Own the outdoors with these simple ways to elevate your summer picnic, starting from €6.
Eating and drinking al fresco in the warm Irish weather is an everyday joy that can be elevated by inviting friends to join and bring some bits, and by putting in a little effort to enhance the way the meal will look.
The case for a wicker basket
A wicker picnic basket shows intention. Marks and Spencer is selling a very pretty one that offers arm candy appeal and will have you making cucumber sandwiches and reaching for the Pimm’s.
It costs €54 and includes wine or other beverage holders.
Expect it to sell out in jig time.
Throwing shade
This nautical striped parasol costs €80, down from €100, at B&Q.
Another in its range is the GoodHome Lubec, which comes in blue and green stripes, and is down from €47 to €37.
Neither of these prices includes the weight pictured.
Dinner is served
Elevate your picnic by insisting on serving real tableware.
Dunnes Stores fruit plates cost €6 for a set of four.
Be French about it and use it for each course.
Raise a glass
Real tableware deserves accompanying real glasses.
Sipping a good rosé from one of these ball-footed receptacles, €23.50 per pair, from Next.ie, will just taste better than having your teeth or lips touch plastic.
Stay chill
Zuiver’s Be Cool cooler boxes come in all manner of lacquered finishes from colour-blocked sunny delight yellow to racing stripes in bands of burgundy and orange.
There’s even one that could be perceived to riff on the Irish flag colours.
They cost €99, ex delivery, from Dutch-based Zuiver.
Take a seat
If you’re heading to the beach, Strandoen is a folding table in blue, €30, that will keep the sand out of your sandwiches.
Matching stools, with either a blue metal frame and a striped seat, or a yellow frame with an orange print seat, cost €9 each at Ikea.
The Swedish giant also has very cool woven bamboo Soluppgang cool bags, €3, and Rensare waterproof bags, €2.50 each.
Lay a blanket on the ground
Sunny Life is a brand favoured by past series of the Love Island villa.
This poly-cotton picnic blanket will keep dampness at bay should the ground not appear as dry as you might have first thought.
Pictured in sea grass green, it measures 181 cm by 140 cm and costs €110, excluding delivery.
