With summer coming up, your terrace and porch become a natural extension of your home, and most of the activities that take place indoors in winter, are moved outdoors during the warm summer months, thereby turning your terrace and porch into a second living room.

During the hot summer months, your winery estate’s porch and terrace will welcome flocks of visitors. Family members and friends are eager to visit your haven of peace at The Wine & Country Club, the ideal setting for balmy al-fresco dining and putting the world to rights over a sumptuous meal.

To entertain your guests, you will lavish all sorts of luxuries and your finest self-produced wine on your invitees—being unsure as to whether they will prefer red or white, you decide to crack open a bottle of each, to be on the safe side. Also, a self-respecting host like yourself will surely welcome guests with a well-rounded cheese platter, after all cheese and wine have been besties for a long, long time and always make a winning combination. 

The guest bedrooms are ready to wow them and make them feel nicely at home. But you still have to fine-tune the terrace. It is nearly ready, it just needs a few personal touches to give it that finished look.

A Few Essential Summer Terrace Items Your Guests Will Really Notice

The dominant feature at The Wine & Country Club is nature’s bounty, which here retains a special candour or magic, as the locals call it. And just about everything goes well with this magnificent and idyllic setting. So when it comes to dressing your terrace to impress, you will do well to choose items that make it even more welcoming, homey and special.

Hanging Egg Chairs

A comfortable, stylish, and totally Instagrammable item—be it freestanding or ceiling-hung. Dress it up with cushions and pillows to make it as cosy (or as minimal) as you like. This is the spot for curling up, relaxing, reading, and sipping on your favorite ice-cold drink in the sun, or simply slowly swinging listening to the sounds around you as you unwind. The perfect way to snug in style!

Good-Mood Lighting

With the addition of lighting, a flick of a switch is all you need to sit back, relax and enjoy an extra cocktail or two as the sun goes down. Decorative patio lights, like fairy lights and lanterns—which are available in a range of stylish shapes, colours and materials—add a cheerful, holiday feeling to every garden, and they look particularly spellbinding in the dark.

Dinner outdoors with family and friends – now that’s summer! And to make sure the dining table does not disappear at twilight, try adding table lamps. They make a real statement on the terrace and add a stylish talking point you can talk about with friends and family as dusk falls and long into the night. 

Other shining must-haves and outdoor essentials include solar globes – an environmentally friendly way of enhancing your garden with wonderful accent lighting. You can line them up along the edges of the pool and they will enhance everything that falls in their light.

Path or bollard lighting is also great for pathways, driveways or any area that people might need help finding their way along in the dark. Path lights and bollard lights will enhance the appearance of your winery estate and can be extremely efficient too, especially if fitted with LED technology, which uses a fraction of the power of other lights. Add a motion detector so that the lights will only come on when needed and only when it is dark.

A Mini Vertical Garden

You can never have enough greenery—even if The Wine & Country Club is nestled in nature’s bounty—so add an extra touch of green with a small vertical garden, which will infuse character and become a real focal point. Note that vertical gardens are less vulnerable to frost, but may be more vulnerable to wind; and remember that a south-facing wall receives full sun, while a north-facing wall mostly shade. And most importantly, remember the gardener’s timeless axiom – “right plant, right place.”

A Playful Pouf For Casual Sitting

The little ones—and the not so little ones—will love to sit on a pouf (or pouffe, occasionally pronounced pooh-fay to add flair). They are light and easy to carry and will add a relaxed laid-back feel to your porch or terrace.

Another great option are outdoor bean bags, which make for a versatile piece of furniture that can be used for cocooning and lounging in the sun, or as extra outdoor seats when unexpected guests drop round.

Outdoor Rugs

Must-have terrace items to provide outdoor warmth and cosiness include rugs, sofas, cushions … anything goes! Rugs, in particular, help to visually mark out specific areas and are the perfect way to add a pop of colour to your garden and the finishing touch it needs.

Natural fibres such as jarapa or jute are great for outdoors; they add a unique twist to your terrace and are sure to wow your guests

Dress Your Garden Table

Last but not least: remember to dress up your outdoor dining area. The best conversations and most memorable moments all take place around the table. And yet, the dining table is often overlooked even though it can be where we spend hours on end entertaining family and friends. A beautifully-dressed table with thoughtful finishing touches is the perfect backdrop to a lovely meal and makes al-fresco dining a real delight!

Insta-ready linen textiles, earthenware dishes in bright colours, matching underplates for added depth, summer glassware, elaborate napkin origami … all embellished with freshly picked wild flowers and lots of candles to achieve a cosy ambience.

A beautiful arrangement that combines perfectly with The Wine & Country Club.