Garden Furniture Sets

Dining, lounging or both

Decide first whether you eat outside or sit outside, because the two want different furniture. A dining set puts chairs at table height and works for meals, cards and laptops. A lounge or corner set sits low and deep and is for the end of the day. Where the garden only has room for one, a casual dining set at a middle height, sometimes sold as a dining lounge, is the honest compromise and does both jobs adequately rather than either perfectly.

Measuring before you buy

Allow around 70cm of clear space behind each chair so people can get in and out, and a metre if they will walk behind it. Corner sets are usually deeper than they look on a plan, and a modular set that can be split gives you options a fixed one does not. Check the table height against the chairs if you are mixing pieces, and check whether the table has a parasol hole and what diameter it takes.

Materials and upkeep

Woven synthetic rattan over an aluminium frame is the most popular choice for good reason: it handles rain and sun, needs only washing down, and stays light enough to move. Powder-coated aluminium is lighter still and will not rust. Steel is steadier in wind and wants its coating kept intact. Hardwood is the one that asks for annual oiling, and the one that looks better for having had it. None of these mind cold; all of them mind sitting wet.

Cushions and covers

Cushions are the part that fails first, and almost always because they were left out. Bring them in, or keep a storage box near the set so it is easy to. Covers are worth having for the furniture too, provided they breathe: a sealed cover traps condensation and does the damage it was bought to prevent. Look for vents, a drawstring or straps, and a fit close enough that wind cannot get under it.

What a set does not include

Worth checking before you order rather than after. A dining table with a parasol hole almost never comes with the parasol, and a parasol almost never comes with a base. Corner sets are usually quoted with their seat and back cushions but not with scatter cushions, which is what they are photographed with. Covers are separate. Where a set is described by the number of people it seats, check whether that counts a bench or a stool, because a set for six on paper can be a set for four in chairs with two perching. Assembly varies from none to a couple of hours, and flat-packed sets are the ones that fit through a narrow side gate.

Modular sets and changing your mind later

A modular set is made of separate pieces that clip, bracket or simply butt together, and it is the more forgiving thing to buy. The same pieces make an L against two walls this year and two facing sofas next year, and if the garden changes, or you move, the set adapts rather than being wrong. It also arrives and moves in manageable parts, which matters if access is through a house or up a stairwell. A fixed set is usually more rigid and often cheaper for the same seat count, so it suits a space you are sure of. Where a set is modular, check whether extra pieces are sold separately and are likely to stay available, since the ability to add a corner or an extra seat in a year is most of the point.

Getting a set through the season

Most sets can stay outside all year if they are covered and standing where water drains away. Lift feet clear of standing water where you can. Wash frames down at the end of the season, check and tighten bolts, and store cushions dry. A set treated that way will outlast a more expensive one that is not.

Bolts are the thing people forget. Garden furniture expands, contracts and gets sat on heavily, and a set that is checked once a year stays rigid while one that is not develops a wobble that eventually becomes a break. Ten minutes with the right spanner in spring is the whole job. Where feet have plastic caps, replace any that have gone, since a bare metal leg on a patio marks it and wicks water up into the frame.