Furnishing a small UK courtyard garden

Small urban courtyards behind UK terraces are usually the last part of the house to be dealt with, and the part where standard furniture is most obviously the wrong size.

Build into the boundary

A bench that runs along a wall gives seating without legs in the middle of the floor and reads as architecture rather than clutter. Under it, a ventilated void takes cushion boxes and garden tools.

One good table, not a set

In a four-metre courtyard a fixed café-height table for four with built-in perimeter seating does more than a six-piece set that can never be walked around.

Corners earn their keep

An L-shaped corner seat turns the least useful part of the plan into the place everyone sits. We build them in modules so they can be lifted out for access to drains and gullies.

Keep the floor clear

Where storage must be freestanding, we build it tall and narrow against a wall rather than low and wide. Vertical volume is free in a courtyard; floor area is not.

Reflect what light you have

Pale cushion covers and a light-toned woven frame lift a courtyard overshadowed by neighbouring walls far more than a dark timber set.