Go and visit any stately home and you’ll normally find captivating gardens. Separated into different areas, herb gardens and water features and hidden grottoes and arboretums and manicured lawns. Now I’m not for one second comparing our modest London semi to a stately home – if only! But we have found ourselves with a bit of a hefty old garden that is in desperate need of a some TLC. So thankfully the lovely Sue Ryder team have been on hand with one of their beautiful tete-a-tete benches, otherwise known as companion seats, to add a little seating area to our garden.
I love the history of the tete-a-tete bench, whether true or not. There are indoor versions too, and the stories go that either they were created in this style to protect the modesty of courting couples (hence having a little table in between, to prevent people getting too close), or to provide a little secluded spot for people to have a good gossip. I’m not sure either of those are applicable in my back garden although I was joking with my neighbour she could let herself from her garden into ours via our gates and we could have a morning tea together.
As always with Sue Ryder homewares, the value is exceptional. The tete-a-tete bench costs £89.99, so much more reasonable than similar items on the market. It was a heavy old box that the delivery man dropped off but very easy to follow instructions and an hour later and I’d put it all together. It comes with its own allen key too so you don’t need to worry about having the right screwdriver making it an even more convenient purchase.
The only downside is I simply didn’t know where to put it to show it off to its best potential. It’s available in a plain wooden colour or this soft sage green which is the one I went for but alas our garden was looking anything but stage-ready. So in a spur of post-holiday carpe diem, I started painting our garden fence, no mean feat considering there was over 100ft of it. Now though it’s finished and looks absolutely perfect.
My little tete-a-tete bench is currently sitting on the patio against one of the fences close to the back kitchen door. It really is the perfect spot for my morning cup of tea, I love to sit in the back garden for a little while just to listen to the birds sing and hopefully stare up a blue sky. It’s also very handy to have an extra seating area when we have people over and also if I can’t be bothered to uncover the outdoor sofas. It has also a hole in the top and bottom table shelf to allow you to add a parasol for extra sun protection.
Eventually once we’ve done some more renovating to the rest of the garden I may well move it up to the top which gets the early sun first thing in the morning. Currently that part of our garden is a bit run down but I’m eager to dig out a proper seating area and maybe gravel over a semi-circle patch so watch this space!
In the meantime, I’ll be relaxing in my new little spot and imaging what I might have discussed on my new bench if I was to travel back in time a couple of hundred years. A bit of surreptitious romance or global domination? You decide.
Disclaimer: Sue Ryder kindly gifted me this chair in return for coverage on my blog and social media channels. As always, I only feature products that I think my readers would love to know about. Thank you Sue Ryder!
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