The Complete Handbook of Outdoor Furniture Covers

Chapter 1: Understanding Outdoor Furniture Covers

The Purpose of a Cover Is Not What You Think

Most people assume that an outdoor furniture cover exists to keep rain and snow off a table or a chair. That is true, but only as a secondary function. The primary job of a cover is to control the environment immediately surrounding the furniture. If the primary hazard were water, the solution would be simple: wrap the furniture in plastic and seal it. But a sealed plastic bag creates the conditions for the most expensive type of damage your furniture can suffer—trapped moisture leading to rot, mold, and mildew.

Consider a concrete example. A teak dining table left completely uncovered in a temperate climate will develop a silver-gray patina over several months. This is not damage; teak is naturally weather-resistant and this color change is purely cosmetic. However, the same table left under a non-breathable, plastic cover that holds condensation against the surface can develop black mold spots that penetrate the grain, and the constant wet-dry cycling will stress the joints more than simple exposure to the elements. The cover that was meant to protect the table became the agent of its damage. This is the fundamental tension at the heart of the product category: a cover must simultaneously block the elements and allow the furniture to breathe.

Outdoor furniture covers achieve this balance through material selection and construction. A functional cover must block damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation, shed liquid water, allow water vapor