French Bistro Rattan Chairs Indoors & Outdoors: A Practical Guide

Where a hand-woven chair belongs — covered terrace, full sun, or year-round outside — and how to choose the right frame.

A hand-woven natural rattan chair is semi-outdoor — at home indoors, on a veranda or on a covered terrace, where it tolerates sunlight and brief humidity, but it should be kept out of driving rain and stored dry through a freezing winter.

If you want genuinely weatherproof rattan furniture that stays outside in every season, choose the same bistro chair built on an aluminum frame with synthetic woven fiber (Rilsan®), which shrugs off rain, sun and frost while keeping the Parisian café look.

So the rule is simple: natural rattan for indoors and sheltered terraces; aluminum for permanent, fully exposed outdoor use.

This guide explains how rattan bistro chairs handle sun, rain and cold, which frame suits which setting, and how to care for a chair so it lasts for decades rather than seasons — whether it lives by your dining table or out on the patio.

“Wicker” or “Rattan”?

In the US the words wicker and rattan are used almost interchangeably, so a search for wicker patio chairs and one for rattan patio chairs usually means the same thing. It helps to know the small distinction, because it explains everything that follows about weather resistance.

• Rattan is a material — a natural climbing palm whose poles are steam-bent into chair frames and whose skin is split into cane for weaving.
• Wicker is a technique — the weaving method itself. You can weave (or “wicker”) natural rattan, but also synthetic fiber.

So an outdoor wicker chair can be woven from natural rattan or from a weather-resistant synthetic cane — and that difference is exactly what determines whether it can stay outside.

Are Rattan Chairs Weatherproof?

This is the question we hear most often, and the truthful answer is: it depends on the frame and on how exposed the spot is. A French bistro chair was built for the terrace — that is where it was born, on the café fronts of late-19th-century Paris. But “the terrace” in Paris usually means a covered terrace, shaded by an awning and sheltered from driving rain. Understanding that nuance is the key to using these chairs well.

A chair has two parts that react differently to weather: the frame (rattan or aluminum) and the woven fiber of the seat and back. Once you know how each behaves, the right choice becomes obvious — and you will understand why we never describe a natural rattan chair as fully weatherproof.

Natural Rattan: Made for the Covered Terrace

A natural rattan frame is the classic — warm, light, and authentically Parisian. It is a semi-outdoor material: perfectly happy indoors, on a veranda, or on a terrace under cover. It tolerates sunlight and the occasional damp morning without trouble.

What natural rattan does not love is prolonged soaking and hard frost. Left out in heavy rain, the fibers can swell; left out through a freezing winter, they can become brittle. The rule is the same one Parisian cafés have followed for a century: keep natural rattan chairs under cover, bring them in during storms, and store them somewhere dry over winter.

Treated this way, a rattan chair lasts for decades — and when it eventually shows wear, it can be re-woven by hand rather than replaced. (For the seasonal routine, see our winter storage advice.)

Aluminum Frame: Fully Outdoor, Year-Round

For settings with no cover at all — an open patio, a poolside, a rooftop bar, a garden that stays furnished through every season — we build the same bistro chairs on an aluminum frame. Aluminum does not swell, rot or rust, so the chair can stay outside permanently, in sun and rain alike. This is what makes it genuine weatherproof rattan furniture in spirit: the woven café look, on a frame engineered for the elements.

The aluminum frame is finished in tones such as Black Matt, Black Sand, charcoal, oxide red, Malacca, Manau, Fouquet's light brown, cream nude and cool white — so it keeps the hand-woven character while gaining true all-weather durability. Paired with a weather-resistant synthetic fiber, it is the right answer whenever a chair must brave the elements without being brought in, and the practical choice for commercial terraces that stay set up in all conditions.

The Woven Fiber and the Weather

The seat and back are woven from synthetic cane in two finishes — brilliant Rilsan® and satin Raucord® — both chosen for color depth and resilience. These fibers are resistant to sunlight and temporary humidity: the color does not fade quickly in the sun, and a passing shower does no harm.

For a covered terrace this is more than enough. For a fully exposed setting, it is the aluminum frame beneath that makes the difference, letting the whole chair live outdoors — a true outdoor wicker chair in the American sense, woven for the weather rather than against it.

Sun, Rain & Winter: Caring for an Outdoor Bistro Chair

A few simple habits keep a rattan bistro chair looking its best, whatever the frame. Our full routine lives on the maintenance page, but in short:

• Sun: glossy Rilsan® like satin Raucord® fiber absolutely does not fear the sun — the colors are indestructible, and the fiber does not get hot in the sun.
• Rain: a brief shower is harmless. For natural rattan, avoid leaving chairs out in prolonged or heavy rain; aluminum-framed chairs can stay out.
• Winter: store natural rattan chairs indoors in a dry place or under cover when temperatures drop below freezing. Aluminum chairs can overwinter outside.
• Cleaning: wipe the weave with a damp cloth and mild soapy water, then let it dry fully. No harsh solvents.

Which Chair for Which Space?

Use this as a quick decision guide. It compares natural rattan and aluminum across the three things that matter outdoors: typical use, exposure, and upkeep.

For Patios, Cafés & Hospitality

For a home patio or a commercial terrace that lives outdoors, the aluminum-framed bistro chair gives you French café character without the seasonal routine of bringing chairs in. It is light enough to rearrange, stackable for storage, and available in the full color palette — so an outdoor terrace can be matched to a venue's identity as precisely as an indoor room.

If you are furnishing a coordinated set — say a small café table with two or four matching seats — a wicker bistro set built on the aluminum frame is the most practical specification for french patio furniture that stays outside.

Furnish Your Terrace

From a sheltered Parisian terrace to an open poolside, choose the right frame and color for your space — woven by hand in our atelier, made in France, in some fifty shades.

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