Conservatory Set Sofa with Two Chairs a Coffee Table and Two Side Tables in Honey Cane and Teak

The full set, for a room that is being furnished in one go rather than added to.

Every piece here is woven by hand, which is not a marketing line but a description of the only way it can be done. Rattan cannot be machine woven around a curve, so a chair back is somebody sitting with a former and a bundle of soaked cane for most of a day. The consequence is that no two pieces are identical, that the binding at the joints varies slightly, and that a weave that is perfectly regular is usually a sign of extruded plastic rather than good workmanship.

Specification

• Dimensions: sofa 1600 by 800mm, armchairs 800 by 800mm, coffee table 1000 by 600mm
• Seat or working height: seat height 420mm with the cushion, which is lower than a dining chair and higher than most sofas
• Frame: steam bent rattan pole over a hardwood core at the load points
• Weave: hand woven, with a close weave on the seat deck and an open weave on the sides
• Finish: a solid teak frame with woven cane panels, which is the combination that lasts because the frame carries the load and the cane only has to look right
• Load rating: each seat tested to 140kg
• Indoor or outdoor: Indoors, or a covered veranda or conservatory that stays dry. Natural rattan is not garden furniture and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a chair that will go grey, swell, split and unravel inside two seasons. If you want rattan outdoors you want woven polyethylene, which is a good product honestly described and something we do not sell.
• Assembly: Arrives with the legs off, which is four bolts and about ten minutes. The spanner is in the box and the bolts are threaded into steel inserts rather than into the timber, so they can come off again for a move.
• Weight: approximately 153.4 kilograms for the set
• Seat cushions: 100mm foam with a feather wrap, on a sprung webbing deck
• Back cushions: feather and fibre mix, plumped rather than zipped tight
• Covers: removable and washable at 30 degrees
• Frame: hardwood core at every load point, not rattan alone
• Delivered in one consignment, two person delivery to the room
• Cushion fabric samples sent free before you order

What you get

• One sofa
• Two armchairs
• One coffee table
• Two side tables
• All seat and back cushions with removable covers
• Felt pads and a spare set
• A spanner and a care card

Care

Covers come off and wash at 30 degrees on a gentle cycle. Do not tumble dry linen, put it back on the pad slightly damp and let it dry into shape, which is the trick that stops linen covers shrinking away from the corners.

Where it works

This is the piece people mean by coastal: pale, woven and light enough to move with one hand. It sits happily against white or off white walls and against the greens and warm neutrals that have replaced grey in most houses. In a room with a lot of hard surfaces it does the job that a rug does, which is to take the edge off the echo.