Natural rattan is not garden furniture. We'd rather tell you now.
Search for "rattan garden furniture" and you will find thousands of results. Almost none of them are rattan. They are polyethylene rattan — extruded plastic strand woven over an aluminium frame — and for a patio, that is the correct product. It just isn't this one.
Everything on this site except a handful of outdoor-rated pieces is natural plant fibre. Here is what the British weather does to it.
What actually happens outside
- Weeks: the finish dulls and the colour starts to grey where the sun hits it. Whitewash and black stain go patchy first.
- One wet season: the fibres absorb water and swell, then shrink as they dry. The weave loosens. Joints that were tight start to click.
- One winter: mould appears in the weave, usually on the underside where it stays damp. Cane webbing goes slack and then splits.
- Two winters: structural failure at the bound joints. At that point it isn't repairable in any economic sense.
None of that is a manufacturing fault, so none of it is covered by a guarantee — ours or anyone's. It's simply what happens when a forest palm is left in the rain.
Where rattan is genuinely happy
| Room | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Living room, bedroom, dining room, hallway | Ideal. Keep it out of direct all-day sun and off a radiator |
| Conservatory or garden room | Yes — glazed, roofed and reasonably heated. This is what conservatory sets are for |
| Covered porch or veranda | Careful. Fine in summer; bring it in before autumn |
| Bathroom or wet room | No. Water hyacinth especially will not survive it |
| Unheated garage, shed, outbuilding | No. Condensation does the same damage as rain, just slower |
| Patio, balcony, lawn | No. Buy polyethylene rattan instead — we don't sell it |
A conservatory is not automatically safe
Two things catch people out. Sun: a south-facing conservatory in July can exceed 50°C and will bleach natural rattan unevenly within a season, so use a blind, or accept that it will lighten. Cold: an unheated conservatory in January hits dew point overnight, and condensation runs down the glass onto whatever is beneath it. If your conservatory is genuinely unheated all winter, treat it as outdoors.
Humidity, briefly
Rattan is happiest at ordinary household humidity, roughly 40–60%. Too dry — next to a radiator, under a hot spotlight — and the fibres shrink and split. Too damp and they swell and go soft. If a room is comfortable for you, it's comfortable for the furniture.
If it does get wet
Bring it in, stand it somewhere with moving air but no direct heat, and let it dry slowly over several days. Do not put it in front of a radiator or a fan heater — drying one side fast is what cracks a frame. Once it's fully dry, a coat of clear matt lacquer will help.
Our position
We label 404 of our 414 pieces as indoor only, and we collect them all in one place: Everything Indoor Only. It costs us sales. It also means we don't spend our time arguing with people about a chair that was never going to survive the winter.
If you want woven-look furniture for a patio, buy polyethylene rattan from somebody who sells it properly. If you want the real thing for a room, we can help. support@homartuk.com