Spotlight: Hope Garden Furniture.

Built on one man’s romantic inclination to become a blacksmith, it is no surprise that Hope Garden Furniture’s Traditional range of classic garden furniture is a perennial favourite.

The Cape Town-based company saw the light in 1992 when owner Adrian Hope, turned his love of old French café chairs and garden benches into a fully-fledged business in a disused cold storage room.

“Both triumph and disaster emerged from this curious choice of workshop,” explains the company, “as he endeavoured to copy the originals he had collected. Enveloped in the romance of true craftsmanship and inspired by his growing library of old, but intact samples, he strove to produce exact replicas, taking it as far as having sheet metal strips cut to imperial measurement.”

Today, Hope Garden Furniture is a blooming business and its Traditional range, forged on these very first pieces by a small team of skilled metal workers, is a top seller.

“Our traditional collection is based on a collection of original pieces from the turn of the 20th century, made in the traditional method from timber, stone and iron,” explains Adrian.

The range consists of chairs, benches, tables and garden accessories such as topiary frames and planter boxes.

The most iconic pieces, by far, are the French-style chairs of which there are several designs: the original café chair, the park chair (with or without armrests), the Florence chair (also with or without armrests), the lawn chair and even three recliner options.

Five bench designs, with or without armrests, are also available as a seating option. Table-wise, the Traditional range offers rectilinear, occasional and round tables.

But it is not only their design and manufacturing skills that Adrian and his team pride themselves on. Customer care is another key objective with the company offering a maintenance and renovation service for all its products, which includes annual care.