An outdoor hanging bed makes a statement, and it adds an undeniable mark to the overall spirit of a location. There’s just something that can be denied about the import of a hanging bed, whether indoors or out. They’re rare, so they catch the attention, and they offer something that “hangs” in the balance, somewhere between rustic-impromptu furnishings and avant-garde design.

However you want to categorize them, outdoor swing beds can make a lasting impression on the overall design of your home, especially your outdoor spaces. While the inner sancta of your home might lie away from prying eyes, the outdoors are where you gather, recreate, and entertain. How you decorate these spaces will not only impact the experience of your guests but can also impact the value of your home.

All that’s left for you to do is to decide how you want to incorporate a hanging swing bed into the design of your home’s outdoor spaces, such as your front porch. For that, consult this short guide first, and then get in touch with us if you’d like a little more direction.

• Consider the aesthetic you’re going for and make sure the outdoor hanging bed matches that design!

This is the first and most important thing you’re going to want to account for when you make up your mind to include a hanging outdoor bed into your space. Actually, you don’t account for it when you make that decision - do it ahead of time.

You need to figure out what the overall aesthetic you’re going for is or will be. For example, we have many swing beds in our collection that would complete a rustic, reclaimed sort of aesthetic, that make use of recycled woods and materials and bear the marks of age and character. This would look out of place in an industrial, french country, shabby chic, or coastal setting, however - among others.

The point is that not all aesthetics are compatible. While a single bed swing would be perfectly suited to complete the look of a bucolic theme, it wouldn’t do so well in a more refined theme. By contrast, the value of an elegantly designed and arranged bed swing would be lost in a setting that called for expanded simplicity.

Here are some of the themes that are very popular nowadays that you might want to set your heart on before you go about actually picking out a bed swing:

• Traditional and colonial
• Mid-century modern
• Modern
• Shabby-chic
• Industrial, industrial-chic, and urban
• Elegant country and French country
• Island, tropical or coastal
• Bohemian
• Rustic as well as modern farmhouse
• Eclectic - This one is great for hanging beds and other contemporary styling that doesn’t neatly fit into other categories. That’s why it’s called eclectic, anyway!
• And nearly countless others

Settling on a design theme will help guide your hand as you choose colors, accessories, and other supporting accents to help tie your entire vision together. It will also help prevent you from straying too far from harmony - unless you intentionally create an eclectic setting, wherein the harmony comes from the diverse smattering of elements anyway.

Once you have settled on a theme to guide your hand, you can account for these factors that follow to help you work a hanging bed into your setting.

• Take color into account and plan accordingly.

After you have settled on a design theme, you can decide whether or not you want to settle on an overarching color theme to help support it. The colors you choose to work into a surrounding, not only in the paint on the walls and supports but in the furniture and decor, will work wonders for the eventual design you create.

For example, if you settle on a tropical, island, or coastal theme, you can make artful use of pastel colors to support the image, along with copious doses of the color white. That being said, you should still settle on a specific vein. Are you looking for the light, watery blues of sea and sky that are common in island and coastal living, or are you more interested in the light yellows and oranges of tropical design that connote the rising and setting sun? These would look amazing separately, but not so much together.

On a similar note, darker colors are more common in industrial design, although the neutral grays and whites are almost welcome. The exposed metalworks that are a staple of industrial and industrial-chic all but welcome blacks, rust-browns, and grays into their corner. It is simple, but not unpleasant.

In order to help you tie your entire vision together, here at Four Oak Bed Swings we make it possible to completely customize whatever swing you choose with the color of your choice. We know the impact that color makes on a setting, so our bed swings are customizable with 15 color options. Choose a Halcyon Blue to accent your coastal design, a simple Tricorn Black for your industrial, or even a Weathered Gray for your rustic theme. Simplicity is a beautiful thing.

• Complement that aesthetic with cushions, tables, and additional accessories.

Even after you’ve chosen an overarching design theme and then a color to support it, we make it possible for you to support that theme with the tasteful, thoughtful inclusion of cushions, tables, and additional options for customization. These improve not only the aesthetic but also the functionality and comfort of your arrangement.

We offer a large range of cushion sets, including sets of Sunbrella Cushions that, like the bed swings themselves, are customizable in terms of color and design. You don’t need to stop at the color of the frame of the swing - you can continue it into the cushions or even enhance the look thereby. In addition, you can

Sunbrella Cushions are also hallmarks of quality craftsmanship. They’re made from solution-dyed acrylic fabric for amazing colorfastness and durability. Very little if anything outlasts or outperforms cushions like these. They’re made for two things - comfort and outdoor living.

While we’re on the subject of customizability, don’t forget that you can complete many of our bed swings with cup holders and comfort springs. That has little to do with cultivating a design, but it will impact the comfort you enjoy in that setting!

• Create a living arrangement and enjoy the benefits of plants and gardening.

After you’ve settled on a given model of bed swing and taken some time to work out an overarching color scheme, accenting along the way with pillows, cushions, and other customizations, you can begin personalizing the look of your space with living arrangements.

Those of you that are lucky enough to have open land for gardening around your patio or in your yard, in the proximity of your living spaces should take full advantage of it. The cultivars of flowers and ornamental plants you can grow are endless and these will lend no smell measure of pleasantry to the overall setting.

You can grow climbers like morning glories up the ropes that suspend your bed swing or add them to a trellis or to the structure at the end of your porch. If you don’t have the luxury to do this, you can flank your veranda or patio with bursts of colors in the form of creepers and bushes. Lilies, daisies, roses, morning glories, clematis, bougainvillea, marigolds, pansies, begonias, petunias - the options are literally endless and so are the colors.

With flowers and ornamentals, you can make your outdoor arrangements literally come alive. It’s a novel and creative way to accent your color scheme throughout the season, but keeping plants in the vicinity of your outdoor living spaces provides the following benefits as well.

• Additional privacy: Growing plants up a trellis in your outdoor spaces will serve as a type of living fence, keeping prying eyes out and providing for an additional level of privacy and intimacy within your outdoor living areas.

• Keep the volume down: Live plants actually absorb sound, which keeps the volume down. That serves two functions; it will help keep the noise and bustle of the outside world out while heightening the privacy aforementioned. Plants also just make a space feel cozier!

• Regulate humidity and provide shade: Regulating humidity is more of a benefit that plants provide indoors because it’s hard to do so outdoors. However, in a small space, it can make a difference, and the ability of plants to provide shade cannot be overlooked. It’ll help keep you cool in the summer and provide you with a retreat.

• Potentially even reduce stress levels and uplift moods: The previous statements are observable facts, and while opinions on the effects of living plants will vary, it’s been widely reported that living plants have a net positive effect on people’s moods and feelings of wellness. They make a space feel more alive and inviting. They are, after all, alive, and will wonderfully complement your choice of hanging outdoor bed.

• Accessorize with similar elements of decor.

Once you have selected the swing itself along with the color scheme and supporting accessories in furniture, you can move on to actually designing the rest of your outdoor space with art and decorative accents.

What you choose to work into the setting will naturally hinge on the overall aesthetic you’re going for. If you’ve chosen an Art Deco theme, you might do well with some framed modern prints or with abstract figurines, sculptures, or similar items of interest. Choosing a Bohemian or an eclectic style will give you the freedom to look for more jarring elements that provide a unity of purpose in the paradoxical alignment of their elements.

How you want to decorate is up to you, but keep the end goal in mind. You ultimately want this setting to reflect your design theme!

• Don’t overlook the impact that lighting can make.

With a space that has been furnished and decorated, you want to take into account the value of lighting, keeping in mind that there are many, many options for lighting and that you should not count any of them out.

For example, harsh electric lighting is nice to provide functional illumination, but not great for setting the mood. For that, you might want to consider softer rope lighting, landscape lighting or even vintage filament-style LED lighting to provide the proper ambiance.

You can also look past modern solutions and create a configuration of oil lamps, gas lamps, or citronella torches. These will provide functional lighting, will lend an undeniable measure of ambiance, and some of them will even keep the bugs away throughout the hotter months!

• Soften the presence of the hanging bed with additional seating and surfaces.

With that porch swing or porch bed worked into the setting, the focus can shift to the rest of your furniture. You’ll need additional seating, and just how much you want to provide and how it will be arranged will impact the spirit of the location. You’ll also need surfaces for guests to rest refreshments on, and both of these features of your space will affect the way the entire configuration feels.

Make sure that you don’t lose sight of the end goal when you’re buying additional tables, chairs, or sofas, and remember to align these with the overall theme of the setting.

• Plan ahead for where you intend to hang the outdoor hanging bed.

Here at Four Oak Bed Swings, we have the resources and information you need to know how to hang your swing bed, but before you hang it, take some time to figure out where you want it to be. Once you hang it, it won’t be so easy to move. Account for how plants will grow along or up in the summer, consider where the sun rises and sets, and think about where your other seating will be placed. Chairs and tables can be easily moved, but it’s best to hang your swing bed where you want it in the first place.

Hopefully, now you’ve started to cultivate a beautiful vision for entertaining in your outdoor spaces, which you’ll be able to make possible with the aid of our swing beds, cushions & accessories.

However, if you have questions about any of our products, just give us a call and we’ll be happy to help and set the record straight. And, while you’re shopping, remember, our swing beds ships assembled, and they ship for free!