ALFRESCO

Woodberry, the award-winning experts in commercial outdoor furniture, share their advice to make the most of your outdoor hospitality space.

The key to outdoor furniture for hospitality venues is the longevity of use, materials that are easy to clean and fit in with your venue and brand look. Below are the best materials for outdoor furniture.

HDPE Recycled Plastic

Recycled plastic outdoor furniture is durable, easy to clean, won’t rot, is virtually maintenance-free, doesn’t weather and has good green credentials in line with sustainable initiatives. Picnic tables, dining tables and chairs should last at least ten years of high-frequency hospitality use. Remember to consider whether this will suit your venue. Recycled plastic furniture products are starting to get more refined in design with a wide range of colours.

High-Pressure Laminate

HPL (high-pressure laminate) is used extensively in table tops. It can be printed in a wide variety of finishes, it is scratch resistant, very durable, and shouldn’t weather over time. This material needs an under frame which is usually aluminium.

Hardwood

Teak is a durable hardwood, recognised as one of the best hardwoods for outdoor furniture. It will fade and weather over time to a lovely silver-grey but during this weathering process, good quality teak won’t lose its integral strength. For a smaller budget, Robina wood is a cheaper hardwood option than teak with similar qualities.

Softwood

Pine is most commonly used in picnic table manufacture; this is a lot cheaper than hardwood and can be treated to help it to last as long as possible. To best preserve softwood furniture, you would need to re-treat it annually and with the appropriate care it can last up to ten years of commercial use.

Aluminium

This lightweight, weatherproof metal is good for tables and chairs; generally the material will be powder coated, its important to bare in mind that it can scratch quite easily when it’s coated on tables and chair legs.

Polypropylene

Polypropylene plastic is one of the cheapest options available for tables and chairs. It is durable depending on the thickness and quality you choose but over time it can become brittle and break. It is fairly maintenance-free but lacks the classy look that more premium chairs display.

Woodberry has been supplying hotels with quality outdoor furniture for over 15 years. Your outdoor furniture needs to contribute towards a great customer experience, for any advice please call Woodberry on 01926 889922 or visit our website at www.woodberry.co.uk