Usually not! Why? Because underneath most painted outdoor furniture is low quality – non-weatherproof – wood. Manufacturers and big box retailers pretend that the paint makes the furniture weatherproof, but it does not. Paint will peel, flake, and wear off, ultimately exposing the wood underneath to the elements. And in any case, water always penetrates the joints of furniture, where it will rot the wood exactly where the weight stresses are strongest. One day, when you least expect it, your rocking chair runner will snap off as you lean back in the chair – your bench slat will break as you let yourself down heavily – or your porch swing will break off at the arm joint just as your significant other takes a seat next to you.
Because the wood is covered with a coat of paint, its impossible for a consumer to know what kind of wood lies under the paint – and by the time the furniture rots, a few months or a year later, most consumers don’t have their receipt, or find the warranty has expired (and the painted finish is often not covered by the warranty!). Not surprisingly, this problem most commonly occurs with inexpensive furniture – if they were using high quality weather resistant or weatherproof wood, it wouldn’t be cheap. When you see rocking chairs and benches selling for $99-198, they are usually non-weatherproof woods and will not last.
However, truly high quality outdoor furniture makers do use weatherproof woods, both for their painted and unpainted furniture. Examples of weather resistant and weatherproof woods are Brazilian cherry, robinia, acacia, and cypress. True teak is weatherproof, but has a high oil content and cannot be painted, so stay away from any painted teak furniture, because the paint is likely to peel or flake over time. Most woods used for furniture are not weatherproof – ie oak, beech, birch, hickory, maple, rubberwood, Those woods are fine if you will be keeping the furniture indoors or on a screened porch. But keep in mind that even a covered porch will expose furniture to humidity, rain, and sunlight- which together will, over time, wear down a painted finish, cause wood rot, joint loosening, and breakage.
Many luxury items cost more because of status appeal or high advertising costs. Outdoor furniture, however, is an excellent example of a product where higher cost is often associated with higher quality and significantly longer lifespan. In the long run, premium outdoor furniture is less expensive than the bargain products found so easily in big box retailers and volume-oriented websites.
World’s Finest Rockers
Our World’s Finest Rocking Chairs are made with solid, premium robinia wood available in natural oil or painted black or white
