Wrought Iron Patio Furniture

Wrought iron is excellent for outdoor use. Its also heavy enough that it won't get blown away in a strong summer storm.



You really ought to store it during the winter to reduce the chance of rust, though admittedly I think snow-covered wrought iron garden furniture is very beautiful. It reminds me that someday all the snow will pass and we will actually want to sit outside again.

Target has a reasonably nice Recycled Wrought Iron Folding Patio Table. It costs $190 and is 27 inches wide. It comes in black, but you could definitely paint it with a rust-resistant enamel spray paint to be any color you like. Another nice feature is the mesh top. This means you won't have to wipe the water off the table top every time you sit down. Some mesh tops have gaps so big you can lose a spoon through them, which is a drag, but this particular table does not have that problem. Alas, Target does not seem to be offering matching chairs.

Brookstone has some nice wrought iron outdoor furniture, but geez, its expensive. $250 for just one chair.

Amazon has several sets, all the in $200 range. They are referred to as "bistro sets". Most of them look okay, but they aren't a clean design.. they're more Victorian. Nothing's wrong with Victorian, of course, but sometimes really small places look better with modern furniture.

Target and Walmart, Home Depot, Sears, Crate and Barrel and Lowes should be your first stops if you want to shop in brick and mortar stores. You can also try local greenhouses and garden centers - they usually have one or two choices for small patio furniture. In the last year I saw a lot of the little bistro 2 chair and table sets. They were made of metal, but had a sturdy feel and folded nicely. Usually the colors were pretty cool, too. And if you find the perfect patio set for a good price but you hate the color, go invest in 1-2 cans of good quality outdoor spray paint and make your patio furniture any color you want.

Crate and Barrel's "Sol Folding Bistro Table" for $99 is actually just what I was looking for a simple design that takes up little space. The price is pretty good, too. Chairs are $99. It comes in white, which is either clean, or boring, depending on your outlook. Bust out that paintbrush if you don't like it.

I do recommend you not try to go too cheap with patio furniture, especially the kind that folds. This is even more true with lounge chairs. I got a cheap $20 folding lounge chair at Target about two years ago, and it never felt sturdy enough for me to feel comfortable (isn't the point of all this to relax?). The back also didn't stay put, so every once and awhile I'd shift my weight just a wee bit and the back would fall down. And not down so it was flat to where my legs were, but it fell all the way down to the ground. I don't do enough yoga for my back to bend like that. In the end, I really just wasted $20.

So get something of good quality. This is why buying online is a little tricky. If the site offers product reviews, all the better. But also consider that you'll probably have to pay for shipping, and at roughly $1 a pound to ship things, you could end up paying nearly as much for the shipping as you did for the furniture.