Sunbed

A sunbed is a long seat built for a reclined posture, with a backrest that drops close to flat and a leg rest that carries the whole body. The European standard for outdoor furniture, EN 581, calls this form a lounger and defines it by two features: at least one backrest position between 0° and 45° and an integral leg rest able to support full body weight. That definition separates a sunbed from a patio lounge chair, which supports the legs only partway.

The same object carries several names. British usage says sun lounger, American usage says chaise lounge, a respelling of the French chaise longue. Sunbed is common in Turkey and across the Mediterranean trade, though in British English the word also means a tanning bed. Catalogues aimed at the UK therefore tend to prefer sun lounger. A deck chair is a different piece: a folding frame with a fabric seat developed for ship decks. It rarely lies flat. Sette Garden lists this category as sun loungers and names the individual products sunbeds.

Outdoor Sunbeds

An outdoor sunbed has to do three things at once. It has to hold a reclined body without flexing, survive weather without corroding or fading and stay light enough for one person to move. Those three demands pull against each other, which is why frame material, surface material and hardware are chosen together rather than one at a time.

Size is more standard than it looks. Single models from established manufacturers run roughly 187 to 205 cm long and 68 to 90 cm wide, with the lying surface between 27 and 41 cm off the ground. Commercial resin models sit low and premium aluminum models sit higher. A double sunbed starts around 140 cm wide and reads as a daybed rather than a lounger. Commercial backrests typically lock at four or five positions from upright to flat. Some premium loungers use fewer, with two settings or a continuously adjustable mechanism.

EN 581-2 is where the domestic and contract split becomes concrete. The seat static load rises from 1,600 N for domestic use to 2,000 N for contract use and the durability cycles double from 25,000 to 50,000. A sunbed that passes the domestic level is not defective. It is simply built for a garden that sees a few people rather than a pool deck that sees hundreds. Castor durability sits outside the scope of that standard. It has to be specified separately. Every Sette Garden sunbed page carries a downloadable 3D model, which is what an architect needs when a plan view has to be drawn to scale before anything is ordered.

Sunbeds by Material Type

Two material decisions shape the product. The first is the frame, which carries the load and sets the weight. The second is the surface the body rests on, which is either a woven skin, a stretched sling or a cushion over a base. Aluminum with a woven surface is the most common combination in the Mediterranean market because it pairs a light frame with a finish that hides dust.

The surface choice has a practical consequence people notice after the first rain. A sling drains through and dries in the open air. A cushion holds water unless it is built on reticulated foam, an open-cell foam whose cell membranes are removed during manufacture so water drains freely instead of pooling inside. Sette Garden builds this category on aluminum frames combined with rattan weaving, mesh, soft cushions or timber detailing. Models such as Eos, Nimes, Vesti, Voxel, Pixel, Lena, Well, Genn and Orka cover the range.

Wicker Sunbed

Wicker is a technique rather than a material. Britannica defines wickerwork as furniture made of interlaced pliable twigs or branches. The materials used include willow, reed, bamboo and rattan. Rattan is the material: a climbing palm of the genus Calamus whose jointed stem is cut for furniture. So a wicker sunbed describes how the surface is woven and a rattan sunbed describes what it is woven from.

Outdoor weaving is almost never natural rattan. The fibre is high-density polyethylene extruded to imitate cane, coloured through its section and stabilised against ultraviolet light. Manufacturers who publish their material data describe it as polyethylene wicker or HDPE weaving material. Natural rattan absorbs moisture and swells, which is why it belongs indoors.

A woven surface earns its place through comfort and airflow. The weave flexes slightly under weight, spreads pressure and lets air pass beneath the body. The bed stays cooler than a solid panel in direct sun. It also forgives dust and pollen better than a flat surface. The trade-off is cleaning: grit settles in the weave and needs rinsing rather than wiping.

Aluminum and Metal Sunbed

Aluminum dominates outdoor frames for a simple reason: it does not rust and it keeps the weight manageable. Commercial resin loungers weigh between 11 and 14.5 kg. Premium aluminum models run from 20 to 28 kg, still light enough for one person to reposition once wheels are fitted. The alloy is usually from the 6000 series. Mill data sheets list 6063 for railings and furniture, rating its corrosion resistance and anodising suitability at the top of the scale.

The finish matters more than the alloy. Powder coating is graded by how long it holds gloss and colour under Florida sun. Qualicoat Class 1 is tested to one year, Class 2 to three years and Class 3 to 10 years, with Class 3 still holding at least half its gloss at the end. The American equivalents run in parallel: AAMA 2603 at one year, 2604 at five and 2605 at 10, the last built on 70% fluoropolymer resin. Coastal projects have their own specification, Qualicoat Seaside, which doubles the aluminum removed in pre-treatment from 1 to 2 g/m² and adds a filiform corrosion test.

Where steel appears, usually in fixings and mechanisms, the grade decides the outcome. Type 316 stainless contains molybdenum, which type 304 does not. That addition resists chloride pitting. British Stainless Steel Association guidance scores exposure by distance from the sea and puts anything within 1.6 km into the range where 316 or 316L becomes the sensible specification. On a seafront terrace even 316 needs rinsing, since salt film left in place causes surface staining.

Sunbed by Outdoor Space

The setting changes the brief more than the style does. A private terrace asks for comfort and storage. A pool deck asks for drainage, grip and easy repositioning. A hotel asks for all of that plus load ratings, replaceable parts and the ability to stack a hundred units out of season.

Circulation is the constant. A sunbed roughly two metres long needs clear space at the foot for someone to walk past and space at the side to sit down and stand up. Planning the layout on a drawing before ordering avoids the common outcome of a beautiful deck no one can cross, which is exactly what the downloadable 3D models are for.

Sunbed for Patios and Gardens

On a private patio the decision usually comes down to how the bed lives when nobody is on it. A cushioned model reads as furniture and suits a covered terrace where cushions can stay out. A woven or sling model suits an open garden because it dries by itself after rain and does not need carrying indoors every evening.

Wheels change how a garden works. Two recessed wheels at the head let one person tilt and roll a bed to follow the sun through the day or clear the lawn before mowing. Several models in this category are built that way. On a balcony, where turning space is short, a low-profile bed with a narrower footprint sits better than a wide one.

Colour is worth deciding with the surface in mind. White and cream frames stay visibly cooler in direct sun but show marks from soil and pollen. Grey and anthracite hide dust and pair easily with stone and timber decking. Since both colour and weave are pigmented through the material rather than painted on the surface, the finish holds rather than wearing off, which is the same principle behind solution-dyed acrylic fabric: colour added while the fibre is still liquid. It runs through the whole cross-section instead of sitting on top.

Sunbed for Hotels

Contract buying is a different exercise from retail buying. The starting point is the load and durability level in EN 581-2 described above, because a pool lounger in a resort is used by a different person every hour through a whole season. Commercial models from specialist makers are rated to 300 lb and tested to 400 lb. The same catalogues quote stackability and recessed wheels as operational features rather than extras, since a housekeeping team has to clear a deck before a storm.

Upholstery brings a second set of requirements. In the UK, non-domestic seating is specified against BS 7176, which uses the EN 1021-1 cigarette test and the EN 1021-2 match flame test as its methods. Hotels fall into the medium hazard category that also calls for a crib 5 source. Across the rest of Europe the cigarette and match tests are the usual threshold. Outdoor fabric is judged separately for light: ISO 105-B04 exposes samples under a xenon arc lamp and grades the result against blue wool references. Contract guidance for outdoor woven fabric sets a minimum of grade 3 at 1,000 hours.

Supply matters as much as specification on a project of any size. Sette Garden has manufactured office and garden furniture since 1996, starting with its first store in Alanya. The company works from Ümraniye today with a second İstanbul point at Masko, alongside showrooms abroad in the United States, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Because contract quantities, finishes and fabrics are priced case by case rather than from a fixed list, no figures are published on the product pages. Get in touch for the current sunbed price list.