We’ve been in this house for nearly 6 months now and have been putting off dealing with our deck due to the long rainy season and lack of any real deadline. Well now the rain is finally gone (fingers-crossed!) and we have a bbq planned in a week! So we’ve switched our focus from the inside to the outside of the house.

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Preparation

While I’ve been busy gathering inspiration for outdoor furniture (a glimpse from my Pinterest board above), the hubby has been cleaning the deck up and preparing it for staining so it’ll look squeaky clean soon :).

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Before we get into the furniture options we considered, here are some pictures of the deck to orient you. We haven’t finished staining/sealing the redwood planks yet so they’ll look much more even in tone/color once that’s done. Even though technically it’s a generous sized deck, it is accessed from 3 areas (the living, hallway and our bedroom) and ideally we’d like to keep all those paths clear.

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To keep the flow simple we’re focusing on getting a dining area set up right in the middle of the deck. I’m also dead set on getting myself the Swingasan rainbow swing chair from the first image on this post so I can enjoy my afternoon coffee outside when the weather is nice :).

Furniture

Let’s start with the outdoor dining tables we’re considering. All the dining tables you see below are foldable, have an umbrella hole in the center and very affordable! It’s a pretty specific criteria since I prefer being able to fold the table away for the rainy/winter season. Pretty impressed with the cost-effective and beautiful pieces I found so far!

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Click the caption links below to see more details on each piece:

1. Houzz – $114 | 2. Amazon – $70 |3. Wayfair – $265 | 4. Wayfair – $266 | 5. Target – $62 | 6. Amazon – $32 | 7. Amazon – $40

So far we’re both really loving the bright white table #1 from Houzz above because of the rounded edges. We really wanted a giant round 6-seater dining table but those work out to be quite $$$ so this seems like a good compromise.

I was surprised to see a variety of affordable side table options from Amazon! You can probably tell we LOVE blue in this house and I thought the color would brighten up the deck and complement the exterior grey walls so you’ll see a lot of that in this post!

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1. Home Depot – $40 (set of 2) | 2. Home Depot – $20 |3. Ikea – $75 | 4. Ikea – $59 | 5. Lowe’s – $40

The chairs I’ve narrowed down above are a variety of whites/teal/dark metal tones to complement the tables above. And they’re definitely budget friendly! We’re liking #1 for it’s bright color and #5 for it’s lower back support so far. We’ll see what we end up with!

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1. Pier 1 – $319 (just swing, stand sold separately) | 2. Wayfair – $488 | 3. Houzz – $435 | 4. Houzz – $400

So here’s the deal – I kept the dining furniture extremely affordable because I’ve had my eye on the gorgeous rainbow swing chair (#1 above) for a while now! I've researched up and down for a more cost-effective one with a similar look but there’s nothing quite like it out. I can just see myself on it every afternoon with my coffee <3! So this will really be our splurge piece and I think it’ll complement the rest of the pieces very well as can see in my photoshopped sketch if you scroll below.

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I also considered some dining sets (below) but found it would be more cost-effective as well as unique to mix and match our own set so it doesn’t look too matchy matchy – there’s a pro tip for you!

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1. Ikea – $515 | 2. Target – $135 (YES! This is the cost of the entire set including umbrella!)1. Lowe’s – $98 | 2. Ikea – $129 | 3. Wayfair – $65

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Since we’re planning to put the dining area in the middle of the deck which doesn’t get any shade, we definitely need an umbrella – hence the choice of table with an umbrella hole. Here are some options, I’m most excited about #1 – it has a beautiful leafy pattern on the underside and a solid teal on top – LOVE IT!

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Here’s a quick overlay of the furniture pieces we like so far and what they’ll look like on our deck. I often use Photoshop to do quick overlays like this to help me visualize and ease my mind about the stuff we pick before we actually order it. Also saves us from regrets and the headache of returning things later on!

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We’ll probably add the grill below the window to the right (near the swing chair) and some plants to the left in front of the grey wall at a later time.

So what do you guys think of this furniture roundup? Hopefully this gave you some fun ideas for your own outdoor areas! I’ll share the final result once we’ve set everything up and are happy with it. Have a good week folks!