why your business needs a theme or an eye-catching presentation that customers want to photograph. These can include digital or neon signs or menus on the walls, as well as a stand out theme, such as communal eating tables, open kitchens and using Italian style furnishings such as Nardi.

social media setting

@NardiNetDiningChair

2.     Lighting for social media engagement

Lighting is an integral part of any eatery, creating its mood and ambiance. This can include a variety of pendants, chandeliers, candles, and lanterns, all used to establish your theme. Lights need to be positioned to allow your customers to visually appreciate your theme, décor, table settings and food, all of which comes together to make an instagrammable vignette.

If you make a feature of your lighting however, this itself can encourage customers to take photographs to share with their social media followers. People love taking photos, and the more reasons you give them to photograph your business, the more you increase online engagement.

social media lighting@thegrounds

3.     Food presentation

Why not give your chef the freedom to create food that is photogenic and instagrammable? It makes perfect sense when you want to engage your target audience via social media, because everyone wants to share a visually amazing display of food with their followers. An even better idea is to commission plate ware that is eye-catching, taking your food’s presentation up another notch. At Daydream, we stock a huge range of tableware and dining settings that are the perfect addition to any commercial business. Browse our beautiful entertainment accessories here!

plate ware for social media

@Dining&Entertainment

4.     Fun and branded menus

Since people automatically look for something unique and photogenic when they eat out, it makes sense to design your menus to be photographed. This means that engaging a local artist to design fun and interesting menus that complement your furnishings and theme, is a cost-effective exercise. People no longer simply photograph the food, so creating a space that has multiple photogenic factors within its décor is a win-win situation!

You can even personalise menus for special occasion bookings, making it pretty much guaranteed that they will photograph them and share it with their followers.

Encouraging Social Media Engagement Through Furniture and Décor | Daydream Leisure Furniture

@NardiNetDiningChair

5.     Create a photo wall

We highly recommend creating a unique design element or photo wall that customers would recognise when featured online and through social media. A few excellent ideas may be creating a living plant wall, planters filled with living herbs in the middle of your Nardi tables, backlit glass shelves filled with spirit bottles behind the bar or a wall covered in fabulous artwork. All of these furnishing and décor ideas make your eatery ‘instagrammable’, bringing in more customers to share your eatery with their social media followers!

photo wall for social media@homebeautiful

Bonus Tips!

Instead of a boring photo of a plate of food, why not hand out wide-angle selfie sticks to your customers. This is a fun and creative way to engage your customers as well as showcase more of your business (furnishings included). Also, don’t forget to leverage your own branded hashtag so you can continue to engage with your customers post-purchase! Add these hashtags to all of your own Instagram images, captions and menus to keep your hashtag trending!

If you would like any styling tips or advice on new furniture fit-outs, feel free to contact the professional team at Daydream Leisure Furniture today. We are the outdoor living specialists who can help bring life back to your hospitality business.

 

 

DIY: How to Properly Clean your Outdoor Rug

Posted on by webadmin
DIY: How to Properly Clean your Outdoor Rug | Daydream Leisure Furniture
19 Oct

With spring here and the summer holidays quickly creeping up on us, there’s no surprise that outdoor areas become the most utilised space. We certainly believe there is no better time than now to begin freshening up your entertainment area and ensuring you are prepared for the upcoming festive season!

An accessory that most people tend to avoid is cleaning their outdoor rug. Outdoor rugs are the perfect transitional piece to transform a functional space into a comfortable living area. Most outdoor rugs are synthetic, so they’re mould and mildew resistant, yet the accumulation of dirt and grime cannot be prevented. Seeing as we’re the outdoor furniture experts, we thought we’d share our top tips for cleaning your outdoor rug.

  1. Know the fabric

The material of the rug will certainly determine how you approach cleaning it. The common types of materials are:

  • Acrylic
  • Bamboo
  • Nylon
  • Polyester
  • Polypropylene

Whilst these rugs are more durable and robust, each material has its positives and negatives that you should research. If you are unfamiliar with the type of material your rug is, feel free to contact us and we can assist you in the right direction.

  1. Clean off surface dirt

Once you’ve done your research, use a soft brush to sweep off any debris on your rug. Make sure you vacuum any of the remaining dirt and surrounding floor area. If possible, try shaking your rug to help remove any excess.

  1. Spot clean if necessary

Any liquid stains that are fresh should be blotted to prevent the stain from seeping deeper into the rug fibres. Using a butter knife to carefully lift any dry debris and vacuuming it after is also very handy!

  1. Soapy Water

Using a big bucket, pour about 1 tablespoon of clear dishwashing liquid for every 3 ½ litres of water. Clear soap will stop the colours from transferring onto your rug!

  1. Begin the deep clean

Lying your rug down on an elevated driveway or any clean surface will help with the wash away. Begin hosing down the rug and use a soft brush to start scrubbing! Use your own intuition to decide whether the entire rug needs to be cleaned or just certain areas. Rinse the rug again and either lay it in the sun or hang it over a fence to dry.

Pro tip** Trial the soap and scrubbing brush in one corner of the rug to see how it takes to it. Proceed the clean if there are no damages visible. Discontinue the clean and consult a professional if issues arise.

That’s it! Depending on the size of the rug, this process can take about 30 minutes to one hour to clean. There’s no better feeling than revitalising your favourite rug and saving some $$$ in the process.

We’d like to remind our lovely readers that this process will present better results if your rug has been cared for throughout the year. If you’re unsure of what we’re talking about here are a few more tips.

  • Blot spills immediately after an accident with a white cloth
  • Avoid harsh chemicals, as it can cause fading
  • Store your rug in a dry area when the outdoor entertaining season is over
  • Allow your rug to dry completely from moisture before vacuuming
  • Vacuum and shake regularly

If you’re looking for a new rug to make your outdoor entertainment setting more inviting, then give the team at Daydream Leisure Furniture a call. We have a large variety of outdoor rugs to suit everyone’s needs and we can give you the best advice on which rug is best suited for you!

Bring spring back into your outdoor living spaces

Posted on by webadmin
Bring spring back into your outdoor living spaces | Daydream Leisure Furniture
04 Sep

With spring not far away in Australia, it’s time to start thinking about your outdoor living areas and how you can make them feel more like an extension of your home. Most Aussies spend plenty of time on the patio and in the garden, so it makes sense to make these areas as comfortable and as inviting to everyone as the inside of your home.

Let’s look at five different ways you can style your outdoor spaces to make the most out of the outdoors at home!

Outdoor living rooms

If you want to create a wonderful outdoor living area, your choices are endless! A ‘must-have’ for your outdoor lounge is a comfortable sofa with plenty of cushions and a coffee table. Your best choices are between aluminium, timber and wicker frames, but be sure to select the design and style that complements your home’s interior décor.

The best type of outdoor sofas are modular and those that you can mix and match, because you can change the configuration to suit your needs, but also look for quality fabrics that don’t fade easily in the sun. As an added touch for the cool spring evenings, consider adding a fire pit or an overhead heater for a lovely cosy feeling.

Outdoor dining spaces

Dining alfresco outdoors is a fabulous idea as we start to enjoy the warmer evenings, but lunch outdoors with friends is also a great option and what about Sunday morning breakfasts out on the patio?

There is a wide variety of table settings for your outdoor patio, but timber is always a great choice, as is wicker, aluminium and even concrete (for people who want to try something different!). Don’t forget that you can select chairs that match your dining table or opt for a trendier ‘mismatched’ style by selecting a different design or material than your table. The Nardi Outdoor ‘Net’ Dining range comes in a huge variety of colours which can be styled together.

Tranquil and peaceful spots

For small patios or larger gardens where you want to create a number of different outdoor rooms, a tranquil and peaceful spot where you can read a book or listen to your favourite music in the shade is a great idea.

You won’t need much furniture for a quiet reading spot, maybe just one single comfortable chair and coffee table if you want the area to be just for yourself! You can even add a floor rug, vase of flowers and a small water feature to really treat yourself to a few hours of relaxation.

Morning coffee anyone?

When friends come over for morning coffee, it’s great if you can have a lovely outdoor setting where everyone can relax and chat outdoors on the patio. You can opt for a small modular setting and coffee table or a few matching chairs and coffee table, but whichever option you select make sure that comfort is your first priority.

Relaxing afternoon sanctuaries

There is nothing quite like putting your feet up in the late afternoon and just chilling on your own or with family and friends. Creating a relaxing sanctuary is very easy with just a daybed, an umbrella for extra shade and maybe a coffee table to hold your drink and magazines. Don’t forget to include a few stylish cushions for extra comfort and home décor items, such as lanterns, placemats and even outdoor lighting to add a personal touch.

Timber daybeds are very popular as are wicker daybeds, and since they are designed for the outdoors, they are very easy to keep clean. You can match your daybeds to your coffee setting or your outdoor alfresco dining setting and create a lovely, stylish outdoor entertainment area with plenty of options for everyone.

Check out our product catalogue and start designing your outdoor living spaces for spring today!