Lands End 59 inch Teak Bench

I love this time of the year, where the days get longer, the weather is warmer, and we start making plans for backyard get togethers.  Since we moved into our house eight years ago, I have been wanting to add more seating to our backyard.

With three kids needing space to run around and get their crazies out (especially Mr. Bam-Bam), our backyard is well used, to say the least.

We have an iron table and chairs that we love and purchased about 10 years ago and is still in great shape.  We splurged and spent about $1500 on that set.  Because of this experience of buying high quality backyard furniture and having zero upkeep or problems with quality, we wanted to purchase a bench that was solid and would stand the test of time.

I became a bit of a crazy bench researcher for the past few years.  Do we go with teak, iron, or sorea wood?  How much do we need to spend to have a solid bench for years?  Well, my search ended last week, when I was perusing through the outdoor furniture online at Lands End.

Why did I not check out Lands End before last week?  When I think about Lands End, I think about swimsuits and towels, cargo pants for Mountain Man, beautiful canvas bags with my kids’ names embroidered on them, and the list goes on.

Anyhow, after checking out their very extensive line of outdoor teak furniture and cushions, I decided to call the customer service center and find out more.  The representative I spoke with actually owned this exact bench for three years, and had many great things to say about it.

She said that it requires very little maintenance.  When I say very little, we’re talking, maybe put some oil on it before the summer begins if you would like to maintain the golden teak color.  If you do not apply the oil for several years, then the teak will start to weather and turn grey in color eventually.  Some people prefer the grey color and enjoy the weathered look.

I like both the golden and grey color.  Either way, I will be happy with our beautiful new bench.  I plan on applying the oil late springtime next year and repeat each year.

Our New Bench Was Ready for the Eclipse

Broadway brought home paper glasses from school on Friday that were made especially for viewing the eclipse that was scheduled to occur on Sunday evening.  The things you learn from fourth graders – if you can believe it, I don’t think I would even have been aware of this event if it was not for her informing us.  I have pretty much given up on watching the news due to their insistence on focusing on horrific and very depressing news stories.

Because of my avoidance of the news, I might have missed the eclipse.  Mountain Man would probably have brought it to our attention, but I’m glad it was Broadway who informed us.  She was super excited and we made a family event of it.

Bam-Bam “set up” our dinner outside.  He did this by laying our picnic blanket out on the grass and giving each of us an outdoor plate with a stack of doritos in the middle of each plate.  He ran inside to tell me that he had “set up a dinner picnic”.  It really was too cute.

I had barbeque ribs cooking in the oven when he told me about the picnic.  He thought the ribs would go great with the doritos.  🙂

The eclipse really was quite amazing.  The glasses allowed us to monitor the eclipse every half hour or so.  The entire process took about 2 hours.  It was really neat at one point, when it seemed that our picnic area almost instantaneously went from light to dark.  Pretty darn cool.

We love our bench want more teak furniture

Everyone huddled on the bench after dinner with blankets.  The bench is very wide at 59 inches.  All five of us could fit pretty easily.  Bam-Bam is only 4, so he’s easy to throw on someone’s lap.

Now, Broadway thinks we should buy the matching teak ottoman and side table from Lands’ End.  She snuck out of the house this evening and said she was going to pick something up in the backyard.  I had a feeling that she just wanted the bench to herself.  Sure enough, she just wanted to lie down by herself without Ms. Imagineer or Mr. Bam-Bam pestering her.

I have to say, teak really is so warm and beautiful.  My only regret is that we waited this long to introduce it to our backyard.  I’m glad I found it at Lands’ End. The quality is amazing and the price is definitely the best I could find for such top of the line furniture.

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