Outdoor Sun Shades

There’s nothing like watching the kids play in a sunny garden.  Secure in the knowledge that they’re getting exercise and fresh air in a safe environment – the outdoor part of one’s home.  Except of course, that they’re not getting some form of skin damage as a result of repeated exposure to the harmful rays of the sun, now known to cause potential epidermal difficulties later in life even when filtered through clouds.  A garden fitted with outdoor sun shades, of course, doesn’t have this problem – here, at least, the bucolic vision of health and happiness presented above is more likely to be true.

Outdoor sun shades don’t have to be obtrusive or even all-encompassing:  it’s simply important that children have a shaded area of the garden to retreat to regularly, so they don’t get burned or overheated.  The great thing about using outdoor sun shades for this purpose is that outdoor sun shades give a portion of the garden a sort of “external room” feel:  it’s as though the children have a playroom of their own, out in the healthy air but well-protected.  Using outdoor sun shades to create a garden “room” adds an extra element of fun to their games, giving them a base or HQ from which to sally forth – set up a table with a few cold drinks and sandwiches under the sail and you’ve got an area the kids can play from, and in, all day. 

Everyone knows that all the best childcare is done without the children knowing they are being looked after.  Outdoor sun shades offer the perfect opportunity for this kind of covert child protection – what better way to make sure the little ones have plenty of opportunity to stay safe from the sun, than disguising one’s mother-henning as an outdoors base?  There’s no child in the land who will suspect that the fun area his or her parents’ outdoor sun shades have created, is actually designed to fulfil the same function as sun cream and silly hats.

After the kids have worn themselves out and gone to bed, those outdoor sun shades can be resurrected as adult bases too.  It isn’t just children who should be having fun in the garden this summer!  Just imagine – a couple of chilled bottles of wine, a light dinner under the shade sail as the sun goes down.... after all, if you’re going to make an alfresco room with outdoor sun shades, you might as well use it.