Effortless garden styling ideas from Jane Cumberbatch

Stylist Jane Cumberbatch – famous for her simple yet chic interiors – shares her secrets for relaxed vintage style

The pretty garden of her south London townhouse is often the setting for relaxed summer dinner parties and she enjoys eating her lunch on an old wooden bench beside her shed whenever the weather permits. ‘I don’t go for new, shiny furniture,’ says Jane, author of Pure Colour (Pavilion, £25). ‘I love weathered, worn pieces. I want the garden to look as natural and textural as possible.’

Jane points out that older pieces of garden furniture are often much better quality than newer ones. ‘Vintage pieces tend to be solid and well-built. Nowadays a lot of new outdoor furniture is made in softwoods such as pine, or in imported hardwood from Southeast Asia that has a reddish look that I’m not keen on.’ Antique garden furniture is often made of cast iron or sturdy hardwood that silvers beautifully over time, while aged patinas, on zinc troughs for example, improve with time and blend seamlessly into the greenery.

Jane’s garden is home to an eclectic assortment of antique finds. ‘I inherited some 1960s garden chairs from my parents, which are still going strong,’ she reveals. ‘I scour junk shops for old tables then paint them. Kempton Market and Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair are great places to source vintage outdoor furniture.’ These big events are handy for the smaller items too – the little accessories that ‘dress’ your outdoor entertaining space. ‘Watering cans and enamel bowls can all be found in vast quantities at the bigger antiques fairs because dealers bring them in by the van-load,’ says Jane.

For inspiration, she suggests heading to Richmond’s Petersham Nurseries, which has a huge collection of vintage and reclaimed outdoor furniture in a pretty greenhouse café. ‘Head to your local junk shop too,’ she advises. ‘You can find pieces that were intended for indoor use and use them outside. I found a table with metal legs and an industrial wooden top – possibly from a school – for just £5 in a British Heart Foundation shop and I use it at the end of the garden. I’ve also got some “indoor” chairs from a junk shop on Streatham Hill which I painted and use outside in the summer.’

Jane says the key to ensuring your garden is the perfect setting for outdoor living is to treat it as an extra ‘room’. ‘My garden is an extension of my home in the spring and summer,’ she says. ‘It’s a place to relax, work and eat in.’

Decorating your outdoor ‘room’ as you would an indoor space can be a good starting point if you want to use your garden as space for entertaining. Jane’s garden walls are painted a subtle, pale green, which gives the area a sense of place without looking too brash. ‘I’ve painted some of my vintage outdoor furniture in similar colours so it blends in too,’ she says. ‘I try to make artificial things look as natural as I can. We’re only 300 metres from the South Circular, but we’re surrounded by trees and the garden feels like it’s in the countryside. It’s my retreat.’

‘I don’t want things to look squeaky clean,’ says Jane. ‘When I entertain outside, my look is always eclectic and informal.’ She has sewed vintage tea towels together to create tablecloths and collects antique linen napkins. ‘I rifle through baskets at big flea markets,’ she says. Her table is dressed with flowers from the garden – roses, lavender, sprigs of thistles, dahlias and alliums. ‘I always include a few sprigs of lemon balm because it’s such a pretty lime green colour,’ she says. ‘I arrange them in glass jam jars and pressed-glass jugs that I’ve picked up in junk shops over the years.’

Style is important, but a garden has to be a practical space too. ‘I have electricity cables so I can work outside, herbs growing down one side so I can pop out from the kitchen and cut them, and I’ve draped strings of outdoor lights across the whole space so we can see what we’re doing after dark,’ says Jane.

Good lighting is very important in an outdoor space. You can source reclaimed and restored industrial lighting that’s weather-proof at specialist suppliers, or opt for ‘vintage-style’ lights. Strings of festoon bulbs create a pleasingly old-fashioned feel – Lights4fun have a great range. Warm-white bulbs are a must for a welcoming glow and candles can create a cosy atmosphere in the evenings. ‘I place them in vintage jam jars and hurricane lanterns so they don’t blow out,’ she says. ‘I hate severely lit gardens.’

Vintage crockery and cutlery is easy to get hold of at flea markets and can create elegant table settings (check out Jennifer’s Cutlery for bone-handled knives, full canteens and everything in between). Keep your eyes peeled at flea markets for tough but beautiful textiles: vintage sacks – for flour, grains or coffee – make great seat cushion covers, while monogrammed vintage bed sheets look lovely as tablecloths. Set the scene with old zinc planters and watering cans, so your garden looks timelessly stylish, all year round.

WORDS: ELLIE TENNANT