The Complete Handbook of Outdoor Furniture

Chapter 1: Understanding Outdoor Furniture

Outdoor furniture is distinct from indoor furniture by a single, non-negotiable requirement: it must tolerate the environment. An indoor chair might fail because of a loose joint or torn fabric. An outdoor chair will be destroyed by the sun, saturated by rain, corroded by salt spray, or lifted and thrown by wind. Therefore, understanding outdoor furniture begins with understanding the stressors it is built to survive and how those stressors are managed through material choice and construction methods.

Consider a typical commercial patio in Chicago. Over a single year, that furniture will experience a temperature swing from -20 degrees C in January to 35 degrees C in July. It will be exposed to road salt, which is carried by slush and blown by wind. It will sit through a hundred freeze-thaw cycles, where absorbed moisture expands and contracts within any porous material. It will be subject to UV radiation that degrades polymers and fades pigments. And it will be used, abused, and moved daily by customers and staff. A piece of furniture designed for an indoor dining room is a machine that has to hold a person and look presentable. An outdoor chair has to do that, plus resist chemistry and physics for five, ten, or twenty years. The core of this book is learning to specify something that will survive that gauntlet.

The first mistake most buyers make is selecting furniture based on aesthetic appearance alone. Style is secondary to survivability. Powder-coated aluminum rounds