An elegant teak outdoor dining furniture set is the best thing we bought this summer. We hardly ever used to have friends round for dinner, simply because we didn’t really have room for them in the dining room, but we do have quite a large back garden. So when a neighbor suggested we start eating outside, especially as the weather was improving coming into summer, we decided to take the plunge.

The initial problem we had was that there’s such a huge range of outdoor dining furniture sets, in virtually every material imaginable. So to make life easier we narrowed our choices down to either a hardwood set like teak, or something in metal like wrought iron.. The main reason for this was that we didn’t want something that was only going to last for a year or so, and we didn’t want to be continually cleaning and maintaining it.

Having got that far, we started looking on the internet for outdoor dining furniture suppliers, just to get an idea of what was available, and see if any style in particular took our fancy.  We wanted something elegant and stylish, and most definitely very comfortable – so coverings and cushions would be important. After all, we were going to be spending several hours sat on these chairs talking over diner, so being at ease and comfortable was high on our priority list.

The beauty of wooden outdoor dining furniture is that nothing really compares to something like teak for its natural beauty and warmth. It’s also a very durable and versatile material (in the right hands) and can actually add to the elegance and look of the garden as well. As teak is a very hardwood, and has been used in the marine industry for centuries, it’s the natural choice for outdoor furniture. It needs very little maintenance, and will certainly last as long as we will (probably longer).

We did look at several very nice wrought iron outdoor dining furniture sets too – and even though they looked just as elegant as teak (although in a different way) we couldn’t really convince ourselves that wrought iron would be as durable and long lasting as teak. Some of our friends had a good quality metal dining set, but after just 2 years of use, it was already showing signs of rust on some of the joints.

So having decided on teak outdoor dining furniture, all we had to do know was find a style and design that we liked, and that had cushions of some form to increase the comfort levels. Well, we plumbed for an 8 seater oval table that came complete with a large 3m parasol and substantial cushions for each chair. It wasn’t the cheapest available, but it was certainly worth the money. We had a few friends over recently who immediately fell in love with it, which of course made us feel even better about having paid out the extra money for it. Money well spent in my book – and being teak it will see us through many more summers to come.