One of the most important things about any garden design is that it should be visually pleasing in a way that makes you proud of your outdoor space. With Refin’s outstanding range of porcelain paving tiles, you are not only getting the best deal in terms of practicality (our tiles are virtually zero-maintenance), you are not compromising on the aesthetic look of your outdoor space, either.  We’ve got an outstanding range of colours to create a stunning foundation for whichever design look you wish to create in your garden. Here are a few of our colour options to get your design taste buds tingling!

Creamy Colours

Limestone Champagne

A gorgeous, rich creamy tile.

Limestone Vanilla

Delicate, soft and regal.

Daring and Different

Italian Limestone

        Intricate blue and grey porcelain. 

Quartz

Multi-tonal and diverse – a stunning choice.

These are only some of our beautiful porcelain paving colours! If you like what you see then why not order a FREE SAMPLE? We can guarantee you won’t be disappointed with the quality and finesse of our Refin products. 

Why do people spend more time in the living room than in the garden? The answer is obvious – because the garden is outdoors, and therefore exposed to all the grim nastiness with which we’ve come to associate our British weather.

We’ve said time and again that the garden ought to be treated as another room of the house – just like the lounge or the dining room – but if you’re serious about enjoying your outdoor space, you’re going to have to think tactically. Here are a few tips for getting the most from your garden:

• Never waste an opportunity! Unexpectedly sunny afternoon? Why not have dinner in the garden? Surprisingly warm weekend in the middle of autumn? Get the barbecue out and invite your friends over! Sunny days are meant to be spent outdoors, and the rainy days won’t be so disappointing if you make the most of dry ones.
  
  
• Do something with it! There’s little point in having a barren, empty patch of lawn behind your house. Add some chairs, add a swingball set, add something – just don’t let it go to waste.
  
  
• Keep it low-maintenance! Imagine a pie chart and split it down the middle. One half represents the days when you simply can’t go outside – maybe it’s raining, or maybe you’re just too busy. The other half represents the days that you could spend in the garden, but beware – if you make the wrong choices, you could end up spending a lot of that slice on maintenance when you could be relaxing. Go for low-maintenance outdoor products (like, say, Refin’s garden paving) and make sure you spend your garden time in the best possible way.

If you use outdoor porcelain tiles in your back garden then cleaning them is a walk in the park! Here's what you have to do:

• Grab a broom and sweep away any debris - leaves, sticks, and so forth. Things like that will only get in the way when you're trying to wash your tiles.
  
  
• Fill a bucket with warm, soapy water (it needn't be scalding hot). There's no need for bleach or anything of that ilk; standard washing-up liquid will do the job perfectly well.
  
  
• Wet a scrubbing brush in your soapy water and scrub at the tiles to remove any dirt and residue.
  
  
• Once you've washed the whole patio, leave it to dry - your tiles should be gleaming again in no time!

The best thing about porcelain paving is the fact that an annual clean really is all that it needs. Some patio materials require far more maintenance, but not ours - just carry out those four steps once a year (or more if the tiles get particularly dirty on a regular basis), and the patio will continue to look perfect, year after year after year!

Explore our range of outdoor tiles >

Interested in getting some porcelain tiles for your own garden? Wondering whether our products really live up to our glowing descriptions? Order a FREE sample pack today! 

Did you know, our samples now come in small and large sizes, allowing you to really see the details of each range before making your decision. Once you're happy with your chosen paving, use our paving calculator and place your porcelain order through our website.

Both decking and paving are extremely popular choices for the back garden, but it's somewhat rare to see a garden design that utilises both. A lot of landscaping enthusiasts think of this as an either/or decision, but deck boards and paving slabs will quite happily go together, and if you're after a stunningly unique look for your outdoor space, this is definitely a tactic worth considering.

But how best to combine these two contrasting materials? Here are a few ideas...

Multiple Levels

This is the strategy that our architect deployed when designing the garden in the photo above. The doors open out onto a stylish paved patio, with a raised deck just beyond. This two-tier look is very appealing indeed, making the whole garden feel larger and, in a way, giving you two equally beautiful outdoor spaces for the price of one.

Keep 'Em Separated

If you've got a reasonably big garden, you may consider splitting it into different sections. Instead of sticking with that large, blank patch of lawn, you could install a small seating area at one end of the garden, and a nice little patio at the other. You could even have a hot tub in the corner - both composite wood and porcelain paving make great slip-resistant tub surrounds!

Blended Together

This approach is a little trickier, but the results are well worth the effort. We found the above image on Pinterest, and it's the perfect example: the duality of that design makes for a smooth, elegant outdoor living space. Mind you, you'll have to cut your boards and pavers quite precisely if you want to create that flawless transition between them.

No matter what you have in mind for your outdoor space, we at PrimaPorcelain can help. In addition to our spectacular porcelain paving products, we are also able to supply low-maintenance deck boards, and if you want to use one or both of these materials in your garden, our experienced in-house architect will be more than happy to help with the design.

Image from Christmas Stock Images

It's less than a week until Christmas, and you've probably had your decorations up for at least a couple of weeks now. Sparkly tinsel wrapped around the banister; festive shapes hanging from the ceiling; the colourful cards from old friends; and, of course, a beautiful Christmas tree, decked out with dazzling decorations.

But while every home in the country is currently glowing with festive cheer, the gardens of Britain look decidedly less merry. Very few people bother with the garden when they're doing their Christmas decorating, and since December is a pretty cruel month for outdoor spaces anyway, your back yard probably doesn't look all that inviting right now.

So why not give it a makeover? A little decorative elbow grease will do wonders for your barren winter garden, turning into a cosy Christmas wonderland in no time.

Don't worry - you don't have to go to such topiarific lengths as this!

The festive period is very much in full swing, and there's still plenty of time left for you to decorate the garden and enjoy the results. Here are a few tips for the perfect Yuletide outdoor space...

Use tinsel, and lots of it!
Tinsel is perhaps the ultimate Christmas decoration, and its versatility makes it ideal for doing up the garden. Strew it anywhere it will stay - on branches, in between poles, wrapped around tree trunks, in amongst flowers...

Any tree can be a Christmas tree!
Very few UK gardens will contain a genuine pine or fir, but who says that they're the only trees that can be Christmas trees? If you've got a little sapling in your back garden, there's no reason why you can't decorate it with baubles and other ornaments.

Light it up!
Nothing will give your garden that warm glow like a set of fairy lights. If you can't find anywhere to plug them in, you can get battery-powered fairy lights that are much more versatile.

No matter how you decorate your home and garden this December, we hope you have a very merry Christmas indeed!