Whether you have just bought a brand-new outdoor dining setting or have an existing outdoor setting in need of protection, it can seem a rather daunting task to find a great fitting cover that will last.
Here are some common pitfalls that you can avoid when buying a protective outdoor dining setting cover. The first mistake that is commonly made is around the product size. Despite popular belief, the individual table and chair measurements are of little to no use. This might seem unusual or counterintuitive, as the items being covered are the table and chairs, so why are the individual table and chair measurements useless when covering the whole setting, you might ask? Naturally, with outdoor dining settings, the design can vary greatly. Are the legs inset? Are they a cross-legged design? Are they protruding, or more of a pedestal? This matters because it will determine how far and how well the chairs tuck underneath the table.
When you are covering a complete outdoor dining setting, it’s important to realise that you are not covering a table and chairs. You are covering one item, being the complete setting. The cover needs to go over both the table and chairs. The number of chairs is also a factor, as it will determine how well the chairs can be pushed underneath the table. A rookie mistake is to obtain the measurements with fewer chairs than you are actually going to have around the table.
That leads us to how to measure. First of all, you want to position all of the chairs around the table in the position that you intend to cover the outdoor dining set. It does not matter whether the outdoor setting is a rectangular shape, square or round. Once all the chairs are in position, measure from the back of one chair to the back of the chair on the opposite side. You should do this regardless of whether the outdoor setting is round, rectangular or square. If your dining chairs have a protruding leg, or any other section sticks out further than the backrest, you’ll need to take this into consideration as well.
The next measurement that you’ll need is the height. Unless there are no chairs at each end of the table, you will not need to measure the table height, but you will need to measure from the floor to the top of the outdoor dining chair. If you happen to have cushions on your chairs, you will want to measure to the highest point, which may not be the chair frame. Instead, sometimes the highest point on the chair is the back cushion, so be sure to keep that in mind.
Too many customers do the right thing: they obtain the overall length, width and height, but then make the common pitfall of not considering leeway or allowance. When it comes to the leeway, there is no perfect, simple answer as to how much leeway is needed, as it depends on the item being covered, the design and the overall measurements. Most professional cover manufacturers, like The Cover Company, instruct customers only to enter the furniture or item measurements without any leeway or allowance. We take care of this for you, so you don’t need to think about it and potentially make a wrong judgement.
At The Cover Company, we offer a premium service referred to as Design, Review, Draw and Consult. This provides customers with the peace of mind that a team member with years of experience in the industry will review the order measurements and create the drawing based on the measurements provided. In addition, this option enables you to send a drawing or photo of the item being covered so we can provide the best advice prior to the cover being put into production.
When you receive the cover and put it on your outdoor dining setting, you may well find that there’s extra material in the length, width, depth, or diameter. This is necessary and unavoidable. If the cover is the same size as your furniture, you would not be able to fit it. Or, to put it another way, if you were driving a car that is 2 m wide, you would not drive through a tunnel that is also 2 m wide. This would be a recipe for disaster. The same is true when it comes to covers: there needs to be some leeway. When we started our own production facility, we learnt this the hard way, thinking 2 or 3 cm would be enough leeway. Often it is not. If you order a cover from The Cover Company, providing the measurements entered at the time of order are correct, the cover will not fit like a glove, as explained above; however, it will be a good fit and make taking the cover on and off easy.
If you would like advice regarding finding the best fitting cover for your outdoor dining setting, no matter the shape, our experienced team is here to help seven days a week. You can either email us at service@thecovercompany.com.au or, alternatively, you can live chat with us on the website www.thecovercompany.com.au. Our customer service team is online 10 am until 7:30 pm every day. Alternatively, you can also get an instant quote on the website. Simply enter the measurements of the dining set you would like to cover.
In next week’s post, we’re going to discuss the best ways to secure your outdoor furniture cover in 2026, and what to avoid when buying a protective patio cover.