I have a south-facing garden. I mention this because it’s the kind of thing that sounds like a significant advantage — and it is, in theory — but for the first three years of living in this house I barely used it. The problem wasn’t the garden itself. It was that I had nowhere comfortable to sit in it. I had a couple of plastic garden chairs that were fine for eating outside but not for actually relaxing, and the idea of lying in the sun reading a book or just doing nothing for an hour had no practical means of expression.
The Grand Patio Foldable Sun Lounger changed that. I bought it in April and I’ve spent more time in my garden in the past two months than in the previous three years combined.
Why I’d Never Bought a Sun Lounger Before
The honest answer is that I’d always associated sun loungers with either very expensive garden furniture sets or the cheap, uncomfortable plastic ones you find at holiday parks. The expensive ones seemed like overkill for a garden I wasn’t using much. The cheap ones looked uncomfortable and flimsy. I’d never found anything in between that seemed worth buying.
I’d also been put off by the storage question. A sun lounger that lives outside year-round will deteriorate. A sun lounger that needs to be stored inside takes up significant space. I live in a terraced house with a small shed and not much storage, so anything that couldn’t be stored compactly wasn’t going to work.
Why I Chose the Grand Patio
The Grand Patio Foldable Sun Lounger solved both problems. The aluminium frame means it’s genuinely lightweight — I can carry it from the shed to the garden with one hand — and it folds flat for compact storage. The six-position adjustable backrest means I can use it as an upright chair for reading, a mid-recline for dozing, or fully flat for lying in the sun. That range of positions means it’s useful for different activities rather than just one.
The beige fabric looked right for my garden — neutral enough to work with the existing furniture without clashing, and the colour has stayed clean and unfaded through two months of regular use and occasional light rain.
First Use — Better Than Expected
I set it up on the first sunny Saturday after it arrived. Assembly is not required — it unfolds and the backrest locks into position with a simple mechanism that takes about ten seconds to understand. I put it in the sunniest corner of the garden, adjusted the backrest to a mid-recline, and sat in it with a book and a coffee.
I stayed there for two hours. That’s not something I’d done in my garden before. The chair is genuinely comfortable — the fabric has enough give to be supportive without being slack, and the high backrest means my head and neck are properly supported rather than hanging unsupported as they would be on a lower chair. The aluminium frame doesn’t get uncomfortably hot in direct sun, which had been a concern.
The Six Positions in Practice
The six-position backrest is more useful than it sounds. Position one is essentially upright — good for eating or working on a laptop outside. Positions two and three are reading positions at different angles. Positions four and five are dozing positions. Position six is fully flat, which I use for lying in the sun without a book. Having that range means the chair works for whatever I’m doing rather than requiring me to adapt to a fixed position.
The adjustment mechanism is simple and reliable. You lift the backrest slightly, move it to the desired position, and it locks. I’ve adjusted it probably fifty times over two months and it’s never failed to lock properly or slipped out of position during use.
Storage and Portability
The fold is genuinely compact. When folded, the lounger is about the size of a large suitcase — it stands upright in the corner of my shed without taking up significant floor space. I bring it out when I want to use it and put it away when I’m done, which takes about thirty seconds each way. That routine has become completely automatic.
I’ve also taken it to a friend’s garden for a barbecue, which I wouldn’t have done with a heavier or bulkier chair. It fits in the boot of my car without any difficulty and the lightweight aluminium frame means carrying it from the car to the garden is easy.
Where to Find It
The Grand Patio Foldable Sun Lounger is available in the Sunloungers and Outdoor Seating collections, within the broader Outdoor Furniture and Furniture ranges.
If you have a garden you’re not using as much as you’d like, I’d suggest that the problem might be the furniture rather than the garden. A comfortable place to sit changes how you relate to an outdoor space. This lounger changed how I relate to mine, and at the price point it’s one of the better purchases I’ve made this year.
— Tom Ashworth, south-facing garden owner, former indoor person, and now the man who spends his sunny Saturday mornings outside with a coffee and a book rather than on the sofa
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