A sadness hedgehogs a certain sadness to a patio in a third summer. Chairs that seemed sharp on the first day of opening are now chalky and brittle, the color worn out by an entire 1000 afternoons of sun, the joints and its looseness the result of a winter that no one expected. The owner is not noticed until the guests. An old plastic seat in an exquisite terrace speaks that it no longer cares.

Then there are the other varieties of patios, the one that improves. The wood is now silver and soft as an old fashioned linen jacket; the metal will not give up its line, and the entire terrace does not appear to be old-fashioned, but to have been inhabited. The difference between those two futures is decided on the day the furniture is ordered, which is why choosing outdoor restaurant furniture is less about the first impression than the fifth season.

Two Ways to Grow Old

There are two roads of materials age. Others acquire a patina, a slow transformation which could be interpreted as character: the gray of tumbled wood, the mellowed finish of worn metal. Other just weaken, and deprive themselves, till they weaken. The former one is deliberate. The neglected look is one which is not due though the owner has not done anything wrong.

Dining out it is worth doing right as the terrace seating has been turned into real money as opposed to a seasonal option by most operators. An aged patio continues to pay out 10 years into the future. When a patio it is degraded in one year, it will be on the budget list of the following year as an apology to visitors between.

Teak and the Long Game

If any material was built to age like linen, it is teak. Its natural oils resist moisture from the inside, so it shrugs off rain and humidity that would warp a lesser wood, and left untreated it mellows to a soft gray that designers pay extra to fake on other materials. Properly cared for, teak can serve for decades, outlasting most hardwoods several times over.

That longevity is the whole argument. A teak chair costs more up front and asks for little beyond an occasional cleaning, and in return, it sits on the terrace through ownership changes and menu overhauls, looking more handsome each year rather than less. It is the rare purchase that improves while you ignore it.

Aluminum, the Quiet Workhorse

Where wood patinas, aluminum endures. It does not rust like steel, it bats down the sun like it was nothing but a paintball, and a frame made of aluminum powder-coated can support its coating and structure a decade or so in most climates. To an operator desiring low maintenance and consistency in appearance, it is tough to rival.

The sole warning is the finish and not the metal. The scratched or chipped powder coats will then begin oxidizing the exposed area, and in a coastal area, the salt air accelerates that. The repair involves just simple knowledge: ensure you maintain the finish, patch-up scratches and the frame will last through multiple changes of the plastic chairs it is placed on.

The False Economy of Plastic

Of cheap plastic furniture, resin is self-selling on a low price, and changing the weight to light, but in a season or two they will do the job. The summer is the third summer of trouble. Constant sun fades away the polymers, the colour fades away and the material becomes brittle till a chair breaks on an average visitor on an average night.

Failure is no bad omen. It is the substance that does just what unstabilized plastic does outside of giving in to the ultraviolet light with time. Those savings on the bill of entry are again and again used up, and the teak, or aluminum, purchased once, would remain upon the terrace to look like it had belonged there.

Reading a Patio Piece Before You Buy

A few questions separate furniture that will patina from furniture that will perish:

• Is the wood a naturally oily species like teak, or a softwood that will rot?
• Is the metal aluminum or stainless, rather than plain steel that rusts?
• If it is coated, how thick is the finish, and how durable is it?
• Will this material fade, chalk, or crack under years of direct sun?
• Does it cost more per year of expected life, or less?

Furniture which responds to all five is apt to be the furniture standing that the cheap sets have warped.

The Terrace That Tells the Truth

A patio grows up old in the street. Each visitor who sits at the table interprets the furniture situation as a declaration concerning the kitchen, who owns it, the entire business, consciously or unconsciously. Pieces of furniture, which have aged a good old-fashioned grace, say that this is a place where permanence is sought and/or care provided. Deteriorated furniture says the contrary, in a high-pitched faded plastic, screams.

The decision at order day is (in fact) the decision on which message the terrace will be sending in 5 years time. Select materials that patina, teak that silver, aluminum that retains, and the patio grows will cost, to become an asset to be compounded, and be increasingly like a place to stay with each season. Also opt not to become the first delivery but wait until long before to get what will last longer and the terrace will not wear out like linen but like plastic.