The SUN is SHINING!!! What furniture do you have outside?

[BroccoliSpears]

We need to get some patio furniture. Don't want a big matching table and chairs set. Was thinking a bench maybe? Or a loungy chair? A couple of little tables?

What do you have? What's brill? Different? What's rubbish?

Where should I look?

We have a little money put aside for this, but as ever the budget is tight.

At our old house we had a bench and three chairs made from reclaimed railway sleepers, by my mega talented friend .They were fab.
We bought big cushions to go on them, and brought them into the conservatory as floor cushions when not in use so they didn't get sodden.

We also used an acrylic set of nesting tables which were really easy to clean, ours were a wedding present but they sell similar in John Lewis and argos.

If we wanted to eat a proper meal outdoors or for bbqs/parties etc we just dragged out the dining table.

We also spent a bit on really colourful large pots and planted evergreens in them.

I miss our garden

Oh that sounds lovely DWP.

I'm inspired.

Big pots are pretty expensive. I must think of a way of finding something effective that won't break the bank.

Gahhh.

Garden furniture is so boring! Or so expensive.

I want something unusual and attractive, but I can't spend £3800 on a handmade piece of driftwood carved into a chair with a cashmere cushion.

Yucky identikit square Homebase benches just aren't working for me either.

Where's the middle ground?

Bumpity bump.

Anyone bored enough to talk garden furniture with me?

I'm bored!

Sadly all we could afford was a set of 4 plastic green chairs and table last May. They have spent nearly a year being rained on, frosted on and blown about our garden.

I think we used them about three times last "summer".

I really like the hammocky swing thingies for two.

I adopted a heavy wrought iron and wooden table and bench, its been out all winter so could do with a rub bdown and varnish, but it doesn't blow away and looks good with age. Unlike the white plastic chairs that are wedged behind the hut and are all green and horrible. I have a little metal framed table and chair set (bistro style) its ancient and a bit rusty, its just for ornimentaion really.

Last year we bought a lovely teak table and chairs set. I's survived winter remarkably well. We also bought a bench for the bottom of the garden but the best bit is my hammock, which hang from hooks on the tree and the shed. It's glorious on a warm day and the boys pile into it with me.

I'd love a hamock but I don't think we have room.

A nice bench would be ideal. Can I find a nice bench????

Google 'garden furniture' and you get pages of samey samey stuff. I need something boutiquey but without £00000000 price tags.

We got this set. It still looks great.

Our bench came from the local garden centre. It was about £100.

Broccoli, have you seen anything really nice but too expensive? Not that it helps you but I'm looking for ideas too (and ideas don't cost anything so doesn't matter what you post!) Just looking for inspiration really.

In our old house we had a pub-style bench/table combo. Not the most attractive but quite practical with DC/

Hmm, just had a look at B&Q. I wonder if the problem is the whole matching set thing - the table, the chairs, the parasol...

Would be quirkier to have a few nice things, just artfully thrown together...

Only problem is that that takes years to do well, otherwise you just end up with mismatched stuff

Peaches - have been looking at...

Reclaimed stuff - not hugely inspiring

Second one down is quite nice and similar to here

Another one - metal chairs are nice, wooden stuff is samey

This is one of the nicest collections I've found but we really want wooden for seats I think, though metal for tables would be fine.

Hugely overpriced stuff here - nice though.

Some good, some bad links from here

Will post others as I remember / come across.

That set is lovely Lyra, but not ideal for us at the mo as we're not really looking to make an outside eating area with tabe and chairs. More a sort of loungy space for drinking coffee and looking after the baby while various toddlers play on the brightly coloured plastic tat nearby.

Well, if it's lounging you're after, it doesn't get better than this. If you've got a spare £1,400.

Those benches are nice, as you say Broccoli.

I do like the John lewis stuff though, and for lounging you can't beat a nice deckchair

NOW you're talking! I'll just check down the back of the sofa for spare change...

Deckchairs... hmmmmm...

This is nice. And this.

Do you reckon you'd have to bring them in in case it rained?

Well they say weather proof rattan. I rather liked the look of those as well.

Peaches, if you're still looking, have found some slightly different stuff on this site - reclaimed teak and reclaimed tripod stuff.

We have a 12-seater teak jobbie (£600 from Ebay), but tend to replace 2 of the chairs with our (Homebase ) bench for the littlest ones. With this, we can actually fit five or six little children and still have our 12 chairs - so very sociable.