Nardi ReGen: Beautiful Recycled Outdoor Furniture for Eco-Conscious Homes

There is a quiet revolution happening in the world of outdoor furniture, and it is being led by a family firm in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Nardi, based in Chiampo in the Veneto region of Italy, has spent decades perfecting the art of injection-moulded resin furniture. Now, with its ReGen range, the company has done something genuinely remarkable: it has taken the offcuts, trimmings and production surplus from its own factory floor and given them a second life as some of the most beautiful outdoor furniture money can buy. This is not greenwashing. This is a proper, closed-loop sustainability story told in a palette of earthy, sophisticated colours that look as though they were lifted straight from an Irish hedgerow at the turn of autumn.

At Custom Wood Designs, we have been living with, styling and selling Nardi furniture for long enough to know the difference between a marketing buzzword and a material worth building a garden around. The ReGen collection is the latter. In this guide we will walk you through the recycled-material story, introduce you to the four earth tones that define the range — Terra, Cactus, Gesso and Basalto — explain exactly why this furniture is sustainable and how it performs through an Irish winter, and then show you, piece by piece, how to style a complete ReGen scheme for your own garden, terrace or hospitality space.

The ReGen Story: Furniture With a Conscience and a Pedigree

To understand ReGen, you first have to understand Nardi. This is a company that has never chased fashion for its own sake. Founded as a family business and still run in that spirit from Chiampo in Italy, Nardi built its reputation on doing one thing exceptionally well: making furniture from technopolymer resin that survives salt, sun, frost and the endless attention of children and dogs without complaint. Every chair, table and stool the company produces is manufactured in Italy under a fiercely controlled process, and it is precisely that control that made ReGen possible.

Here is the elegant part. When you produce injection-moulded furniture at scale, you inevitably generate material at the edges of the process — the sprues, the trimmed edges, the pieces that do not make the grade. In a less thoughtful factory, that material becomes waste. At Nardi, it becomes the raw ingredient for something new. ReGen is made from regenerated material: a blend of recycled fibreglass and post-industrial polypropylene reclaimed from Nardi's own manufacturing. Nothing is imported from a vague and untraceable supply chain; the story begins and ends in the same building, which is exactly why Nardi can stand behind it with such confidence.

The result is a material that behaves like a premium composite because that is precisely what it is. It has a subtle, matte, almost stone-like finish that feels reassuringly solid in the hand — nothing like the shiny, hollow plastic that gives outdoor furniture a bad name. Run your palm across the seat of a ReGen stool and you feel a fine, tactile grain. This is furniture that wears its recycled origins not as an apology but as a badge of quality.

A Palette Borrowed From the Earth: Terra, Cactus, Gesso and Basalto

If the material is the soul of ReGen, the colour palette is its face — and what a face it is. Nardi made a deliberate decision not to offer ReGen in the bright primary shades that dominate cheaper outdoor ranges. Instead, the collection arrives in four muted, mineral, deeply liveable earth tones. These are colours with the confidence to sit quietly in a planting scheme rather than shout over it, and they have been chosen to flatter the natural, slightly recycled character of the material itself. Let us take them one at a time.

Terra: The Warm Clay Anchor

Terra is the warm heart of the range. Think of the colour of a hand-thrown terracotta pot that has faded gently over several summers, or the soft, dusty ochre of a Tuscan farmhouse wall. It is a grounding, welcoming tone that reads as warm without ever tipping into orange. In an Irish garden, Terra is magic against the deep greens of box, yew and laurel; it picks up the russet notes in autumn foliage and glows beautifully in low, golden evening light. If you want your outdoor scheme to feel warm and hospitable — the kind of terrace people are reluctant to leave — Terra is your anchor.

Cactus: The Living Green

Cactus is a soft, sage-inflected green with just enough grey in it to keep it grown-up. This is the colour of the range that dissolves most naturally into a garden, echoing the foliage of ornamental grasses, olive trees and, of course, succulents. Because it is desaturated rather than vivid, Cactus never competes with your planting; it simply belongs. We find it especially lovely in courtyard gardens and on shaded terraces, where its gentle coolness feels fresh and calming. Pair it with pale gravel and a few architectural plants and you have a scheme that looks effortlessly Mediterranean, even under Irish skies.

Gesso: The Soft Neutral

Gesso — the Italian word for chalk or plaster — is the quiet diplomat of the collection. It is a soft, warm off-white, closer to unbleached linen or weathered limestone than to stark brilliant white. This is the tone to reach for when you want lightness and space without glare. Gesso bounces daylight around a small courtyard, makes a compact balcony feel larger, and provides the perfect neutral backdrop for bolder accessories. It is also the most versatile mixing partner in the range: put Gesso seats around a Terra or Basalto table and you create gentle contrast that feels considered rather than clashing.

Basalto: The Grounding Dark

Basalto takes its name from basalt, the dark volcanic stone, and it delivers exactly that — a deep, matte, charcoal-grey-brown with real gravitas. This is the tone that lends a scheme sophistication and edge. Where a jet-black chair can look harsh and industrial, Basalto stays soft and organic, its brown undertone keeping it warm. It is superb for contemporary architecture, for framing a scheme with dark, grounding shapes, and for hiding the everyday dust of a busy hospitality terrace. A set of Basalto stools around a Gesso table is one of our favourite high-contrast pairings in the whole Nardi catalogue.

What ties these four colours together is that they are all, in the truest sense, natural. They are the colours of clay, of leaves, of chalk and of stone. Set beside one another they behave like a curated interiors palette rather than a random selection of outdoor plastics, and that is precisely why a ReGen scheme looks so resolved. You genuinely cannot put a foot wrong mixing any two of them.

Why ReGen Is Genuinely Sustainable

Sustainability is a word that gets stretched to breaking point in the furniture trade, so let us be specific about what makes ReGen the real thing. There are three pillars to the story, and each one stands up to scrutiny.

Recycled Where It Matters

First, the material itself is regenerated. ReGen is manufactured using recycled fibreglass and reclaimed polypropylene sourced from Nardi's own production process. This is post-industrial recycling done properly — material that would otherwise be waste is captured, reprocessed and moulded into new furniture within the same controlled Italian facility. Because Nardi controls the whole chain, there is no ambiguity about provenance. You are, quite literally, buying furniture made from what a lesser factory would have thrown away.

100% Recyclable at End of Life

Second, and just as importantly, ReGen furniture is itself 100% recyclable. This closes the loop. When, many years and many summers from now, a piece finally reaches the end of its usable life, the material can be reclaimed and regenerated once again rather than sent to landfill. Furniture that is born from recycling and can return to recycling is about as close to a circular product as the outdoor market currently offers. This is the difference between a token gesture and a genuine design philosophy.

Built to Last, Which Is Sustainability's First Rule

Third — and this is the pillar people forget — the single most sustainable thing any product can do is last. A cheap chair that cracks after two winters and goes to the tip is an environmental disaster no matter what it is made of. ReGen is engineered to survive for a decade or more of outdoor use. Every year it stays in service is a year that a replacement is not manufactured, shipped and discarded. Longevity is the quiet superpower of the entire Nardi range, and ReGen inherits it in full. Sustainability here is not a marketing sticker; it is baked into the DNA of a product designed to be used hard, for a very long time.

How ReGen Performs in the Irish Climate

Beautiful and sustainable is all very well, but here in Ireland furniture has to earn its keep in a climate that throws horizontal rain, salt-laden coastal wind, sudden frost and — occasionally, gloriously — genuine sunshine, sometimes all in the same week. This is where Nardi's decades of resin expertise really tell, because ReGen is not merely decorative recycled material. It is weatherproof, technical furniture built for exactly these conditions.

Batch-Dyed Colour That Will Not Fade

The colour in a ReGen piece is not painted or coated onto the surface, where it could scratch, chip or peel. It is batch-dyed, meaning the pigment runs all the way through the material and is added during the moulding process. The furniture is also treated with anti-UV additives to protect against the fading that turns cheaper outdoor plastics chalky and grey after a single sunny summer. The practical upshot for you is straightforward: leave a ReGen stool out all year, in full sun or full shade, and its Terra, Cactus, Gesso or Basalto colour will look the same in five years as it does on the day it arrives. A scuff or scratch is far less visible too, because the colour beneath the surface is identical to the colour on top.

Weatherproof and Frost-Resistant

ReGen is fully weatherproof. Rain runs off its matte surface without staining. It shrugs off frost without the cracking that destroys terracotta and untreated timber. Salt air, the nemesis of metal furniture on our coasts, does not corrode it because there is nothing in it to corrode. This is furniture you can leave outside twelve months a year without dragging it into a shed every October. For a busy Irish household or a hospitality venue that cannot afford to be hauling furniture in and out with the weather, that is transformative.

Effortless to Maintain

Maintenance could not be simpler. A wipe with warm soapy water and a soft cloth removes pollen, dust and the grubby fingerprints of a summer of use. There is no annual oiling as with timber, no rust treatment as with iron, no cushions to fret over in a downpour. The furniture is also reassuringly light, so rearranging a terrace for a party takes seconds, yet the designs are engineered to be stable and sturdy once in place. Many pieces, particularly the stools, stack neatly for storage when you do want to clear the decks.

Meet the ReGen Pieces: Building Blocks of a Beautiful Scheme

Now to the fun part. The ReGen collection is designed as a family of coordinating pieces, so you can build anything from a two-seat balcony nook to a full hospitality terrace using the same material and the same four colours. Here are the hero pieces we reach for again and again.

ReGen Combo 70 Table: The Sociable Centrepiece

The ReGen Combo 70 Table is, for many gardens, the natural starting point. At a generous square footprint it comfortably seats four, making it the ideal size for family meals, morning coffee and long, lingering evenings with friends. The design is clean and contemporary, with a subtly textured top that hides the marks of daily life and legs engineered for stability on a paved or decked surface. Available across all four earth tones, it can be the quiet neutral hub of a scheme in Gesso, or a warm focal point in Terra. This is a table built to be the centre of gravity for a whole outdoor room.

ReGen Combo 60 Table: Compact and Clever

Where space is at a premium — a balcony, a bijou courtyard, a snug café frontage — the ReGen Combo 60 is the answer. Its smaller footprint makes it perfect for two, whether that is an intimate bistro setting or a spot to nurse a morning espresso. Do not mistake compact for insubstantial, though: it shares the same robust recycled construction, the same batch-dyed colours and the same weatherproof credentials as its larger sibling. In Cactus green against a wall of climbing jasmine, a Combo 60 makes a small space feel like a considered destination rather than an afterthought.

ReGen Stack Maxi and Mini Stools: The Flexible Workhorses

If there is a single hero of the ReGen range, it might be the humble stool — and there are two to choose from. The ReGen Stack Maxi Stool is the taller of the pair, ideal for perching at counter-height bars, high tables and kitchen islands that spill out onto a terrace. The ReGen Stack Mini Stool is its lower, dining-height companion, equally at home pulled up to a Combo table or scattered as casual extra seating when guests arrive.

Both share the clever stacking design that gives them their name, so a set can be tucked into a corner or a store cupboard in seconds when you need the space back. Both come in all four earth tones, which makes them the perfect vehicles for a little playful colour mixing — a rainbow of muted minerals around a single table is one of the most charming looks in the whole collection. Light, sturdy, stackable and available in every ReGen shade, these stools are the workhorses that make a scheme flexible.

ReGen Kit Combo High Extension: Go Counter-Height

For anyone who loves the sociable buzz of counter-height dining — that easy, casual, lean-in-and-chat posture — the ReGen Kit Combo High Extension transforms a standard Combo table into a tall poseur bar. Paired with the Maxi Stools, it creates an instant outdoor bar area, brilliant for entertaining, for hospitality venues that want a standing-and-perching zone, or simply for a household that likes to gather around a high table with a glass of something cold. It is a smart, modular way to add a completely different mood to your terrace without buying a whole new set.

ReGen Sipario 3 Modular Partition: Define Your Space

One of the cleverest and most under-appreciated pieces in the range is the ReGen Sipario 3 Modular Outdoor Partition. This is a freestanding screen, made from the same recycled material and available in the same four earth tones, that lets you carve up and define an outdoor space with the softness of colour rather than the harshness of a wall. Use it to create privacy between neighbouring tables on a restaurant terrace, to shelter a dining nook from a prevailing wind, or simply to add rhythm, height and structure to a large, flat garden.

Because it is modular, the Sipario 3 can be extended and configured to suit your space, and because it comes in Terra, Cactus, Gesso and Basalto, it becomes part of your colour scheme rather than an intrusion into it. A run of Basalto partitions makes a dramatic, architectural backdrop; a line of Cactus screens all but disappears into a green boundary. For hospitality clients in particular, this is a piece that pays for itself many times over in the flexibility and privacy it brings.

The 23-Piece ReGen Furniture Group: The Whole Scheme in One

For those planning a larger project — a full hospitality fit-out, a big family garden, an events terrace — the Nardi 23-Piece ReGen Furniture Group assembles a complete, coordinated scheme in a single package, with a 10% saving over buying the pieces individually. It is the most efficient way to kit out a whole space in one confident stroke, guaranteeing that every table, stool and element speaks the same material and colour language from day one. If you know you want to go all-in on ReGen, this is the smart, joined-up way to do it.

How to Style a Full ReGen Scheme

This is where our designer's heart really beats. A pile of good furniture is not a scheme; a scheme is what happens when you make deliberate decisions about colour, layering and planting. Here is how we would put a complete ReGen look together, whatever the size of your space.

Step One: Choose Your Colour Strategy

Start by deciding whether you want a tonal scheme or a contrast scheme. A tonal approach — say, everything in soft Gesso, or a gentle drift from Gesso through Terra — feels calm, seamless and expansive, and is our recommendation for small spaces where you want a sense of flow. A contrast approach pairs a dark grounding tone with a light one: Basalto stools around a Gesso table, or a Terra table framed by Cactus seating. Contrast brings energy and definition and works beautifully in larger spaces that can carry the drama.

Our favourite trick, though, is the mixed-stool table. Take one Combo table in a neutral tone and surround it with Stack Mini Stools in all four colours — one Terra, one Cactus, one Gesso, one Basalto. Because the palette is so naturally harmonious, the effect is joyful rather than chaotic, and it gives every guest their own little colour to claim. It is the single easiest way to make a ReGen setting feel personal and alive.

Step Two: Build in Layers and Levels

Flat schemes feel flat. The secret to a terrace that looks professionally designed is variation in height. Anchor your space with a dining set at standard height, then introduce a counter-height zone using the Kit Combo High Extension and Maxi Stools for a change of mood and posture. Add vertical structure with a run of Sipario 3 partitions, which draw the eye upward and give the space walls of colour. Then layer in planting at different heights — low grasses, mid-height shrubs, a tall specimen tree or two — so that the furniture sits within a green architecture rather than marooned on an empty slab.

Step Three: Echo the Earth Tones in Your Planting and Materials

The reason the ReGen palette works so hard for you is that its colours already exist in nature, so all you have to do is echo them. Pick up Terra with terracotta pots, rusted corten steel planters and the russet foliage of heuchera or Japanese maple. Reinforce Cactus with olive trees, ornamental grasses, lavender, rosemary and silver-leaved plants. Let Gesso breathe against pale gravel, limestone paving and whitewashed render. Ground Basalto with dark slate, charcoal-stained timber and the near-black foliage of ophiopogon. When the hard landscaping, the planting and the furniture all sing from the same earthy hymn sheet, the result feels inevitable — as though the garden could never have looked any other way.

Step Four: Pair With the Wider Nardi Family

ReGen does not have to live in splendid isolation. Because it shares Nardi's material sensibility and restrained aesthetic, it mixes beautifully with the broader Nardi collection, which opens up even more possibilities for comfort and character.

For lounging and relaxed dining, the Nardi Doga Outdoor Armchair is a superb companion. Its slatted, contoured design brings a note of comfort and a slightly softer, more organic silhouette to a ReGen table, and in Nardi's earthier colourways — the warm Tabacco, the soft Cappuccino, the gentle Perla — it sits in perfect sympathy with the ReGen palette. A Combo 70 table ringed with Doga armchairs in Tabacco makes for a genuinely inviting, sink-in dining experience.

For a lower, more relaxed lounge zone, the Nardi Cube 80 Outdoor Table is an ideal partner. This chunky, cubic side-and-storage table, available in soft neutrals such as Tortora and Tabacco, works brilliantly as a coffee or occasional table alongside a ReGen dining setting, giving a spot to rest drinks and books in a lounge corner. Its clean geometry complements the ReGen tables while its warm neutral tones keep the whole scheme cohesive.

Step Five: Finish With Soft Accessories

Finally, bring in the textiles and details that turn furniture into a room. Outdoor cushions and throws in natural linens, ochres, sage greens and warm creams will amplify the ReGen palette. A woven outdoor rug anchors a seating zone and defines it as a place to gather. String lights or a cluster of lanterns extend the evening and make the earth tones glow. A few well-chosen pots planted with herbs put scent and greenery within arm's reach of the table. None of this needs to be expensive or elaborate — the furniture is doing the heavy lifting — but these soft finishing touches are what tip a scheme from tidy to genuinely lovely.

ReGen for Every Kind of Space

One of the reasons we recommend ReGen so freely is that it flexes to fit almost any brief, from the smallest private balcony to the busiest commercial terrace. It is worth thinking briefly about how the collection adapts to each.

Small Balconies and Courtyards

In a tight space, restraint is everything. We would keep to one or two tones — Gesso for light or Cactus for a green, garden feel — and choose the compact Combo 60 with a pair of stackable Mini Stools that can be tucked under the table or lifted inside when you need the floor back. A single Sipario partition can add just enough privacy from a neighbouring balcony without boxing you in. The lightness of the material matters enormously here: you can rearrange the whole setting with one hand.

Family Gardens

For families, ReGen is close to ideal. It is tough enough to survive footballs, bicycles and the general chaos of children, wipes clean in seconds after a muddy afternoon, and is light enough that even younger members of the household can help move it. The batch-dyed colour means scuffs and scrapes simply do not show. Build the scheme around a Combo 70 for family meals, add a stack of Mini Stools for when friends descend, and you have furniture that will grow up alongside your children.

Hospitality and Commercial Terraces

For cafés, restaurants and hotels, the case is even stronger. ReGen's weatherproof, fade-proof, low-maintenance character means less staff time spent on furniture and more years of service per euro spent. The Sipario partitions carve a terrace into intimate, sheltered zones; the Kit Combo High Extension creates a lively standing bar; and the 23-Piece Group kits out an entire space in one coordinated, discounted order. Add a genuine sustainability story that your eco-conscious customers will notice and appreciate, and ReGen becomes as much a marketing asset as a furniture choice.

A Scheme You Can Feel Good About

What we love most about specifying ReGen for our clients is that it asks for no compromise. You do not have to choose between beauty and responsibility, between something that looks good and something that does good. Here is furniture made from reclaimed Italian material, dyed in a palette of clay, leaf, chalk and stone, engineered to shrug off everything an Irish year can throw at it, and fully recyclable when its long life finally ends. It is designed and built by a family firm in Chiampo that has been quietly perfecting this craft for decades, and it carries every bit of that expertise in its solid, tactile, honest surfaces.

Whether you are furnishing a tiny balcony with a Combo 60 and two Mini Stools, building a full hospitality terrace with partitions and counter-height bars, or planning a family garden you will enjoy for the next fifteen summers, the ReGen collection gives you a coherent, beautiful and genuinely sustainable foundation to build on. Start with the colours that speak to your space, layer in height and planting, echo those earth tones through your materials, and you will have an outdoor room that feels as good as it looks.

Ready to build your own ReGen scheme? Explore the full range, discover every earth tone in the flesh, and find the pieces that suit your space in the full Nardi collection. Beautiful, recycled, weatherproof and made to last — this is outdoor furniture your garden, and the planet, will thank you for.