Summer Alfresco Dining

We're making the most of every bit of good weather this Summer and are dining outdoors as much as possible. We're thinking breakfast on the patio, long sunny lunches on the lawn, BBQs and garden parties late into the summer evenings. For our recent alfresco shoot we styled the outdoor table for a delicious, summery, Mon Pote team lunch. 

We've put together a Summer Alfresco Dining collection to give you plenty of outdoor dining inspiration... check it out here or read on for outdoor dining styling tips.

Creating an Outdoor Living Space

Set the scene for your day outdoors by making your outdoor space feel as comfortable as possible. We learnt in lockdown how any outdoor space is just so valuable and there's so much you can do with even a little lacklustre yard, or patch of lawn. 

Indoor outdoor rugs are a brilliant place to start when transforming an outdoor space. A rug that's suitable for outside gives a homely feel and means you have plenty of room for lounging without getting grubby or grass stained! We used the HK Living Outdoor Rug, but our OYOY Living Lina Recycled Runner is also a rug that can be used outside.

Lightweight furniture such as rattan chairs, stools and wooden benches are easy to carry outside when the sun is shining (and run back inside with when it's not). We love the more relaxed bohemian look of natural furniture, over traditional patio furniture, styled with a few scatter cushions for comfort and texture. We think the House Doctor Cane Chair works perfectly here.

To finish styling an outside space think about the lighting! it's a known fact that fairy lights and candles make any outdoor living area look romantic and well thought through. Take a look at our candles and candle holders.

Alfresco Table Styling 

For our team lunch we wanted to create a fresh and summery alfresco table lay. We choose a colour scheme of green and white, inspired by our OYOY striped table cloth. Our Pear White Ceramics range looks great layered up with the edge details of the plates and bowls showing. We added splashes of green to our outdoor tableware with the HK Living Ceramic Side Plates in Green. 

We mixed in glassware and candle holders with a vintage feel, keeping the scheme light and bright. These Vintage Style Wine Glasses from House Doctor have a lovely etched pattern detail.

Shop the Look

On The Menu

We made a delicious salad inspired by the menu at Sonny Stores... with little gem lettuce, cherries and Perl Las creamy blue cheese that we picked up from Hugo's Green Grocer. We also served up some baked Manchego cheese with a honey drizzle alongside crusty sourdough from Bristol Loaf. We love a local food shop.

Teddy was a big fan too!