Choosing the Right Wood for Outdoor Furniture — Oak, Larch, Douglas Fir and More
Wood species matters enormously for outdoor furniture. Choose the wrong timber and you'll be repainting, retreating, or replacing within a few years. Choose well, and you'll have a piece that outlasts you. At Free Range Designs, we think a lot about this — every outdoor commission starts with a conversation about which wood is right for the job, the location, and the customer's approach to maintenance.
Here's what we've learned from years of making furniture that actually lives outside.
Why Wood Species Matters for Outdoor Use
Timber varies enormously in how it responds to the outdoors. The key factors are natural durability (how well the wood resists rot and decay without treatment), movement (how much the timber shrinks, swells, and warps in response to changes in moisture), and density (which affects how well it takes fixings and how heavy the finished piece will be).
A wood that performs beautifully indoors may be completely unsuitable outdoors. The reverse is also true: some timbers that look rough and resinous in the workshop develop a wonderful aged character once they've spent a season in the garden.
Oak: The Gold Standard for Outdoor Hardwood
English oak is probably the best outdoor furniture timber available in the UK, and it's what we use most often for commissions where longevity is the priority. The reasons are straightforward: oak is naturally high in tannins, which give it outstanding resistance to rot and insect attack. Untreated oak left outdoors will typically last 20–30 years or more, developing a beautiful silver-grey patina as it weathers.
The pros: Incredibly durable. Beautiful, complex grain. Gets harder and denser as it ages. Holds fixings excellently. In the UK, sourcing local English oak is genuinely possible, which we try to do whenever we can.
The cons: Heavy — oak outdoor furniture isn't something you'll be moving around easily. Expensive compared to softwoods. The high tannin content means it can react with ferrous metals (iron and steel fixings will cause dark staining), so stainless steel or brass fixings should be used throughout.
Maintenance: Oak can be left entirely untreated and will weather to grey over time — many customers prefer this look. If you want to preserve the golden-brown colour, a good quality Danish or teak oil applied once a year in spring will do it.
Larch: The Practical Outdoor Timber
Larch doesn't get as much attention as oak, but it's an excellent outdoor timber and considerably more affordable. It's a softwood, but it's one of the toughest softwoods available — the heartwood of mature larch is naturally resinous, which gives it good resistance to moisture and decay.
The pros: Naturally oily and resinous heartwood weathers very well. Much more affordable than hardwoods. Grows abundantly in the UK. Relatively lightweight compared to oak. Takes oil and hardwax finishes well.
The cons: Softer than oak, so it'll show dents and scratches more readily over time. Sapwood (the paler outer rings of the timber) is far less durable than the dark resinous heartwood — with cheaper larch, you may find a lot of sapwood in the boards, so it's worth looking at what you're actually buying. Not quite the character and grain interest of a good hardwood.
Maintenance: Larch benefits from an annual oiling more than oak does. Left untreated it will still perform reasonably well, but treating it helps maintain appearance and extends the life of any sapwood sections.
Douglas Fir: Strong, Structural, and Underrated
Douglas fir is a timber we use often for structural elements — the frames and legs of pieces where strength-to-weight ratio matters. It's a softwood that's appreciably harder and denser than most, which makes it surprisingly capable for furniture use.
The pros: Strong and stiff for a softwood. Takes finish well. The reddish-brown grain is attractive and has good character. Widely available in the UK. Reasonably affordable.
The cons: Less naturally durable than larch or oak, so it benefits from good finishing. Not quite the longevity of the hardwoods for ground contact or very exposed situations. Can be resinous in spots, which occasionally causes adhesion problems with paints (though it's fine with oils).
Best used for: Covered outdoor furniture, pergola structures, framing elements, pieces that will be kept in a sheltered position. Also excellent for interior pieces where strength and a good finish are priorities.
Pine: Interior Use Only
We get asked fairly regularly whether pine is suitable for outdoor furniture. The answer is: not really, not without significant treatment. Scots pine and the various imported softwood pines (redwood, whitewood) have very little natural durability. Untreated pine outdoors will begin to degrade within a few years — softening, greying, and eventually rotting at any ground-contact points.
Pressure-treated (tanalised) pine is a different matter and is widely used for fencing, decking, and structural work — but the green tint and rather industrial character of treated pine makes it a poor choice for furniture. We'd always recommend choosing a better timber over trying to force pine to do a job it's not suited for.
Best used for: Interior furniture, shelving, workshop joinery. Covered outdoor use with regular maintenance can extend its life, but we wouldn't rely on it.
Finishing Options: Oil, Wax, or Nothing
For most outdoor hardwood and good-quality softwood furniture, we recommend a simple penetrating oil — Danish oil, teak oil, or linseed oil. These soak into the timber rather than sitting on the surface, which means they don't crack or peel as the wood moves seasonally. A light sand and a fresh coat in spring takes about twenty minutes and keeps furniture looking good indefinitely.
Hardwax oils are excellent for pieces that will see more intensive use — they combine the penetrating qualities of an oil with a harder surface. They're our preference for tabletops.
Leaving timber to weather naturally — particularly oak and larch — is a perfectly valid choice. The silver-grey that develops after a year or two outdoors is beautiful in a garden setting and requires no maintenance at all. The timber is still protected by its natural durability; it's just not the golden colour it started as.
We generally advise against paints and film-forming varnishes for outdoor furniture. They look good initially but require significant effort to maintain once they start to peel, and peeling paint traps moisture against the wood beneath.
How We Choose Wood at Free Range Designs
For outdoor commissions, our default is oak where budget allows, or larch for more cost-sensitive projects. For covered outdoor pieces — garden rooms, sheltered seating — we might consider Douglas fir or even sweet chestnut, which is another excellent, underrated outdoor hardwood.
We try to source timber from UK suppliers wherever possible, and ideally from forests with responsible management credentials. Locally grown oak and larch from Welsh forests are available to us, which we think matters — shorter supply chains, lower embodied carbon, and timber that's been grown in conditions similar to where it'll end up living.
If you're commissioning a piece and not sure which wood is right for your situation, we're always happy to talk it through. Every garden is different, every exposure is different, and the right answer depends on where the piece is going to sit.
