There is a particular kind of chair that people sit down in and then simply stop moving. You see them on verandahs from Port Fairy to Palm Beach, angled towards the water or the late westerly sun, usually with a drink balanced on one of those famously wide arms. If you have been eyeing one off, the honest question is whether an Adirondack chair earns its keep in an Australian backyard. Or whether it just looks good and gets sat in twice a summer.
This guide is for anyone weighing teak against moulded plastic, working out whether that low recline suits their household, and deciding where the chair actually goes once it lands. The comparison below comes from the chairs in our Sun Lounges & Bean Bags range, with a couple of alternatives worth knowing about before you commit.
What actually makes a chair an Adirondack
The shape is the whole point. An Adirondack has a deeply reclined back, a seat that slopes down towards the rear, and arms wide enough to hold a plate, a book or a beer without a side table. The design is North American in origin, and it has lasted because the geometry does something an upright chair cannot: it holds you in place rather than asking you to hold yourself there.
That same geometry is why an Adirondack is not a dining chair and not a sun lounge. It sits in its own category, a chair for sitting still in while facing something worth looking at. If you want seating to pull up to an outdoor table, a folding or sling chair does that job better and costs far less.
Teak or plastic? The Adirondack chair decision that matters
Almost every Adirondack sold in Australia is either timber, usually teak, or a moulded plastic replica. They look near enough to identical in a photograph and behave completely differently once they are living outside.
The Teak Adirondack ($943) is the traditional version, hand made from 100% FSC certified plantation Indonesian teak, with a matching footrest available if you want to properly stretch out. Teak is a tropical hardwood well suited to outdoor environments, so there is no frame to corrode and no sling fabric to fade. Left alone it ages to a silvery-grey sheen. Oil it or apply a sealer and it keeps the original colour.
The Italia Chair ($155) is the replica, moulded from sturdy UV-resistant plastic, made in Italy, and offered in white, Aegean blue or olive green. It stacks, which quietly changes how you use it, because you can own four and store them flat when the weather turns. At 69cm wide, 80cm deep and 94cm high it still occupies real floor space, so measure before you order a stack of them.
| Comparison | Teak Adirondack | Moulded plastic replica |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $943 | $155 |
| Upkeep | Oil it, or let it go silver | Hose it off |
| Weight | Substantial, so it stays put | Light weight and easy to carry |
| Storage | Lives where you put it | Stacks |
| Colour options | Natural teak, silvering over time | White, Aegean blue or olive green |
| Best for | A permanent spot you look at daily | Spare seating, pool surrounds, rentals |
Price is the obvious gap, but not the only one. The teak chair is bought once and kept. The plastic one is bought in fours and treated as flexible seating. Decide which of those two problems you are solving and the choice tends to make itself.
Comfort, and the thing to check before you buy
The recline is why people love these chairs and why a small number regret them. You sink low and lean back, which is superb for an hour with a book and much less useful if you are up every few minutes turning the BBQ. Getting out again takes a deliberate push off those wide arms.
That matters more in some households than others. If knees or hips are a consideration, sit in one before committing, or treat the Adirondack as the settle-in chair and keep something more upright nearby for everyone else. On the teak version the footrest is worth the extra, because it turns a chair you sit in into a chair you properly stretch out in.
Pairing solves it neatly. Two Adirondacks facing the view, with a few Teak Folding Chairs ($149) stored inside for when the numbers grow, covers both jobs without crowding the verandah. The folding chairs live behind a door until they are needed.
Verandahs, beach houses and coastal decks
Adirondacks suit Australian verandahs for a practical reason. They are low, so they do not block the view out from inside the house the way a high-backed lounge does. On a narrow verandah in regional Victoria, or on a raised Queenslander deck, two of them angled slightly towards each other read as a proper seating area without swallowing the walkway.
Coastal is where the material choice gets sharpest. Salt air is unforgiving to anything with steel in it. Teak has no frame to corrode, which is why it turns up so often in beach houses along the NSW South Coast and around the WA coast. Moulded plastic is equally untroubled by salt.
Wind is the real consideration on the coast, because a light chair on an exposed deck will travel in a strong onshore blow. Tuck it against a wall, or choose the heavier timber.
The one decision every teak owner eventually faces is whether to hold the honey colour or let the timber go silver. Both are fine for the timber and it is purely a question of looks. We have worked through the argument properly in our guide to oiling teak versus letting it go silver, and it is worth reading before your first summer. Getting back to honey after it has silvered is more work than staying on top of it from the start.
If the chairs live outside year-round, a fitted cover from our outdoor furniture covers range keeps leaf litter and bird mess off the seat slats through the wetter months.
Adirondack chairs — frequently asked questions
Are Adirondack chairs comfortable?
Yes, for sitting still in, which is exactly what the shape is built for. The deep recline and sloped seat hold you in position with no effort from you. The low seat height does mean a push off the arms to stand up, and they are the wrong chair for eating at a table.
Is teak or plastic better for an Adirondack chair?
Teak is better if the chair has a permanent spot and you want it to look better with age, and plastic is better if you want stackable spare seating you can hose off. Teak costs roughly six times as much here, so the real question is whether the chair is furniture or equipment.
Do Adirondack chairs work on a small balcony?
Only if you check the depth first. The moulded Italia measures 80cm deep, and the reclined back means the chair wants clearance behind it as well. On a balcony much under 1.5 metres deep, a single Adirondack will dominate the space.
Will a teak Adirondack chair go grey?
Yes, if you leave it untreated, and that silvery-grey sheen is a surface change rather than damage. Regular oiling or a sealer holds the original colour instead, though it becomes an ongoing job rather than something you do once.
Can they stay outside all year?
Yes. Teak is a tropical hardwood well suited to outdoor environments, and the moulded version is UV resistant, so neither needs carting inside each autumn. A cover just keeps them cleaner.
Shop the range
Both Adirondacks sit alongside the daybeds and sun lounges in our sun lounges range, while the folding, sling and bench seating lives in outdoor chairs and benches. If the chair you actually need is one that goes down to the sand, the Lesands Beach Chair ($69.95) folds flat and carries over a shoulder — a different job entirely.
We deliver Australia-wide, delivery is free on orders over $100, and most orders are dispatched in 3 to 10 business days. Returns run 30 days with no restocking fee, so if the recline turns out not to suit the household, you are not stuck with it.
