Buying your first outdoor furniture is almost as exciting as buying your first house with a garden. Before you rush out to shop, take the time to figure out the best all-weather pieces for your patio, deck, or porch. I wish had (instead of ending up with outdoor furniture that underwhelms). Learn from my mistakes and avoid making expensive errors when shopping for outdoor furniture.
Here are five things to know before you choose the best outdoor furniture for your home:
1. Cheap furniture may end up costing you more.
When you start shopping around on the internet for outdoor furniture, you will notice that there is a huge range in prices. On the high end are retailers including Design Within Reach and Restoration Hardware (both of which sell single Outdoor Chaise Lounge that goes for upwards of $1,000) and on the low end are sites such as Overstock and Walmart (where entire sectionals can be had for under $700).
Guess where I ended up buying our Outdoor Sofa Set? Yep, enticed by the price tag, I went for a faux wicker sectional I spotted on a discount website during a late-night web crawl. It was cheap and not ugly: What more could I ask for?
Well, for starters, I should have asked that our seating would not slide around every time we sat down. Our sectional was so lightweight that, unless you sat down very gingerly, the seats would slide and the cushions would skate. Our dog, who is not the most graceful animal, to begin with, became so wary of the unstable seating that he now nervously paces our deck for several minutes before he gathers the courage to hop up.
The Lesson: Though it may be tempting, do not automatically go for the cheapest price you can get on outdoor furniture. The really cheap stuff tends to be lightweight and flimsy. That said, we also have this from Ikea, a lightweight but totally well-made Outdoor Lounge Chair that I love, so this is by no means a blanket recommendation.
2. Some chair legs are too skinny for decks.
Before we bought a house with a yard, we lived in a small rental that had a wood deck. It was our first bit of outdoor space and we loved it, dressing it up with planters, a Weber grill, a lounge chair, and a vintage Teak Dining Set that we scored at a garage sale. The set was charming and well-made, but the legs on the chairs were skinny, which meant they could easily sink into the gaps between the deck’s wooden planks. We had to be vigilant about placing the chairs just so and constantly had to remind guests to do the same—not exactly the best setup for spontaneity and fun.
The Lesson: If you’re shopping for an Outdoor Dining Set for a wood deck, consider the chair legs and make sure they won’t get trapped in a gap when you pull the chair out.
