This guide has been set up as a result of my own experiences buying garden furniture. My wife and I decided that getting some garden furniture to enjoy the summer would be a good idea. We didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for.

When you go to look at outdoor furniture at your local garden centre it quickly becomes clear that most outlets use lots of different terms to describe essentially the same thing, this can be confusing. The sets on offer seem to vary hugely in price despite looking similar, there is no clear reputable brand you can rely on – every outlet has a different version of the same thing, and few people can offer advice on which set will be the most hard wearing or last the longest. Of course you won’t be told the drawbacks as these guys are looking to sell their stuff, not put you off.

Because this gear is generally expensive and I am not particularly wealthy, I decided that rather than just buy something pretty I should do a bit of research and walk into a purchase with my eyes open. I decided to check up on the net. What I found was a lot of store fronts with no more information or expertise than I could get at the local garden centre. I had to trawl deep for the relevant unbiased info and use my own experiences garnered from trekking around inspecting and comparing these items.

So here it is. We hope to provide you with an unbiased, no nonsense guide to getting a good buy that matches your requirements. In our ‘Advice’ category we will give you the info you need to understand what is what before you spend big, what maintenance the furniture you choose might need and what other factors you might need to consider before buying. Hopefully, we will save you the time and confusion of trying to identify value from tat with handy pointers on what to look out for and what to avoid.

In our ‘Rattan Furniture’ category we will identify a few examples of sets available on the market so you know just what styles and items are out there, how they are made and how they might perform over the long term.

Oh, and in the end my wife and I opted for an all weather four seater cube set with matching footstools and standalone parasol…..which we are very happy with.