Outdoor dining with Wayfair - What Hannah Did Next

The warm weather seemed to abruptly end at the end of August, so it’s been rather nice to experience an ‘Indian summer’ at the weekend. After thinking that our days outside were numbered, it was nice to enjoy some al fresco dining and a barbecue. I’m pretty sure that was out last barbecue of the year though…

Our garden area has very much been a work in progress over the last few years and a proper place to dine, has always been on the back burner. We’ve always prioritised getting other garden equipment and put up with an old rickety table that was far too small for five of us. So after much deliberation on what kind of seating we needed, I decided on a nice 6 seater dining set from Wayfair.

This one particularly caught my eye because of of the solid pine and the fact that it posed as a blank canvas. Knowing that I would need to treat it to make it weatherproof, I then decided to choose some paint to compliment our other furniture in the garden.

I decided on charcoal grey for the benches and a mint green for the table, to provide an interesting contrast. I love the colour but it was definitely a fly magnet during the painting process, which made it a little more tricky to finish.

Painting the set was a real labour of love but I’m so glad that I made the effort to coat the wood. They needed several coats and this took me a fair fews days to complete (and find the time). I also decided it would be easier to paint the table before it was assembled, because it was quite tricky to paint between the slats from underneath. The benches were painted once built, as they were more straight forward to upend.

The size is perfect for our needs and each bench has more than enough room for three adults on each side and what I love is the fact that because it’s a bench, you’re not limited with how many can fit around the table. It’s very handy for seating kids, who can budge up to make room!

I spent so long working out whether we needed a table that could be incorporated into our lounging area, that in the end I decided that it would be best to keep the areas separate. I knew that the children would be too tempted to rub their hands over the cushions of the sofa and the worry of that pretty much made my mind up.

It’s also a bonus to have some extra seating for when we might need it and that we have the option of moving them around to be used separately from the table. I always find that a bench is more useful than stand alone chairs and I’d love a bench or two for the kitchen table.

The set is so versatile and one that I know will last us many years. Although it’s now been weatherproofed, I will still keep the set in the garage during the winter months, but if we didn’t have a garage, I’d simply place a cover over to protect the wood from the elements.

I looked at so many expensive dining sets and yet this one is ideal for what we needed and is so affordable. I’m so pleased with the outcome, what do you think?