About the project

Our brief was to take something traditional but add our unique twist. Tree seats like this one are nothing new as it is a very traditional design. Normally, benches like these have bands that are rolled at a radius so the “slats” are going around the tree. This is pretty simple. What we’ve done at Outdoor Design is to take the slats in the opposite direction so they run from the front edge towards the tree.

As simple as this may sound it does introduce a lot of issues. The radius at the front of the seat is different from that of the back. The base of the backrest is a different radius than that of the top of the backrest. What we didn’t want was to have the slats touching at the top of the backrest and then big gaps at the front of the seat. So what we did is take a fixed slat width at the front and a fixed gap between the slats, they were then each tapered by a specific percentage so that the ratios didn’t change.

It’s a detail that makes the design and the fabrication quite complex that many people won’t notice, but that’s what we do!

The tree seat consists of 3 benches and between each is a table section. Into these tables we laser cut a pea pattern designed by Catherine MacDonald that was previously used on her gold medal-winning Seedlip Garden from Chelsea 2018.

In addition to the tree seat, we produced a series of spiral tree supports, straight tree supports, table legs, and posts to go around the perimeter of the garden.

Everything was fabricated in mild steel and then hot zinc sprayed which the client will then patinate to their preferred age.

About the project

Our brief was to take something traditional but add our unique twist. Tree seats like this one are nothing new as it is a very traditional design. Normally, benches like these have bands that are rolled at a radius so the “slats” are going around the tree. This is pretty simple. What we’ve done at Outdoor Design is to take the slats in the opposite direction so they run from the front edge towards the tree.

As simple as this may sound it does introduce a lot of issues. The radius at the front of the seat is different from that of the back. The base of the backrest is a different radius than that of the top of the backrest. What we didn’t want was to have the slats touching at the top of the backrest and then big gaps at the front of the seat. So what we did is take a fixed slat width at the front and a fixed gap between the slats, they were then each tapered by a specific percentage so that the ratios didn’t change.

It’s a detail that makes the design and the fabrication quite complex that many people won’t notice, but that’s what we do!

The tree seat consists of 3 benches and between each is a table section. Into these tables we laser cut a pea pattern designed by Catherine MacDonald that was previously used on her gold medal-winning Seedlip Garden from Chelsea 2018.

In addition to the tree seat, we produced a series of spiral tree supports, straight tree supports, table legs, and posts to go around the perimeter of the garden.

Everything was fabricated in mild steel and then hot zinc sprayed which the client will then patinate to their preferred age.