Resin chairs for the sidewalk: weights, colors and the stacking line

Hose them down, tip them to drain, stack them by the door. On a sidewalk that sets up every morning, that is most of what you want from a chair.

Resin chairs do that job with very little fuss. Frame and seat are one material, there is no upholstery to soak and no wood to oil, and most of ours weigh 7 to 8 pounds. What changes from chair to chair is the back, the color list and, the line most buyers skip, whether that exact piece stacks. This guide sticks to what the records say.

One material, top to bottom

On most of our resin patio chairs, the frame material and the seat material both read resin. That is the appeal for a daily setup. Nothing to separate, nothing to tighten between slats and frame, and the whole chair takes water from a hose the same way.

A few pieces mix materials. One resin armchair sits on a metal frame and weighs 15 pounds, about twice the rest. The wider resin patio furniture range also holds tables and bar stools in the same material, so a full sidewalk can be resin from curb to wall.

What they weigh and hold

Light, and closely matched.

A resin side chair in our range weighs 7 pounds, holds 400, and comes in eight colors from black and white to light blue and tropical green. A slat-back resin chair weighs 8 pounds and is listed for 500, in black or sand. The mesh-back resin chair comes in at 7 pounds, rated for 400.

Twenty chairs at 7 to 8 pounds each is 140 to 160 pounds in all. Split between two staff at close, each moves 70 to 80 pounds of chair, in stacks. Compare that with 20 steel outdoor chairs at 18 pounds: 360 pounds for the same crew.

That difference is the reason resin suits a frontage that has to clear every night. It is also the reason the stacks need to come in, or be chained, on a windy corner. Eight pounds does not hold its ground in a gust.

Read the stacking line on each piece

Here is the mistake, and it is easy to make. A buyer finds a look they like, sees that one chair in it stacks, and orders the rest on the same assumption.

Both resin families stack all the way through: the solid-back side chair and its solid-back resin armchair stack up to 10 high, and so do the perforated side chair and the perforated resin armchair. Among the wicker-look resin chairs, the Terrace chair stacks; the Beverly and Selina chairs do not state it, so plan those two as single carries.

Rule of thumb: check stackable on every product line, not every family. If the breakdown plan depends on stacks, a chair that does not stack is a chair carried one at a time, every night, all season.

Color across a frontage

Every resin record lists its color choices. One side chair offers eight. The slat-back, solid-back and perforated families each offer two, black or sand.

Every color is its own line on the order. Twenty chairs in two colors is two lines. Twenty in four colors is four lines, and a reorder a year later should start with a fresh swatch request, since color lists change over time.

Pick color the way the street sees it. A long run of black reads clean against glass. Sand sits easy against stone. A bright orange or green turns a plain curb into a sign that you are open, which is the job a sidewalk does at its best.

Rinsing, drying and storing

Resin keeps the routine short. It still is a routine.

• After service, wipe tables and chair seats where food and drink landed.
• After rain or a dusty week, hose chairs front and back, then tip them so water runs off the seat before stacking.
• At season end, wash each chair, let it dry fully, and store the stacks inside or under cover.

Stack only dry chairs, so no water sits trapped between seats overnight. Patio chairs carry a six month warranty for defects, and outdoor furniture left without care is excluded, so the routine above is also the chair's paperwork.

Arms take width

An armchair costs inches on a tight curb. The solid-back resin side chair is 18 inches wide; its armchair is 22. The perforated armchair is 22 as well.

Four inches looks small until you multiply. A row of ten two-tops with an armchair on each side puts 40 more inches of chair along the frontage than side chairs would. On a sidewalk where every foot along the curb is spoken for, that can be the last table.

Use arms where guests stay longest, the corner by the rail or the table with the view, and side chairs along the run. Our poly outdoor furniture group shows both side by side, along with resin bar stools: the slat-back resin stool stands 45 3/4 inches tall, weighs 12 pounds, holds 500 and stacks, so a high-top rail can follow the same breakdown as the chairs.

Matching resin chairs to the table

Resin side chairs sit at dining height, beside 29 to 30-inch tables. A slat-back resin chair is 18 inches wide, well within the 24 inches of table edge a guest asks for, so a 36-inch square table takes four.

Say the sidewalk takes ten two-tops in a single row along the curb. That is twenty chairs and ten tables, thirty pieces, well past our eight-piece minimum. In one color it is one chair line and one table line. Our guide to the folding patio table covers a resin table that folds for the same nightly carry.

Count the stacks before you order

Walk the storeroom with a tape and mark where the stacks will stand at night. Then count: twenty chairs, how many stacks, how many trips from curb to door. If that count looks long, change the chair before you change the crew.

Build the frontage in an outdoor plan with each color on its own line and the word stackable checked against every record. To weigh resin against other outdoor seats, the guide to teak outdoor dining chairs covers faux teak on aluminum, and the guide to mesh outdoor dining chairs covers open metal backs.