Rattan patio chairs

Woven seats along the curb read as a cafe from half a block away. 26 chairs here, all faux rattan except one resin club chair with a fabric seat. Frames run plain aluminum, aluminum with a bamboo or wood look, and painted metal. Start with the weave and its colors. Then sort by arms, and by whether the chairs stack.

The weave from across the street

Black, natural, chocolate, grey and dark brown, plus two-tone pairs like black with cream or brown with white. A passerby sees the weave before anything else, so judge it from the far curb, not from the screen. A black wicker-look armchair on a black metal frame sets a darker, evening tone. A natural weave on silver aluminum reads lighter at noon.

Faux rattan is a synthetic weave over the frame. Brush the dust off, rinse it after a dry, gritty week, and let it dry right through before the chairs stack or go under a cover. A woven seat stacked wet stays wet.

Light frames and the nightly carry

Most chairs here weigh between 5 and 14 pounds. An aluminum armchair with a natural weave weighs 5 pounds and stacks, which turns a forty-chair breakdown into a few quick trips. The aluminum chair with a dark walnut frame weighs 9 pounds and measures 19 inches across. Capacity is listed at 400 or 500 pounds on these chairs where the record gives it.

Four in five of these chairs stack. If the chairs sleep outside under a cover, that matters less. If they come in at midnight, it matters most.

Arms take room. Side chairs run from 16 to 21 3/4 inches wide, armchairs from 21 3/4 to 22 1/2, and the club chair is 33. On a sidewalk with a two-foot strip for each guest, the narrow side chairs leave space for a server to pass.

Shade and the rest of the row

Woven seats look their best when the light turns gold. For the hours before that, set patio umbrellas where the afternoon sun hits the curb. Prices start around $58 and reach $384 for the club chair.

The bamboo-look chairs, the ones with the Paris cafe feel, also have a shelf of their own in French bistro chairs. For tables, step over to patio tables; for every chair material at once, go back to patio chairs.

Plan the row in an outdoor plan and write the weave color on each line. Color lists change over time, and a reorder next spring should match the chairs already on the street.