How to Buy Outdoor Furniture That Actually Survives Outside
Updated: 15 hours ago
Outdoor furniture takes a beating that indoor furniture never has to deal with, sun, rain, humidity, temperature swings, and in a lot of climates, all four in the same week. The material a piece is built from matters more outside than almost anywhere else in your home. Here's what to actually look for.
Wicker: warmth and texture, built for the elements
All-weather wicker is designed specifically to handle outdoor conditions, unlike the natural wicker you might picture from an old porch chair. It's typically synthetic, woven over a durable frame, which means it resists fading, cracking, and moisture damage in a way natural wicker simply can't.
Our Marilyn Rope Chat Set pairs a durable steel frame with an all-weather wicker wrap, giving you that warm, textural look with real weather resistance underneath. Ava's 4-Piece Wicker Conversation Set takes a similar approach with French blue wicker accents over a sturdy frame, and Briar's 3-Piece Wicker Chat Set is built specifically to be low maintenance, wiping clean without much effort even after regular outdoor use.
Wicker tends to bring the most visual warmth of the outdoor materials, which makes it a strong choice if you want your patio to feel more like an extension of your living room than a purely functional outdoor space.
Steel: clean lines and serious durability
Steel is one of the most durable materials you can put outside, and when it's properly weather resistant, it holds up to rain, sun, and temperature swings without warping or breaking down. It also tends to have the most minimal, modern profile of the outdoor materials, since steel frames can stay slim without sacrificing strength.
Our Ola collection, including the Ola Table and Bench Set, the Ola 5-Piece High Dining Set, and the Ola 4-Piece Conversation Set, is built around weather resistant steel construction specifically because it holds up outdoors while staying comfortable enough to use indoors too. Wrenn's sling and cushion sets also use a steel frame, with distinctive hairpin shaped legs that give it a more minimalist, sculptural look.
Steel is a strong choice if your outdoor space leans modern, or if you want furniture that can move between indoor and outdoor use depending on the season.
Resin: practical, weatherproof, and easy to store
Resin is a synthetic material built to handle constant outdoor exposure without fading, cracking, or absorbing moisture. It's often lighter than steel, and many resin pieces, like stacking chairs, are designed with storage in mind, so you can tuck them away easily when you're not using the full set.
Our Bennett Stacking Dining Chairs are a good example, built from long lasting resin with a semi-open back and seat design for airflow, and a stackable profile that makes storage simple when you need extra seating only some of the time.
Resin is the practical choice if you want furniture you genuinely don't have to think about, no covering it before a storm, no worrying about rust or rot, just wipe it down and go.
How to actually choose
Ask yourself how much maintenance you're actually willing to do, and how the space needs to look and feel. Wicker brings warmth and texture but does best with occasional cleaning. Steel offers serious durability with a cleaner, more modern look. Resin is the lowest maintenance option and the easiest to store away when you need to.
Whatever you choose, look specifically for "weather resistant" or "all-weather" in the materials description, that language means the piece was actually built with outdoor durability in mind, not just borrowed from an indoor design and hoped for the best outside.
Shop the guide
One set from each material covered in this guide.
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