Garden furniture - why so expensive?!

[stevalnamechanger]

Currently looking into good quality garden furniture and it's SO expensive, almost costing more than indoor sofa and chairs . Why is this the case?

Marketplace also full of scammers (fake profiles) listing expensive looking stuff for low price so limited option to buy pre owned

I bought a brilliant table and chairs set from the range 4 year ago,I got them a bit cheaper because they were display, never rusted and the glass cleans up perfect, I think it was £270. I store the cushions but they can withstand bad weather if you forget.

Have a look at the Sye Ryder website, we got a really lovely brand new set for £200 because it had a couple of dinks. About £800 new.

We got the JYSK sofa set with table for £500 & a couple of extra stackable matching chairs.

cushions seem really thick and well upholstered in thick fabric too.
only issue I am finding is the sofa seat cushions are so long I’m struggling to find a nice storage box that is long enough!

we’ve had wooden furniture for years, originally from Homebase with replacement chairs over the years from b&q at the end of summer sale when they reduce everything down to about £10. They’ve lasted well, and I’ve sanded and treated them with oil occasionally. And covered in winter.

But I got fed up of them never being quite dry even several hours after spring /summer rain showers.

aluminium or plastic rattan is just so much easier. And lighter to move when I need to clean the patio.

I like the plastic rattan type, suits our weather.
An expensive teak set was horrible after a couple of years.
I just wish the rattan sets came in cream or white - anything other than brown or grey.
I saw a fabulous 8 seater dining set in cream but its over €2000

I bought mine well out of season when they were getting rid of last years stock before new stuff arrived for this summer... Full Rattan set, 6 persons coffee table and cover etc for £600. Not massively cheap but no-where near full price. It has been fine under its cover for the last 4 months and we can finally use it now!

Indoor furniture is often pretty shoddy quality or poor workmanship because you can hide it under the upholstery.
We just bought a teak set (top grade teak so should survive the weather) from a local company for under a grand - so not cheap but should last. They travel around and set up a showroom in a local village hall every couple of months.
www.teakgardenfurnituresales.com

I agree, it's crackers op! I couldn't get anything decent during lockdown as I guess lots of folk were buying to enjoy the weather at the same time. Waited and bought in Autumn sale, think it was £1000 for table and four chairs from Waitrose Garden, parasol and cushions included. It's lovely and seems to be holding up well but full price was 2K and no way would I pay that. As you say, there is a lack of technical detail in it.

Try a large Homesense or TK maxx. They have a lot of lovely stuff in right now. Delivery is reasonable too if you don't have a large van.

I got a Hartman aluminium set 18 months ago in the autumn sales for £500 at Homebase, the same one was £1800.00 last summer. It is brilliant, the cushions are waterproof although I do have a cover and brought them inside over winter. We left the frame outside and it just needed a wipe before we started to use this year. The end 2 seats recline. Took a bit of elbow grease to assemble it though.

Asda George usually have some decently priced ones:

https://direct.asda.com/george/outdoor-garden/garden-sofa-dining-sets/jakarta-linen-6-piece-garden-sofa-dining-set/BUN633,default,pd.html?cgid=D33M02G01C04

I bought some "plastic rattan crap" about five years ago and it doesn't have a mark on it. Unlike other "weatherproof" furniture we've had before which required a lot of maintenance. It's brilliant.

We spent weeks trawling around garden centres thinking we had a decent budget at £1k for something we'll probably use 10-20 times per year but no, barely anything under £3k. We did eventually stumble across the Supremo range which seem well made, sturdy and looked great (photo on link doesn't do it justice). Bit annoyed as we paid pushed the budget and paid £1349 a couple of weeks ago and have just seen it's reduced to £999 today but hey ho, at least I love it and we've already used it 3 times 🙂
https://www.hayesgardenworld.co.uk/product/supremo-livorno-garden-dining-set-six-seater-rectangular-160x90cm-granite-effect-table-top

We bought this when we moved in 6 years ago. We have not looked after it (not storing it in the shed during the winter) and it’s fine. It needs a good clean but then it’ll be good as new again.

I got some of ours on Groupon really cheaply. This is peak time to buy though and peak prices.

Those plastic rattan sets are unbelievably expensive considering how much they cost to manufacture! (I used to work in this industry)

The markup is ridiculous

Have a look at Aldi. I got a small set recently, two grey wicker egg chairs with cushions and a little table for under £100. B&M have some good deals too.

We bought a sturdy locally made pub table/ bench, wasn't expensive and will definitely last

We got our wooden furniture from here adamsteak.co.uk/

Delivered no fuss and quickly. Cheaper than elsewhere but looked exactly the same.

Ebay. We bought a gorgeous teak garden table and chairs, woh cushions and parasol for a few hundred. It's a big table and beautiful quaility.

I blame Love Island

Goes lovely with the plastic grass

Isn't teak from the rainforest or somewhere similarly unsustainable?

Wait until the end of summer when all the garden centres start to make space for Xmas, they always heavily discount garden furniture

UK made furniture like that would typically come straight from the factory, so very little warehousing and not much shipping cost really. More of the cost will be on labour and materials. More or less the opposite for furniture from china and the net price to you can end up being similar. Shipping and warehousing costs are largely based on the physical volume a product takes up in shipping containers. Non-flatpack furniture takes up a fair bit of space. Even more if it's not stackable.

I spent £1400 on some outdoor furniture from John Lewis (their own brand). It's lasted 10 years and looks as good as new expect for one little strand that's broken on a corner.

£140 per year doesn't seem so bad.

It's still expensive for what it is.

I love my plastic rattan crap. Had it 10 years and still perfect. Cushions not so much as I stupidly forgot about them over winter so need to replace but so much less effort than the previous wooden set that lasted 5 years and needed sanding, staining etc.