Patio furniture, planned from the floor up

Most patio furniture goes wrong on the floor plan. A sofa blocks the kitchen door, a dining table cuts the path to the lawn, and chairs knock a planter each time someone stands. Dedon, the German maker that weaves its furniture by hand on Cebu Island in the Philippines, sells its patio furniture in families that share a weave and a frame. That suits a planner: you draw the terrace first, then fill it from one family.

Start with the floor

Measure the terrace and draw it on paper. Mark the doors, the steps, the grill and the planters. Then draw the routes people take: kitchen to table, living room to pool, gate to house. Those lines stay clear.

Two numbers help. A dining chair needs about three feet behind it so a guest can push back and stand. A walking path needs about three feet as well, a bit more if people carry trays along it. Take out the paths and you may lose a third of the floor.

Split the terrace into zones

Most terraces hold two jobs, eating and lounging. Few fit both at full size, so rank them. A family that eats outside five nights a week needs the table first. A couple who read on Sunday afternoons need two good chairs and a footstool.

Put dining close to the kitchen door, since plates travel that route. Put the lounge group where the evening light lands and where you can see the garden. Check the light at the hour you plan to sit there. A corner that bakes at noon can sit in shade by four.

Pick one family for the whole set

A Dedon collection repeats one weave and one frame across chairs, tables and loungers. Buying from one family keeps a terrace calm, because the fiber color and the legs match from the table to the lounge corner.

Dedon Mbrace by Sebastian Herkner covers the most ground. It has a club chair, a wing chair, a lounge chair, an armchair and a rocking chair, plus a footstool, a daybed, side and coffee tables, and teak dining tables 200 and 270 cm long, both 90 cm wide. The weave is a mesh-like triaxial pattern in colors from pale Sea Salt to dark Pepper and warm Chestnut. Dedon counts more than 70 combinations of piece, fiber color and base. See the Mbrace collection.

Dedon Tibbo by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby suits a house where the living room opens onto the terrace. The frames are solid teak with a woven fiber in Vulcano matte. Tibbo dining tables come in 199x103, 278x103 and 338x103 cm, and one version has a hole for a parasol. For lounging there are a 2-seater, a 3-seater, lounge chairs and coffee tables in three sizes. See the Tibbo collection.

You can mix the two on purpose. Mbrace armchairs around a Tibbo teak table read as a plan: the teak legs of the chairs pick up the wood of the table.

Size the tables to the seats

Pick the seats first and let them set the table. Four chairs sit well at a square table. Six need a long rectangle, and a Tibbo bench along one side saves room against a wall. A coffee table works best at about two thirds of the sofa length, placed 14 to 18 inches from the seat edge so you can reach a glass without standing.

Plan for winter before you order

Ask where the cushions go when the weather turns. Dedon Fiber resists chlorine, salt water and sun, so the woven frames can stay out through the year. Teak turns silver-gray in the weather unless you clean it and treat it with Dedon Teak Color Protector. Cushions need a dry shelf or a storage box for the wet months.

Send us a drawing of your terrace with the form below. We reply within one business day with a set drawn from one Dedon family, the fiber and fabric options, and a price for each piece.