vintage garden furniture a 1950s chair made again

Vintage garden furniture pulls people in with a shape they remember from a grandparent's porch. The trouble starts with the material. Iron rusts at the welds, wicker splits after a few wet summers, and wood rots where it touches the lawn. Kettal, the Barcelona maker, answers this with new editions of old designs, built from materials that stand up to the weather you have now.

The Basket chair, then and now

Nanna and Jorgen Ditzel, a Danish couple, drew the Basket chair in the 1950s. The name describes it: a woven body carried by a wooden frame. Kettal makes the chair again and has not redrawn it. The factory offers two versions of the same outline.

The original keeps oak and wicker braided by hand. It belongs indoors, in a den or a sunroom. The outdoor Basket armchair swaps the wicker for a synthetic fiber woven in the intrecciato manner, the Italian word for braided, on a frame of yellow balau hardwood. The weave stays open, so rain drains through the seat. See the Basket collection.

You get the 1950s silhouette on the terrace and, if you want it, the same chair inside the glass door. Few flea market finds can promise a matching pair on either side of the house.

Buying the real thing

A true vintage piece can still be the right choice. Check it before you pay. Look at the welds on metal chairs, since rust starts there and spreads under the paint. Press on the weave at the joints, where the strand wraps the frame. Turn the chair over and look at the feet, because wood that sat on damp grass softens from the bottom up.

Old paint deserves a question too. Paint from before the late 1970s may contain lead, so ask a restorer before you sand a chair on your patio. Plan to keep an old wicker chair under a roof. It has survived this long by staying dry.

A new chair in an old type

The slatted metal chair has stood in parks and gardens for well over a century. Kettal Atlantic, drawn by Jasper Morrison in 2026, is all aluminum: a tubular frame with a seat and back made of curved slats. Morrison took the steady rhythm of waves as his cue, and the slats follow the curve of a back at rest. See the Atlantic collection.

Atlantic has no cushion to store and no weave to dry. Aluminum stays free of rust, and rain runs off between the slats. The low lounge chair leans far back, the chair with armrests pulls up to a table, and an optional swivel side table clips to the armrest. A row of them along a garden wall reads as familiar on the first day.

Mixing vintage and new on one terrace

A single Basket armchair works as the old piece in a new garden. Set it by the fire pit or at the end of a dock, where one strong chair holds the eye. Around it, plain aluminum pieces such as Atlantic keep the rest of the terrace quiet. Hardwood left outside turns gray unless you oil it, and that soft gray sits well next to bare metal.

Urquiola took the same Basket chair as her starting point for Kettal Vimini in 2018, a braided basket chair with large back cushions. If you like the Ditzel shape and want a sofa to match, look at Vimini as well.

Care for the new editions

The Basket outdoor armchair needs a rinse with water and mild soap a few times a season. Oil the balau if you want to keep its warm color, or leave it to gray. Atlantic needs a hose and a soft cloth. Neither asks for the patching and repainting an old chair demands each spring.

Tell us which vintage shape you have in mind and where it will stand. We reply with the Kettal edition that comes closest, the finishes, and a price for each piece.