Of all types of garden furniture, stools get treated a little differently to the rest. There’s a clue in the fact that you will see them referred to as gardening stools just as often as they get called garden stools. Meaning, they are stools for gardening.

And this is indeed a key reason why many people consider stools for their garden not as items for rest and relaxation, but as work accessories. Something to perch on while you are digging, weeding or planting to avoid the strain on your legs of crouching or kneeling down.

This practical purpose means people tend to look for different things from their garden/gardening stools compared to other outdoor furniture. With other things to sit on outside – armchairs, loungers, daybeds, sofas – you’re looking for a mix of style and comfort.

After all, if you plan to spend quality time enjoying the sunshine in your own garden, you want something that feels good underneath you. At the same time, people often want to make a statement with their garden furniture. They want it to be a feature that adds something aesthetically to their outdoor space. Many people are prepared to spend good money on luxurious examples of hand-crafted, premium quality furniture not just for inside their homes, but for their gardens as well.

But would you go that far for a gardening stool? When you look at a lot of the products available on the market, you get the impression that the answer tends to be no. Function definitely wins out over form. Gardening stools tend to prioritize utility over everything else.

Lightweight, fold away products that are easy to move from place to place as you are pottering around the garden – and easy to tuck away inconspicuously in a shed or garage when you are not – are particularly popular. Other examples include what are effectively tool boxes on wheels, a handy place to store trowels and twine and whatever else you need as you garden that double up as a perch when you put the lid on.

As useful as these are, in most cases you wouldn’t exactly describe them as eye-catching, or as a seat that acts as a feature for your garden.

Reclaiming the style

Polished concrete is a fascinating material for manufacturing garden furniture out of full stop. We all know concrete as the grey, solid, lumpen epitome of modern urban sprawl. But polishing the surface of concrete to an ultra smooth finish simply transforms its. Rather than a dull, rather lifeless grey, the surface shines with the reflective luster of wet pebbles in a stream.

What is more, the fact that concrete is molded rather than assembled or carved means it is perfect for achieving shapes and forms that you just don’t see in garden furniture made from any other material. This Freya garden stool garden stool, for example, has the simple elegance of a chess piece, while this Luna stool reminds you of the geometry of a gemstone set in a wedding ring. Both stand their ground as ornamental additions to an outdoor space, not mere seating options.

Similarly, if your tastes are for more organic forms, sculptured concrete ‘pebbles’ look as if they have been scooped out of the aforementioned stream and magnified several thousand times by some futuristic ray gun. They are unique and out of the ordinary the way a piece of abstract sculpture is. They also offer a handy additional seating option for your garden.