patio furniture sets
drawn from the floor up

A patio furniture set works once you draw the terrace before you pick the chairs. This guide covers measuring, zoning and filling the plan from one Tribù family.

A terrace set fails on paper long before anyone sits down. You buy the sofa first, and then it sits across the kitchen doorway. A long table blocks the walk to the pool, and a guest who stands up knocks a chair into the olive pot. Tribù, a Belgian family house making outdoor furniture since 1966, groups its pieces into families that share one frame and one weave. That helps you here: draw the terrace, then furnish it from a single family.

Draw the terrace before the chairs

Take a tape and a sheet of graph paper out on a dry evening. Trace the outline, then the doorways, steps, grill and planters. Add the paths your household walks: from the kitchen to the table, from the sliding door down to the pool, from the gate up to the house. Nothing goes on those routes.

Keep two clearances in mind. Leave a yard of floor behind every dining chair, enough room for a guest to slide back and get up. Give each walkway a yard as well, and a little extra where someone will carry a tray of glasses. Rule those strips off and the usable floor often shrinks by about a third.

Give each hour of the evening its corner

You ask a terrace to do three things: dinner, conversation on a sofa, a few hours in the sun. Most terraces fit two of those at full size, so decide which one wins. If your household eats outside most nights, the table comes first. If you spend Sunday on the sofa with a book, the sofa does.

Set the table near the kitchen so plates make a short trip. Turn the sofa group toward the last light of the evening. Then walk the deck at the hour you plan to lie on a lounger, and put the loungers where you find the sun at that hour. Morning sun on a strip of deck tells you little about four in the afternoon.

Fill the plan from one family

Tribù Mood by Studio Segers covers the most ground. It has nine pieces: a lounge bed, a daybed, a sofa, a lounge chair, an armchair, an ottoman, a coffee table, a bar chair and a counter-height chair. The teak frame stays slim, and hand-woven Tricord forms the seat, so rain drains through the weave. Mood suits sheltered terraces and covered outdoor kitchens. See the Mood collection.

Tribù Tosca by Monica Armani runs to ten pieces and suits pool decks. Wide flat braid wraps a rounded shell on tapered, powder-coated legs. The lounger's back adjusts from flat for a nap to upright for reading. For meals you choose a height: a standard dining table, or a low dining table with low chairs that sits nearer to lounge height. A counter-height chair fits a raised bar. See the Tosca collection.

Two families can share one terrace. Mood by the outdoor kitchen and Tosca at the pool look like two rooms of one house, since both stay with muted, natural colors. Stop at two; a third and a fourth turn the terrace into a showroom floor.

Let the seat count set the table

Decide on the chairs, then buy the table to suit them. Four chairs fit a square top; six call for a long one. Allow each guest 24 to 30 inches along the edge. For the sofa, pick a coffee table about two thirds its length and set it 14 to 18 inches away, close enough to put a cup down from where you sit.

Ask where the cushions spend November

Before you order, find the shelf, closet or garage corner where the cushions will wait out the cold months. Teak and Tricord can stay outdoors through a wet season, and the Mood care sheet asks you to bring daybed cushions in for winter. Tosca cushions lift out of the shell in one move. Clean the braid with a soft brush and soapy water. Skip the pressure washer on both weaves, because it forces water into the braid faster than the braid can drain.

Photograph the graph paper sketch and add it to the form below. In reply comes a layout furnished from one Tribù family, with finishes, fabrics and a figure per piece. Tribù makes each order in Belgium, and the quote names the lead time.