Outdoor Patio Furniture Sets
for your Yard

The quest for perfect outdoor patio furniture sets is a quest indeed! The options available today are limitless and sometimes overwhelming.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Sandquist

The prices also seem to be limitless and overwhelming...but hopefully this information will help you in narrowing down your own personal priorities so that you can select the best furniture for you and your family.

The furniture on the TV show was a different style than this chair, but the fabric cushions are the same! I also recently discovered that my next door neighbor has the same wrought-iron furniture (different style) with the same fabric cushions. Ironic, hey?

Most of you may be thinking – ugh! I bet you were glad to get rid of that! Actually, I wasn’t! I still have a set of 4 of these chairs and one chaise lounge. The matching chaise lounge broke many years ago when my then teenage brother sat on it with about 8 of his closest friends. The furniture was made well, but that was a wee bit too much stress!

This furniture was purchased by my parents in 1972, and as you can imagine, it has been very well-loved.

While my parents were quite responsible in caring for the set, once they handed it down to me, all heck broke loose! I would routinely leave the cushions on the furniture overnight, during rainstorms, for weeks on end, and eventually the cushions deteriorated to a point that they are barely functional. My thought was always to have the iron dipped, stripped and repainted, and hire someone to make new cushions. The only caveat is that I need 6 chairs and 2 chaise lounges...obviously, I’m short 2 chairs and 1 chaise lounge. I’ve looked around for these items, with no luck.

Eventually I decided that I needed to look into new outdoor patio furniture sets. After all, isn’t 35+ years of service enough to ask of one set?? (By the way, I’m totally still looking for the matching chairs and chaise lounge...if you know where I could get them, let me know!) So, thus begins my quest!

Why is this important to you? Because I’m hoping that my quest will help you in yours. I had to take a hard look at what I wanted in outdoor patio furniture sets because I was replacing something that I really liked, and therefore I was not going to just settle for anything. This is always a good place to be when making a purchase...patient and unwilling to “settle”.

I have lots of outside gatherings which usually consist of at least 6 adults - so I knew I would need at least 6 chairs. I also knew I would need a table big enough to seat 6. Round or rectangle? My gatherings are such that everyone interacts with each other, so I knew I would want a round table. With a rectangle table small breakout conversations seem to happen more readily.

I also knew that I LOVED my current 70’s style chairs with regards to COMFORT! During our gatherings, we will sit (& eat) for hours and we need to have chairs that can be sat in for hours on end comfortably, and provide proper lower back support and a place to rest your head. If you’ve ever attended a party and had to sit in an uncomfortable chair, you know what I’m talking about!

I also knew that I’m not good at daily maintenance. As I’ve noted with regards to my landscaping plants, any item, living or not, needs to be somewhat durable and low maintenance in order to survive with me. The idea of removing a cushion every night, or before a rainstorm, was not going to work (as evidenced by the destroyed 70’s cushions).

In addition, my family and friends and I (sorry guys) are “hard” on items and outdoor patio furniture sets I selected needed to be durable and stand the test of time. And, one final point, I needed a set that would come with 2 matching chaise lounges for sun bathing.

Having all this information in hand, I perused outdoor patio furniture sets when I came across it, sometimes went out shopping for some, but mostly had no luck until I came across this set. As you can see, the set I purchased met all of my requirements!

I did not go out looking for this, and just happened upon it one day. The chairs and the chaise lounges are wonderful and are everything that I wanted. To help you with purchasing outdoor patio furniture sets, here’s a list to assist you in identifying what factors will take precedence.

1. Price range
2. Size of area (where furniture will be located - remember, furniture looks smaller in the store than it will at your home)
3. Number of adults for seating
4. Type of chairs (Rock and swivel, stationary, high backs, low backs, removable cushions)
5. Type of table (round or rectangular)
6. Matching chaise lounge(s) (yes or not)
7. Patio Umbrella (opens new window) - yes or no, table center or offset
8. Color
9. Material (wrought iron, bamboo, cedar, wicker, plastic)

I hope that this helps give you some ideas as to what to look for when purchasing new furniture. Please browse through the links available on this page to give you an idea as to what's available on the market today.

Good luck to you in your search for perfect outdoor patio furniture sets!

The Furniture Paradise Store (opens new window) includes a variety of outdoor sets that are visually more representative of living room furniture as opposed to patio furniture. The site displays many wicker sets with thick cushions. These sets are good options for covered porches or 3-season rooms.

Return from Outdoor Patio Furniture Sets to Backyard Fun