Custom Patio and Outdoor Furniture in Jacksonville, FL

This is the biggest decision in the spec, and almost nobody asks about it before quoting. A screened lanai in Mandarin and an open pool deck in Atlantic Beach are two different climates.

Under a roof or screen, the piece stays out of direct rain and most sun, so more species and finishes are on the table. The tradeoff is airflow: enclosed lanais stay damp, and mildew grows underneath.

Fully exposed, a piece takes rain, standing water, full UV and, near the ocean, salt. We narrow the choice to durable species, use only stainless hardware rather than coated screws, slope horizontal surfaces, and skip film finishes.

If your patio is half covered, we spec to the exposed half.

Here is the comparison the catalogs skip. Wood patio furniture built for this coast lives or dies on species, and each of these is the wrong choice somewhere.

The short version: teak if the budget allows and the piece is exposed, ipe for tables that stay put, and cypress for value on a covered lanai.

Stainless Versus Coated Fasteners

This is the cheapest decision on the project and the one that ruins the most furniture. Coated deck screws are fine for a fence. In a chair leg near salt air, they corrode inside the joint, bleed rust down the wood, and lose their grip. Black streaks around a fastener in oak or cypress are a tannin reaction with steel.

We use 316 stainless east of the Intracoastal and 304 everywhere else, with carriage bolts and nylon-insert nuts that can be snugged up in year five. Joints are mortise and tenon with waterproof adhesive, and hardware is backup rather than the whole plan.

Custom outdoor furniture covers more than a table and four chairs, and the pieces used most are the ones sized to the space: dining tables in slab, slatted or trestle form; benches, plain or with a slatted lid for cushion storage; deep-seat sofas and club chairs built around cushions you pick first; bars for pool decks and summer kitchens; lined and drained planters; porch swings hung from framing we verify can carry the load; and side tables and lanai consoles.

A custom outdoor dining table is our most common outdoor build, and the usual mistake is sizing it to the room instead of to the clearances. Starting points:

• 36 inches minimum from table edge to a wall or rail, 44 to 48 where people walk behind seated guests.
• 24 inches of table edge per person, 26 with arms.
• Height 29 to 30 inches, with 24 to 25 inches of knee clearance under the apron.
• Width 36 to 40 inches so two can eat across with dishes down the middle.
• 60 inches seats six, 84 seats eight, 96 to 108 seats ten.

Run those numbers against your slab. A 12 by 16 foot lanai sounds big until you subtract 36 inches on three sides and a door swing, so in many Nocatee lanais the answer is a 72 inch table with a bench on one side.

Benches tuck fully under and save you from moving four chairs every time you hose the slab. A trestle or pedestal base keeps legs out of the corners, which is the difference between eight comfortable seats and eight people straddling a leg.

Search for patio furniture here and you get national retailers. That is fine for a starter set, but it is worth spelling out what custom buys you.

First, size, because your lanai is whatever size the builder poured. Second, joinery: retail furniture is bolted through end grain with knock-down hardware so it ships flat, while our joints are cut, glued and pinned. Third, species, since retail outdoor wood is largely eucalyptus or acacia.

Repair matters too: a slat on a custom bench is replaceable, while a cracked part usually ends a catalog set. A teak or ipe set with stainless hardware should last decades, where retail acacia often shows loose joints within a few summers here. What custom does not buy you is cheap or fast.

There are three honest paths, and none of them is maintenance free.

Let it silver. Teak, ipe and cedar weather to a soft gray without losing strength. Wash once or twice a year with mild soap and a soft brush. This is our recommendation for exposed teak.

Oil it. A penetrating exterior oil keeps the original color, reapplied every 6 to 12 months when exposed and every 12 to 18 months under a lanai roof. It is a wipe-on job, not a sanding job, which is why we prefer oil outdoors.

Film finish, covered only. Marine-grade spar varnish looks beautiful on a covered porch and needs a fresh coat roughly once a year. In full sun and rain, it crazes and peels within a couple of years.

A simple calendar: wash in spring, snug the hardware, re-oil if the color has faded, and clear standing water after a storm. Skip pressure washing, which erodes soft grain.

Our work as your outdoor furniture builder starts with standing on the patio. We measure the slab, note the roof line and screen enclosure, watch the sun, and ask how close the water is.

You get a drawing with dimensions, a species recommendation with the tradeoffs spelled out, the hardware called out, and a written quote. If cushions are in the plan, we get their dimensions before we build frames.

Shop time runs four to eight weeks depending on piece count and species availability, and a deposit of about half holds the slot. We deliver finished, level everything, and leave you the oil and the maintenance schedule in writing.

Handmade patio furniture is priced by species and size. Teak and ipe carry a real premium over cypress and cedar.

A lounge chair starts near $900, a hung swing near $1,400, and planters around $500. Cushions run $200 to $600 per seat in solution-dyed acrylic, the only fabric worth buying in this sun. What moves the price: species, size, a slatted versus a solid top, and hand shaping. These are typical ranges, and an exact number requires seeing the patio.