I've tried it all and I leave it all out every year, except for cushions. (Note, make sure cushions are totally dry before storing or they can mildew.) I clean up the furniture in the spring with water and bleach to get off the dirt and green algae. I've tried a winter plastic table cover, but no matter how tightly I tied it, it blew off in strong winds. Plastic chairs. Cheap, comfortable, needs annual cleaning which will dull the glossy surface, but can be repainted with spray paint. Easy to move around and stack for storage, but can blow over in heavy wind. Painted tube aluminum with thick plastic strap seats. These have lasted well for over 25 years. Some of the paint was flaking off (after 20 years), but I touched them up with spray paint and they looks fine. Comfortable with added cushions. Not heavy and stack for storage. Painted wood. The directors chairs aren't very expensive and are comfortable except for large people. The material backs and seats do fade and need to be replaced after several years. They fold and can be stored easily. The paint will flake off eventually. Teak. Usually expensive and very heavy. I have a teak bench (in shade) and a teak coffee table. The bench I bought on sale (end of season) at Costco and the table was a kids' table from Ikea. Both were good prices for teak. The point of teak is that it can't be painted (the natural oil in the wood seeps out) and stands up well to weather. My bench gets speckled with gray moss that is difficult to get off and leaves stains. I'm very disappointed with it in the PNW climate. The table also has a stain from a piece of metal that was left on it and rusted. I tried a light sanding, but that didn't help. 'Wrought iron' (really aluminum) with baked on paint. This is usually the most expensive, but stands up to the weather the best. The chairs are comfortable with or without added cushions. (I really like the chairs that rock.) After 10 years, it still cleans up to look like new. The table developed a few small rust spots, but I touched it up with spray paint and the rust hasn't come back. The chairs are very heavy so hard to move, but they don't blow over in the wind. Note: if you're putting furniture in an unsecured yard, don't buy expensive stuff. I had two brand new, expensive chairs stolen. Daphne in Tacoma

I would love to have vintage black wrought iron, but had looked for a year or so, and never found a single piece. In the meantime, we needed something to sit on! I bought 4 chairs, a bench, and 2 side tables from Lowes for less than $700. We've only had them a few months, but we love the set! They're cast aluminum, very comfortable, and sturdy. My criteria was similar to yours, but since some of the pieces would be totally exposed to the elements, I didn't want any steel construction at all. I also wanted them to comfortable without any cushions, since I knew it would be futile to put them on the pieces that sit in the sun and rain. I'd like to get at least some pillows for the pieces on the covered porch, but it's more for color than comfort.

I still have the aluminum patio furniture that I bought 17 yrs ago and it's held up extremely well. During strong winds the chairs are light enough to blow around the patio but they've never lifted off into orbit! When I know there's going to be a wind storm sometimes I'll push them over into a corner where they will be more protected, just so they don't bang into other things. Usually those types of storms are in the winter so if you are really worried about individual chairs moving just buy a patio cover that is large enough for the table and all the chairs around it. Last year I bought a pair of wrought iron chairs from Smith & Hawkins, they've got a black finish on them to protect the iron. S&H sells a protective cream for this type of furniture, it's expensive but if it keeps the chairs from rusting it will be worth it. As you know we get our rain in the winter and ours is a dry climate so I doubt wrought iron chairs are going to rust like they might in a more humid climate. I use Koveroos covers for all my outdoor furniture and when I know rain is coming I just throw it over them and remove when the sun is shining again. I haven't had these chairs long enough to know if they're going to rust or not but with these precautions I'm taking I'm pretty confident they'll hold up for many years. And if they do rust, well there are products to stop that from spreading. This may sound like a lot of maintenance but they're still a lot easier to keep clean than the white vinyl on my aluminum chairs. My neighbor bought a complete set of patio furniture from OSH a couple years ago, including a gazebo-like tent for overhead. I couldn't believe all that cost her only a couple hundred dollars. The problem with buying patio furniture from discount stores or hardware stores is the cushions. Better to find a set that doesn't require cushions because that's what desintegrates first. The original cushions that came with my set all faded very badly. To replace them would have cost a fortune but I know how to sew so I ordered a bolt of Sunbrella fabric from Calico Corners and made new ones. Unless the fabric says "Sunbrella" you're going to end up with faded fabric. Furniture sold by K-Mart,etc is not going to have Sunbrella fabric on it. In that case, chose a cushion that is light in color and definitely no prints. It's one thing to sew new cushions it's another when you have an unbrella that is also fading. Even though all the red & green color on our expensive Brown&Jordan unbrella had faded to a disgusting yellow I had no idea how to replace it so that one we pitched and I bought a new unbrella, this time in a solid color and using Sunbrella fabric.

I was in the market this spring for two super comfortable chairs and ottoman for my deck. I didn't want to pay a lot of money, of course, but was willing to pay for comfort and I was not going to buy online w/o being able to sit on it! So I checked out BedBathBeyond, HD and Lowes. HD (only) had a set that was terrific. It is part of a Martha Stewart collection called Charlottetown. I bought it online so I could select from a wider selection of available fabrics. If they didn't have that set, I would have ended up at a furniture store paying lots more money for sure. Total was $477 for two chairs and 1 ottoman (no tax/free shipping). I went with a non-Sunbrella fabric choice to save $100 or so plus I liked that color the best of all the fabric choices. The set is faux wicker, which was fine for me. If I was doing much larger areas, that would be add up a lot and a lot of assembly!!! I also don't think you should get eating table & chairs to identically match seating sets. Seems like it might be too matchy-matchy, but it might depend on the particular style and your actual physical layout. I was in HD last week and the outdoor seating department was being taken apart :-( I also purchased 2 awesome cushion covers for rain. I love them. Easy to use and good pvc-lined fabric, really blocks rain and no mildew inside if left on extended periods. special ventilation. http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Veranda-Patio-Lounge-Chair-Cover/8207328/product.html