I got 3 today as a gift.I already had 3.I am going to get a total of 10 for my sitting areas (rooms) I am creating through out my garden.I am painting 2 each of the following colors.purple,yellow.pink,green and blue.I will then coordinate the same color flowers in the beds to match the chairs.Going to ace tomorrow to buy 4 more.I already have my paint.. moonphase

I love arts & crafts and mission styles too so I was drawn right into this post. Since you have a budget and say you won't (ever?) have more money to put into the decor I think you need to sit down and think about how to spend the money. Which things do you expect to last "forever" and which can you see replacing down the road? Put the bulk of your money into the forever stuff. I think as long as you keep things simple you can mix art & crafts/mission with other styles with great success. Puffy recliners are no good though so get rid of that thing! Just kidding. Sort of ;-) We'd all like to a houseful of Stickley and Van Erp but most of us can't afford that. There are "no name" antique mission furnishings out there at reasonable prices (because they are no name) that are solidly built. Someone like my father, who hated mission furniture, would use them as work benches or whatever. Now they need refinishing but they're still good pieces. Keep your eyes open for those diamonds in the rough.

Ours are cedar - my DH built them. They too are exposed full-time to the sun all season. He left them natural but painted them with a preservative. Each spring he washes them thoroughly to remove accumulated dirt using a bristle brush and water with TSP. After allowing them to dry several days he applies a couple coats of wood oil. They look new when refurbished. I know he will welcome any tips others offer.

Snookups, we got them all off of eBay from the same seller, a link to her eBay store is below. They are drop-shipped from the factory. The first order we placed during the winter got here in a week. The two we placed in spring took about 2 weeks (she said the factory gets pretty busy with orders in the spring). The material for the chairs is made of recycled soda bottles and milk jugs, so it's a nice green alternative :-) The hardware is all stainless steel too. Gorilla X, I can certainly understand the price issue. One of the problems we have here are extreme wind conditions with some regularity, even our wrought iron patio set gets displaced sometimes! We had to rule out lighter stuff because of that. Here is a link that might be useful: eBay polywood