Garden Furniture

 Locally made garden benches

Sitting in the garden as the sun is shining is one of life’s great pleasures.  

Finding somewhere comfortable to rest and take in the rays is an important part of the relaxation process and although I’ll be happy sitting on an old rotting log and watching the woodlice, I have other visitors to consider.  

I’ve been looking at the huge range of garden seating this week and the choice is pretty daunting. It is like furnishing a room – only outdoors after all so style and functionality are all important for comfort, and contrast to the design of the garden. 

I have had to narrow down the search to suit my needs and budget.  I don’t really need a parasol in the equation as they tend to blow away taking the table with them and I’m not really that sociable so I should only need about 4 chairs or seating areas, more than four people and I tend to hide in the polytunnel. The idea of a gazebo, pergola or arbour sounds fun but I don’t really think they would fit in with the style of our seating area which is the foundation of an old 1930’s greenhouse, which is the closest thing we have to a patio.

Choosing the Seating

Choosing the chair and table materials to narrow down the choice helps reduce the confusion too. I have a couple of old chairs that stay outside in all weathers and even after five years they are holding up well. They are the woven plastic type of seating with powder coated steel legs so the only issue is you get rusty water dripping on your feet if you try to move them as the tubes do tend to store rainwater. They are recliners too so not much good around a table. 

I’ve found the most popular types of furniture are broken down into four types. 

Wood, of various thickness quality and type ranging from old pallets to mahogany and cedar. 

Steel which is usually powder coated, stainless steel, aluminium or cast iron which can be really elaborate designs in the casting process. Although top of my list for aesthetics, the reason for not considering the cast iron is that is needs annual maintenance of paint or they become unusable and you’ll need to sit on a cushion as they can be pretty uncomfortable after long periods of lolling around drinking Pims.  A good sturdy Victorian bench seat made from ornate cast iron could cost you as much as €800-€1200 too. 

Then there’s Bamboo, which has its own charm but a bit too bobbly for me.

The plastic woven or ‘rattan’ type of furniture is extremely popular and some of the designs totally cover the frames making the whole seating quite soft. These are better for big clean patios and without dogs like mine that really enjoying chewing the edges on that type of outdoor furniture. One of my dogs actually climbs the garage shelving looking for old yogurt and plant pots to chew on. I only know this because she leaves tell-tale paw prints in the dust. This type of chair generally doesn’t fold up and store in the shed in winter either.

It’s worth considering getting chairs and tables that fold away as they can be kept in the dry over winter.  With my track record I probably wouldn’t do that so my choice this year is pressure treated wood. At least with wood I can chop up and burn the seating after a few years to keep warm instead of having to take the rusty metal and ripped plastic to the recycling centre.

My Decision

After deliberating for a long time about the style I think my seating of choice will be a wooden picnic type table and benches hopefully made locally. There are a lot of really wobbly flatpack ones on the market with really thin wood which wouldn’t withstand a lot of weight.  I think if you can’t dance on a table then it’s not sturdy enough.  So I am on the hunt for something similar to the benches on the shorefront in Buncrana. Maybe I shouldn’t say that as if one goes missing, I’ll be the prime suspect.