Looking to invest in some new outdoor furniture? Many parts of Australia offer almost year-round sunshine, allowing Aussies to really make the most of the great outdoors. Whether it’s a weekend camping trip, a day at the beach, or an afternoon in the backyard, spending time outdoors can be awesome, no matter what the season. Want to get more out of the outdoors? Outdoor furniture can make spending time outdoors that much more comfortable, whether at home or out and about. Setting up the backyard as a second living room or dining room is easy with the right outdoor furniture. Available in a huge range of styles and materials, outdoor furniture can include outdoor furniture sets, outdoor benches, outdoor tables and outdoor chairs. Choosing the right outdoor furniture means thinking about similar factors that would be important when choosing indoor furniture. Fortunately, eBay makes the whole process super easy. Buyers can compare brands, with options that include Allibert, Hampton and IKEA.
They can also compare materials, such as aluminium, metal, rattan, wicker and wood. As for the style, for dining these range from the classic bistro set to the dining set, the table and chair set to the table and bench set, while for lounging, there is the sofa set. Next, simply choose the colour and the condition, whether that’s brand new or used. While Australia may have its fair share of sunshine, it also has plenty of rain and storms as well. Both sun and rain can play havoc on outdoor furniture, making it peel, fade or perish. However, there are certain ways to protect outdoor furniture to keep it looking new for longer. First off, it can be a good idea to buy quality furniture to start with. Higher quality outdoor furniture can be made of more durable materials, helping to withstand fading and weathering. Secondly, it’s important to take care of that furniture. Cushions can be packed away to avoid mould, fading and bird dropping stains, while larger items of furniture can be placed undercover.
Another option is to buy a protective cover – or to use protective sealants on materials such as wood.Treat yourself to a time-out in a hanging chair. Here’s a roundup of our rattan-inspired favorites. Take note that natural rattan is best when it’s kept in a dry location—perfect for hanging on a covered porch or indoors from a ceiling beam (bring that summer swing feeling inside). Want to hang a chair from a branch in the garden? Synthetic rattan to the rescue. Several of our selections are made with weather-resistant synthetic fibers. Above: From Sika Design, a Holly Swing is 3,845 SEK (about $455 US) from Artilleriet. Above: A Cuzco Hanging Chair made of woven cotton on an iron frame will hole up to 200 pounds and is on sale for $149 (marked down from $198) at Urban Outfitters. Above: Made in Indonesia of hand-bent rattan, Serena and Lily’s Hanging Rattan Chair is suspended by a heavy-duty loop and rope (included); Above: A Pod Hanging Chair available for pre-order (delivery estimated in September) has a powder coated aluminum frame with a woven recycled resin shell;
Above: A Scandinavian classic designed by Nanna Ditzel in 1959, the handmade rattan Egg Chair is designed for indoor use; $2,238 from Danish Design Store. Above: From Spanish design team MUT, the Nautica Swing Chair looks like bentwood and comes with a fabric seat. The indoor version is crafted of peeled and tinted rattan, while the outdoor version is made of high-resistance aluminum tubing. Contact Expormim for pricing and availability. Above: A natural Hanging Rattan Bowl Chair is £555 from Out There Interiors. Above: From Seattle-based Ladies & Gentleman Studio, the Ovis Hanging Chair pairs a felted Navajo wool sling (also available in leather) with a wood and metal frame of either brass or copper; Above: A midcentury design, the Eureka Hanging Chair by Giovanni Travasa is still being handmade in Italy, with a leather hanging strap. Prices start at $5,600, depending on the finish, at Property Furniture. Above: The Layla Grace Rattan Hanging Chair will hold up to 180 pounds in weight.
It measures 40 inches high by 24 inches deep by 40 inches wide and costs $552. Need something that will hold more people? Check out the Lollygagger Sofa in our recent post, Outdoor Furniture Spotlight: Colorful, Recycled Designs from Loll. N.B.: This is an update of a post originally published August 13, 2013. Everyone longs for the day when they can finally quit making those masochistic trips to IKEA and afford something a little, well, less in-everyone-else's-apartment. Until then, though, you might as well make the most of your unpronounceable Scandinavian particle board furniture. To help make it look like you paid a lot more for some of those mundane pieces, we've rounded up 17 budget-friendly and downright genius IKEA hacks to transform your place. Materials needed: VITTSJÖ laptop table, 4 caster wheels, 1/4-inch 3x4-foot acrylic plastic sheet, paint How it's done: Assemble the laptop table as normal (sans glass top) and paint the frame and particle board shelf in colors of your choice.
Flip upside down once dry, place acrylic sheet atop leg posts and screw wheels into them such that the sheet creates a shelf. Materials needed: IKEA FRÄCK wall mirror, RANARP clamp light, piece of wood, 2 screws, paint How it's done: Remove the mirror from its base (they're usually packaged separately), clamp the light where the mirror would be, then affix the other end to the piece of wood and mount. Materials needed: 8 APPLÅD doors, 4 SEKTION cabinets, 8 INTEGRAL hinges, 2 SEKTION suspension rails, stained wood planks How it's done: To accomplish this designer-caliber built-in you'll need to remove the cabinet's built-in doors and replace them with the white APPLÅDs. Once the whole thing's mounted you'll need to attach the stained wood planks to the top and sides to pull off that expensive-looking, mid-century modern vibe. Materials needed: 1 BESTÅ shelf unit, 4 sheets fiberboard, 4 SULTAN metal legs, faux wood grain contact paper, 2 BESTÅ sliding rails
How it's done: Assemble the shelf units, but rather than place middle shelves, install the aluminum rails along the top and bottom of that space. Neatly stick contact paper onto the fiberboard sheets and slide them in to serve as doors, then add two legs to the bottom of each set and you're in business. Materials needed: 10 EKBY TÖRE brackets, 6 EKBY TRYGGVE boards, paint (optional) How it's done: Clamp each board with two painted or non-painted brackets, positioning them such that each level is secure and the whole rig is balanced even when not supported by a wall. Materials needed: 60 BILLY bookcases How it's done: This particular hack transformed the entire hallway of a French country home, but you can obviously adjust the number of BILLYs needed to suit your available wall space. Once they're all assembled, it's as simple as securing them each to the back wall and one another with screws. Step two: amass enormous book collection. Materials needed: ORE shower curtain rod, 4 FINTORP flatware caddies, 5-pack of GRUNDTAL S-hooks
How it's done: Find a window with good sunlight, plant some herbs in each caddy, and thread the caddies onto the shower curtain rod and mount into the window sill. Materials needed: 1 LACK shelf, 1 EKBY ALEX/VALTER combo, stool (optional) How it's done: Unfortunately, the IKEA gods decided to discontinue the exact pieces featured in the photo above, but you can recreate this smart setup using the two wall-mounting shelf units listed above. Attach the sliding drawers below and the static shelf above to create the ultimate tiny-apartment workstation (complete with cable slide-out cable stashes) without compromising any precious floor space. Materials needed: 2 LACK side tables, 1 2x2-foot butcher block, adhesive foam squares How it's done: Attach foam squares to the bottom of one LACK table and stack it atop the other so it sticks double decker-style. Then, stick the butcher block to the top using the same adhesive squares. The pressure from the block and the table will eventually cement the whole thing together, and voila!
Materials needed: 1 KALLAX shelving unit, sheet of plywood, dark wood stain, 4 small short wooden table legs How it's done: Cut the plywood to fit along the edges of the KALLAX and inside three of its shelves, stain them and the table legs, and let dry. Once dry, glue them to the places you measured to fit, and secure the legs to the bottom. Materials needed: 1 GRUNDTAL laundry hamper, 1 1x1.5-foot scrap of stained wood, wood glue How it's done: Assemble the metal frame of the laundry bin, douse the edges in wood glue, and secure the wood on top. Place a stack of heavy books or a dumbbell on top and let dry. Materials needed: 8 KNUFF magazine files, 1 FROSTA stool (or a rotating artist's stool) How it's done: Glue the backs of 4 of the magazine racks to one another as shown above, then mount it to the stool as if it were the seat. From there, you can arrange the remaining 4 files inside the ones glued together on-demand depending how you're using it. Materials needed: 1 BESTÅ shelf unit, long slab of dark scrap hardwood, 4 hairpin legs, wood glue
How it's done: Assemble the shelf as you would normally, leaving the right side's middle shelf out. From there, mount it horizontally on the set of hairpin legs, and glue the slab of scrap wood to the top. You'd easily pay $2,000 for something just like this from Herman Miller. Materials needed: 1 LACK TV unit, 1 GALANT A-frame desk, washers and bolts How it's done: This potentially life-saving setup combines the legs from the GALANT desk with the huge surface and storage capacity of the LACK. If you feel like going full-dork you could even slip a treadmill underneath. Materials needed: 1 KARLSTAD corner sofa, 84 fabric-covered buttons, tufting needle, twine How it's done: You'll want to watch this video to really understand how it works, but we promise it's not that hard and can be finished in about an hour. Good luck finding a $300 tufted sofa (that isn't soaked in bodily fluids) for sale anywhere. Materials needed: 2 FORSÅ lamps, 1 LACK wall shelf How it's done: Once you've removed the metal weights from the base of the lamps, attach them to the underside of the LACK, then install the LACK as normal to the wall and boom, you're in business.