Autumn is upon us, with winter looming large in the distance - so choosing the right outdoor furniture for autumn is a must if you are to make the most of your beer garden, terrace, or other open-air area.
These days of course, customers must go outside to smoke, and that means many spaces that could have been left empty during the colder months can now be used all year round.
No longer will the front of your premises appear deserted; even just a few people sat outside, whether they are smoking or you use patio heaters to make your outdoor area more hospitable, can all help to create a livelier appearance to passers-by.
So how do you go about choosing the right outdoor furniture for autumn? Well, it's all about the conditions your furniture will face, and if you have no enclosure or roof over your beer garden or patio, there will inevitably be times when wind and rain close in.
First of all, check that your outdoor tables have adequate weight in their base; it is not enough simply to be made of a heavy material, as a heavy tabletop will raise their centre of gravity, making it easier for them to blow over.
In fact, tables made of lightweight materials like aluminium and even wicker can be more stable, if they have iron weights bolted into the base out of sight, which many outdoor tables do have as standard.
Outdoor chairs are more likely to need to be moved around by customers in different sized groups, so a heavy base to weigh them down is less suitable as a solution here.
However, thanks to their natural shape, the four legs of the chair help to create a wider base overall, making it much more difficult for a strong gust of wind to blow them over; you are more likely to see a chair slide slightly in a strong gust, while still remaining upright, but on soft ground or uneven hard surfaces this is less likely too.
In either case, outdoor chairs and tables are often designed to be taken indoors during the very worst spells of weather, and stackable furniture is one common way to allow this without taking up too much interior space.