A sofa wins if you want to lie down or seat three close together. We have no answer to that, and the nearest thing we make is a sun lounger: see how to choose a sun lounger. The same choice indoors is in two armchairs or a sofa.
Garden sofa or two lounge chairs?
Two chairs, if the corner has to live outside. A garden sofa is one large piece: heavy to move, slow to dry, with deep cushions to store every winter. Two lounge chairs seat the same two people, each one turns towards the sun or the conversation, and you carry them one at a time.
What is a patio conversation set?
The American name for a lounge corner: low chairs, sometimes a small sofa, around a low table, set out for talking rather than eating. A 3-piece set is two chairs and a table.
Ours has no sofa in it: two lounge chairs and a nesting pair of tables. The smaller table slides under the larger, so four pieces stand as three, and on a busy evening you pull them apart for two surfaces.
Which chairs and which table?
Set the table about level with the seat, so a glass is at hand without leaning forward. Kenny or Arvid is covered in the garden lounge chair guide, the tables in the outdoor coffee table guide.
| Piece | What it is | Key figures |
|---|---|---|
| Kenny | Lounge chair, outdoor mesh, Oat olefin cushion included, stainless frame | 26.2 in wide, seat 15 to 19 in high, 20.9 in deep |
| Arvid | Lounge chair, teak slats, cushion sold separately | Seat and back cushion 4 in thick, Oat or Dusk |
| Algot | Teak nesting pair | 16.3 and 17.7 in high |
| Anton outdoor | Dekton nesting set, rectangular | 16.3 to 18.7 in high |
| Leo outdoor | Dekton nesting set, round | 16.7 to 20.7 in high |
How much space does a lounge corner need?
Measure the width first. Kenny is 26.2 in wide, so two chairs side by side with the small Algot (25.6 in on its long side) between them take about 6.5 ft of wall. Facing each other across the table, they take less width and more depth.
Then leave about 24 in to walk past. On a narrow balcony, one chair and one small table is often the whole lounge: see balcony furniture.
Where do guests sit?
On a bench. A Hedvig in teak or a Wilma garden in stone, 39.4 or 51.2 in long with an 18 in seat, stands along a wall or across the table from the chairs and seats two or three. Both are backless, so they read as extra seats, not a second sofa. No cushions are made for them.
The bench sits higher than the lounge chairs. Put it where people perch for an hour, not where they settle in.
Can a lounge corner stay outside?
The frames, the teak and the stone, yes. Kenny's mesh drains the moment rain lands, and Arvid's teak dries on its own. Bring the cushions in for long rain and winter; a sofa has far more cushion to store.
Wipe the frames with a damp cloth in spring. More in garden furniture in winter.
Two chairs, one low table, a bench for guests
- Kenny width
- 26.2 in
- Tables
- nesting pairs
- Guests
- a backless bench
