Searches for festoon lights have surged 277% year-on-year, leading a broader boom in outdoor furniture as Britons abandon holidays abroad and invest in their gardens during the hottest June on record, according to figures from uFurnish.com, the UK's leading furniture finder website with more than 12 million users.
Comparing 1 to 24 June with the same dates in 2025, demand across outdoor categories rose 206%, while views of individual products climbed 169%. Of the 897,000 searches on the site between 1 and 24 June, 94,000 were for outdoor products – nearly double the typical 4% to 6% share.
Festoon lights lead the surge
Festoon lights, inspired by ITV's Love Island, topped the list with searches up 277% on last June. The most-viewed design was the £25 Smart Garden 20 Firefly Festoon String Lights in warm white, signalling that gardens are now places to linger after dark.
Deirdre Mc Gettrick, founder and CEO of uFurnish.com, said: “Thanks to TV shows such as Love Island, festoon lights are the number one search – which wasn’t the case last year! It just goes to show the impact reality TV shows can have when it comes to our homes.”
Parasols and shade structures
Parasols ranked second, up 167% year on year. Cantilever and offset designs – with the pole set to one side – dominated demand, overwhelmingly in grey, taupe and anthracite. The most-viewed model was the Roma Wood-Effect Cantilever Parasol, 2.5m, from Christow, priced at £149.99.
Mc Gettrick added: “The appetite was not for the cheapest umbrella but for larger, sturdier, freestanding designs that throw shade over a whole seating area and can be angled through the day – shade as a fixture of the garden, not an emergency measure for a single hot afternoon.”
Outdoor rugs and other top categories
Searches for outdoor rugs climbed 161%, with buyers favouring weatherproof, easy-clean designs in neutral jute tones and leafy greens. The most-viewed was the £67.20 Berkfield Home Zizur jute-look indoor/outdoor rug in brown. Mc Gettrick said: “It is a small, affordable purchase that shows our gardens are now furnished and decorated with the same intent as the living room.”
Other top risers included outdoor chairs (up 153%), sun loungers (133%), hammocks (126%) and summer duvets (118%). Outdoor products made up 11.5% of all sales over the period, up from the typical 4% to 6%, with the past seven days seeing the sharpest spike as shoppers reacted to soaring temperatures.
Shift from holidays to gardens
The figures come as data from ABTA, the UK's travel trade association, show the number of Britons planning to holiday abroad has fallen from 70% to 64% in a year, with many of those who do plan a trip admitting they have put off booking.
Mc Gettrick said: “With temperatures climbing and the cost of a foreign holiday still high, people are choosing to invest in their own gardens instead. We've seen the outdoor category roughly double its share of both searches and sales in a year. Britons aren't just buying a parasol for the weekend – they're kitting out their gardens as a place to spend the whole summer.”
Record heat fuels demand
The Met Office confirmed Britain's hottest June day on record, with a provisional 36.1C logged in Gosport, Hampshire, on 24 June, beating the previous June high of 35.6C set in 1976. Red heat-health alerts and an extreme-heat warning covered swathes of England and Wales, schools closed, and rail operators cut services as the temperature neared the UK’s all-time record.
