Enough about our colorful stools…
…and on to our newest set of colorful chairs. We’re officially hooked on bold seating. Remember the $35 thrift-store chairs we refreshed with green paint and new upholstery for the office? Or the free hand-me-down highchair for Clara that we brightened up with sunny yellow paint?
Apparently vibrant seating is the theme for our buns. This time we went red—a vivid tomato red that looks fantastic against the blue hydrangeas surrounding the paver patio we built last May.
When we revealed the patio last spring, we talked about needing durable outdoor furniture but planned to save up for it. After putting away $20 a month into a small patio-furniture jar for 13 months, we finally had enough to buy two solid wooden Adirondack chairs.
Previously we had two wooden folding chairs from Ikea. They weren’t terrible from a distance, but up close they were peeling, cracked, creaky, and generally worn. We’d bought them over five years ago and they served us well indoors, but after the move and exposure to the elements they started to look sad. They weren’t covered with any protective finish, which didn’t help. They also weren’t all that comfortable—so we’d long had our eye on the classic wooden Adirondack shape: the sloped seat, the wide arms, the relaxed silhouette. If there were an Adirondack Chair Fan Club, we’d happily sign up.
Good, well-made wooden Adirondack chairs are pricey, and our secondhand searches turned up nothing. That’s why we committed to a steady savings habit: $20 a month into the jar while keeping our other savings for the usual priorities. We aren’t extreme savers, but we do small practical things—owning one car, doing haircuts at home, cooking more than eating out, buying a fixer-upper in an affordable city, paying off credit cards, couponing at the grocery store—to free up cash for projects. We typically save in one general account and allocate funds as priorities shift, which worked well for bigger projects like our kitchen reno and patio improvements.
We avoided cheap plastic chairs on purpose. They would have felt like an “interim” purchase we’d later regret instead of saving for a higher-quality option. After weighing a few choices, we chose chairs that balanced cost, durability, and the look we wanted.
Options we considered:
Contender 1: Solid premium cedar Adirondack chairs in a cherry tomato red, prepainted with a polyurethane finish to protect against weather, heat, and sunlight. They were on sale and included free shipping, which made them the most appealing option.
Contender 2: A more expensive wooden model at a much higher price, which pushed it out of contention.
Contender 3: A Target option on sale that was affordable but felt less classic and a bit squat compared with the cedar design.
Contender 4: A well-built model available from a traditional retailer, but its price was higher than we wanted.
Contender 5: Another sale option we liked, but the color and price didn’t beat the cherry tomato cedar chairs.
Contender 6: A simpler white or natural wood chair at a premium price from a different retailer.
In the end we returned to Contender 1. About two weeks after ordering, our new chairs arrived. After a little assembly we had two sloped-back, wide-armed Adirondack chairs ready for use. It may sound silly, but we were thrilled—so thrilled that we invited John’s parents over to see them. There was genuine oohing and ahhing: sitting, patting, and admiring.
The tomato-red finish paired nicely with the blue hydrangeas and the warm wood tones of the fence and Clara’s rock box. The contrast turned out to be an accidental but welcome design moment, bringing more cohesion to the backyard than we expected.
We’re still a long way from a fully furnished patio, but this is progress. We’ve restarted the patio-furniture jar and will keep adding $20 a month until we save for the next item—possibly a woven square outdoor storage ottoman. In the meantime, I found a couple of blue garden stools at HomeGoods for $39 each; they tie in beautifully with the hydrangeas and even echo the blue birdhouse we added last year. Random elements like a blue rain barrel now feel like they belong.
We’re excited to see the recently planted hydrangeas fill in on the right side of the yard and match the older plants on the left. Once everything grows in, the whole space will feel more complete and lush.
So that’s the latest on our patio: two new tomato-red Adirondack chairs, a restarted savings plan, and plenty of small improvements ahead. Have you been saving for outdoor furniture or buying pieces lately? Picking chair colors to match flowers may sound quirky, but it’s made our little corner of the yard feel more intentional—and we’ll gladly invite people over to admire a good chair.