Outdoor Park Seating Tips

A successful park will always need seating. Without outdoor seating, park visitors won’t stay for very long, and if they know there’s nowhere to relax, they may never return. Whatever the size of your park, the right park bench setup is crucial to get right.

Whether you’re revitalising an old park or planning and designing a new one, the correct outdoor park seating means visitors can sit, relax, spend time alone or socialise with others. That park bench could be where a couple has their first kiss, or where a dramatic sunset inspires someone.

But how do you choose the right outdoor park seating? In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to consider so that you have the perfect garden benches for every kind of park.

Choosing the Right Outdoor Seating

When deciding on the best outdoor park seating, you’ll need to factor in a few site-specific considerations. It’s important to think carefully about these, as the design of your outdoor seating, including the materials it’s made of, will directly impact how it is used.

Your outdoor park seating needs to be coordinated with additional park furniture such as signage and litter bins, lighting and surveillance. So when you’re planning on your park design, and you’re at the outdoor park seating stage, here are some thoughts to consider to narrow down your options.

Park benches give visitors a place to relax while encouraging interactions. They offer untold value to public spaces, especially in park settings. The location of your park bench will be one of the most important factors to consider.

Ideally, you want your park benches facing towards interesting views and along any popular pathways. Take the time to understand your park. Where is the best sunset view from? During autumn, where are the best views of trees? Do you need park benches facing a playground so parents can rest as their kids wear themselves out?

Don’t forget that it’s often a good idea to have litter bins near your park benches, as this can reduce the amount of littering you have to deal with. Finally, having your outdoor park seating near lighting will ensure visitors feel safer even when the sun goes down.

When you choose the outdoor park seating material that coordinates with other park furniture, you’re helping to reinforce the identity of your park and grounding its statement as a public space. Consider how the more historic city centres use more traditional outdoor seating, while more original designs and materials are used in modern urban projects.

When you’re considering which is the best outdoor park seating for your public space, the choice of material will directly impact how much maintenance is going to be required. The material choice can also affect comfort, which is always worth bearing in mind. Let’s take a quick look at your options.

Perfect for both natural and traditional park design themes, wooden benches are a classic for a reason. They’re comfortable to sit on, and maintenance is essentially defined by location. Position a wooden park bench in a dry sunny spot and it will require barely any attention. Under a tree is nice and sheltered but the sap and bird poop will need clearing off occasionally.

Wooden park benches come in a range of styles too. There are traditional-looking oak benches, such as the Rustic Oak Bench , which is available in two lengths and is hand-made using the natural contours of the wood so that each one is unique. You can browse all of our oak benches here.

Then there are our teak benches , which arrive fully assembled and ready to position wherever you want them to be. The Meridian seat is one of the most popular teak benches for park managers and designers. That’s largely because of its obvious robustness, making it a great fit for busy parks. We can secure it to soft and hard ground, and we have memorial options.

You can get metal outdoor park benches in either cast iron or steel. Both are weather-resistant and comfortable options to choose from. Their resilience cuts down on the maintenance you’ll have to do, and they’re long-lasting enough that you know they’ll still be getting used decades from now.

One key thing to remember about metal park benches is that options like the Ranger Curved Bench are made entirely of steel. That makes them very resistant to vandalism. Then there are the metal benches combined with other materials to improve comfort levels. The Centenary Seat is an excellent example of this and combines cast iron with iroko wood.

If durability is your key consideration, it’s hard to beat granite-based park benches. Our extremely popular Stonebridge Bench combines solid granite with grade A teak hardwood slats. It’s very heavy, as you might expect!

More popular than ever, recycled plastic is fast becoming the material of choice for outdoor park seating. It’s durable, weather resistant, and takes very little in the way of maintenance. The most you’ll have to do is give your park benches a bit of a wipe-down.

They’re also environmentally friendly, as they reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfills, making them perfect for any park revitalisation project. Long-lasting, recycled plastic park benches look like wood but won’t rot or be damaged by the weather.

You can choose from recycled plastic benches that are black or brown, or if you’re looking for something more adventurous, you can also choose from a wide range of bright colours. Splinter-free and smooth, it’s hard to beat the many benefits of recycled plastic outdoor park benches.

How much maintenance you need to carry out will usually be one of your most important criteria when choosing outdoor park seating. How much maintenance will be required is going to be reliant on a few different factors, such as:

• City centres and other busy parks may be more prone to vandalism, so you may need to look closer at recycled plastic or metal benches.
• All of our park benches are designed to last with very little to no maintenance, but in areas with high traffic, we’d always recommend that you opt for one of the more durable materials, such as steel or recycled plastic.
• It’s a common misconception, but wooden benches don’t need treating. If left, they will turn to a soft silver. They can be treated with oils or varnish but these are purely aesthetic finishes and wont prolong their lifespans.

All of our outdoor park seating has been designed to be used in public and commercial settings. As a result, our park benches are durable and require very little maintenance, making them perfect for your park.

At Earth Anchors, we started by designing and providing ground fixings for commercial and public furniture, which is something we know a lot about! All of our park benches can be secured to the ground, whether that ground is grass, decking, tarmac or even concrete.

We have a range of ground-fixing kits available as an option when you’re buying your outdoor seating. Alternatively, you can choose our FastDek bases , which make it easier to secure your outdoor park seating wherever you want it to be.

Parks provide incredible value to communities. From the environmental benefits to the aesthetic and recreational uses, it’s hard to overestimate their importance. They also offer economic value because a well-designed park with the perfect outdoor seating can increase local property values, encourage people to use local businesses, and even bring in homebuyers.

The proper seating only improves your park. Your park seating is a way of encouraging people to spend time outdoors and engage with their local community. As a result, they are one of the most important elements of your park design to get right. If you don’t have any (or enough) park benches, you add an overall sense of a lack of hospitality — your park will not be as welcoming as it should be. You want weary shoppers, the elderly, and the disabled to be able to rest when they need to. You want young people and tourists to spend time relaxing in your park. The message you say with a park without benches is that you don’t want people to stay.

An outdoor public bench is a meeting place, somewhere to stop for lunch and somewhere to congregate. It’s somewhere to sit and ruminate on life. It’s a way to encourage communities to come together. And because you have so many options regarding the design and materials of your outdoor seating, you can tailor the look and feel of your park however you choose.

If you have questions about our park benches and outside seating range, get in touch today . We can help ensure you create a friendly, comfortable, and welcoming park that will only benefit the local community and everyone can enjoy.