Great outdoor furniture makes your deck or patio more comfortable and useful. It lets your indoor rooms move outside. With a weather-proof table and chairs, for example, you can move your dining room outside. Relaxing rockers or Adirondack chairs furniture for outdoors can turn your living room into a room with a ceiling made of blue sky. First, think about how you want to use your outdoor space. This will help you figure out what kind of furniture you need. Do you want to eat on your deck or relax on your patio by a fire? Will you have a lot of people over or will you have smaller, more personal gatherings? If you know the answers to these questions, you’ll know what to buy.
Choosing What To Use
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When shopping for furniture, choose pieces made of easy-to-care-for materials that match the look and feel of your home and yard. There are a lot of choices.
Natural wood is strong and comfortable, but it needs to be cared for and treated regularly to protect it from the weather and UV rays. Choose woods that don’t get damaged by the weather, like redwood, teak, cedar, and cypress.
Rattan and Wicker. Natural materials like rattan and wicker give your deck a casual, comfortable look, but they need to be treated every few years to protect them from the weather. The resin finish on synthetic rattan and wicker makes it last much longer.
Steel and forged iron. Both are very strong, but you’ll need cushions to make them comfortable. They work well outside, but they need to be painted or treated with a finish that won’t rust every so often.
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Aluminum, Plastic and PVC. These materials don’t rust, are cheap, don’t weigh much, and are easy to clean with soap and water. But because they are made of light materials, they may need to be tied down in high winds and storms.
When these materials are used to make outdoor furniture, it will look good for a long time. No matter how weatherproof the furniture is, though, you should put it away for the winter to make it last longer. Before you buy something, think about how much storage space you have. Also, sit in the chairs and put the umbrella up and down a couple of times before you buy. Make sure you like how it feels and how it works.
Making Sure Things Are Good
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Don’t assume that price is the best way to tell if something is good or bad when you’re shopping. So how can you tell if a piece of furniture is good?
Finish in the same way. Even in places you can’t see, like the bottom of a tabletop, the wood should be smooth and free of flaws. The finish on painted metal should be the same everywhere. The wicker on the frame shouldn’t be coming apart or loosely wound.
Tight joints that fit well. Welds in metal should be pretty smooth. Make sure there are no rust spots or bare spots on the metal.
Make sure the chairs don’t sway or bend too much (some flexibility is OK, especially on tubular metal chairs designed to be springy). Do the same thing with the table after you’ve put it together.
The return and exchange policy of the store. Just in case your pieces look broken or poorly made when you get them or pick them up.
