How to choose outdoor furniture: sun, shade and wind

Most regret in this category is not about price. It is about buying the right piece for a space that has one awkward feature — a balcony, a low ceiling, a corner that only gets afternoon sun, a wall we are not allowed to drill. This page is about how to work out which constraint actually matters before you buy something heavy.

Start with the space, not the product

The mistake is falling in love with a piece and then looking for room for it. Work the other way round. Write down the three facts about your space that will not change: roughly how big it is, where the sun lands, and what you are not able to do to it. Almost every decision after that follows.

Once the constraints are written down, the measurement guide covers the physical clearances, and what follows covers the parts a tape measure will not tell you.

Sun and shade direction

Which way the space faces decides when you will use it, which matters more than almost any specification. A west-facing patio is unusable at four in the afternoon in midsummer, and a north-facing one stays usable far longer into the evening. Before you buy a table, notice where the shadow falls at the hour you actually want to sit outside.

For an umbrella, the question is what it needs to shade. A cantilever umbrella shades the area to one side of its base rather than around it, so the table position and the umbrella position are a single decision rather than two. A centred market umbrella shades in a circle, which suits a round table and does nothing for a rectangular one pushed against a wall.

Balconies and weight

This is the one that catches people out. Balconies have load limits, usually lower than people assume, and the limit applies to the concentrated load in one spot, not the total. A heavy base at the edge of a balcony is a different calculation from the same weight in the middle.

If your building has rules about what may be placed on a balcony, read them before you order rather than after. If you are unsure what your balcony can take, that is a question for your building manager, not for us, and we would rather say so than guess on your behalf. A cast aluminium bistro set is generally the easiest starting point on a small balcony, because it arrives as separate pieces and can be moved.

Wind

Anything with a canopy needs to be considered in wind, because an open umbrella acts as a sail. Our cantilever umbrella has a base and a heavy counterweight by design, and is meant to be left assembled; taking the canopy down in a gust is harder than it sounds and is not how it is intended to work.

What matters is whether your space is sheltered or exposed. A courtyard wall does most of the work; an open corner of a roof terrace does none. If yours is exposed, factor it in before you order — and if you want a second opinion, ask via the contact page with a description of the space.

Material, and what it means in practice

Two materials do most of the work in this range. Powder-coated aluminium resists rust well and is light enough to move alone. PE wicker rattan over a steel or aluminium frame is the right choice for warmth and appearance, and is the material most of these pieces are made from.

The honest caveat, which appears on every product page: outdoor finishes last longest under a cover when they are not in use. That is not a sales line, it is the single thing that most extends the life of a piece.

Covering outdoor pieces

A cover is the cheapest possible upgrade to the life of anything outdoors. It takes sun, rain and standing moisture off a surface, all three of which work against a finish. We do not sell covers in this range yet, which is worth saying plainly rather than leaving you to assume we do.

Pairs well with

Everything in this range was chosen to sit together on the same patio, so a canopy, a seating set and a side table share a material language rather than looking assembled from different catalogues.

If you are still narrowing it down, the measurement guide will tell you whether the piece physically fits. Shipping covers what happens after you order, and returns covers what happens if it is not right.