How would you furnish these outdoor areas?

[rooster222]

I have three areas to work with.

I have a wraparound front porch that has two sofas and two rockers. I'm pretty happy with this. Dh and I sit out there in the evenings sometimes.

I have a screened porch off the kitchen (12 x 12) and a paver patio off the screened porch (17 x 15).

The only thing I'm set on is our solo stove on the paver patio. We have a table & 6 chairs that is getting pretty old and we almost never use it. Thinking about getting rid of this.

We like having morning coffee in the screened porch and sitting out there with company. It would be nice to seat 6 but it's not a huge space. A sectional??? Comfort is a big must.

What are some ideas for the paver patio? I don't want a ton of cushions to haul around. My neighbors have Adirondacks around their solo stove so I'd like to do something different but I'm not sure what.

Will I regret not having a dining table/chairs? I can't decide if we don't use ours because we just don't or because it's not very nice/comfortable.

Any ideas? I'm in the Midwest so we don't use these spaces in the winter unfortunately and anything on the paver patio has to be covered for the winter.

[samanthamkm]

I would look for patio furniture that doesn't have a cushion for the solo stove, something that you can also stack easily for winter storage. I believe I got some from Target and they have held up well in Northern Indiana winter.
I just got a "design your own" sectional from Amazon (well I bought from a restore and they said it was from Amazon). You could easily do something like that on the screened in porch.

I love a front porch and would probably do a small bistro set and then a swing/rocking chairs.

[ssmjlm]

We have a big sectional on our screened porch because we use that more for relaxing. It's plastic wicker with sunbrella cushions. Other than cleaning them 2x a year, they're low maintenance to me.

On our patio, which is a bit bigger than yours, we have both a table with seating and adirondack chairs around our fire pit. Would you maybe want a small table for at least something to put food on or smores stuff with the solo stove.

I'm a big fan of polywood. It's costly, but so low maintenance.

[nicolewi]

Well, this might be totally not what you want, but I would think some kind of low seating chairs on the paver patio to go around the fire stove.

On the screened porch, I would want a table and chairs, so you could eat meals there if desired. Or have dessert/drinks there or whatever.

[rooster222]

Oct 20, 2021 9:25:40 GMT -5 samanthamkm said:

I would look for patio furniture that doesn't have a cushion for the solo stove, something that you can also stack easily for winter storage. I believe I got some from Target and they have held up well in Northern Indiana winter.
I just got a "design your own" sectional from Amazon (well I bought from a restore and they said it was from Amazon). You could easily do something like that on the screened in porch.

I love a front porch and would probably do a small bistro set and then a swing/rocking chairs.

I'll check Target, that is where our outdoor sofas are from. And a sectional that we can rearrange would be really nice and I think those design your own styles are usually individual pieces.

Unfortunately our front porch is a hair narrow for swings.

[rooster222]

Oct 20, 2021 10:02:40 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

We have a big sectional on our screened porch because we use that more for relaxing. It's plastic wicker with sunbrella cushions. Other than cleaning them 2x a year, they're low maintenance to me.

On our patio, which is a bit bigger than yours, we have both a table with seating and adirondack chairs around our fire pit. Would you maybe want a small table for at least something to put food on or smores stuff with the solo stove.

I'm a big fan of polywood. It's costly, but so low maintenance.

I think a small table would be nice. I think the patio is large enough for different zones but I'm not great at furniture layout.

[rooster222]

Oct 20, 2021 21:29:43 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

Well, this might be totally not what you want, but I would think some kind of low seating chairs on the paver patio to go around the fire stove.

On the screened porch, I would want a table and chairs, so you could eat meals there if desired. Or have dessert/drinks there or whatever.

Low seating sounds good. Is there something other than Adirondack style chairs?

[simpsongal]

We have full couches, seats, and a glider on our screened porch. I like the arrangement for relaxing and conversing and I push the couches to the corners in an open format for parties (create a lot of open floor space). There's a decent size coffee table on the porch for food. We don't have a dining table though b/c the porch is off the dining room.

Our patio has a solo stove too and a mix of aluminum clad and wood weather resistant furniture (bit of a mishmash). I like have non cushioned furniture b/c it's exposed to the rain and doesn't hold water. I have had a few solo sparks put holes in the cushions out there.

Our front porch is small, it has teak rocking chairs and I want to add a teak bench. It's nice for sitting, and they're easily moveable.

ETA: One day I might add a dining table somewhere in these outdoor spaces, but we just don't do big meals fully outside.  I've set up folding tables in the yard for special occasions/parties, which do just fine.

[brooklyn]

We have a Polywood bench, side table, and rocking chair set in our front sitting area. Plastic poufs (Keter, I think) as ottomans/kid seating. Our Solo stove and firewood in the big black storage thing, and we use the fire pit in this area.

[brooklyn]

And our back deck. Green Polywood dining set, and low 3 pc seating sets by Keter. You might like those around the fire pit too! I love how easy they are to move around, although they are a bit hard to get out of gracefully.

[brooklyn]

We’ve left our Polywood out uncovered during our very cold and snowy winter and it was totally fine!

[hazelden]

We have an upper deck off our kitchen with a table, four chairs and a grill and then a lower deck with a gazebo, four chairs and a table, plus a bench and a side table. Plus we have six white stacking plastic chairs. We also have a picnic table in the yard.

We almost never use the picnic table or the upper deck, but I would be sad to not have a dining area outside for having guests over. I don't love the look of the sling chairs we have, but there's no way I'd mess around with cushions and the sling chairs are comfortable and cheap.

Everything we have is from Target and I've just added things over the last 5 years. I love the look of the chairs on the upper deck and just picked those up this year.