10, 12, 14 or 16 Seats: Choosing Between Our Extending Teak Garden Tables

Look at our large teak dining sets side by side and they seem to be four different products at four different prices: a 10-seater, a 12-seater, a 14-seater and a 16-seater, running from £1,599 to £2,699.

Look at the table in each one, though, and you’ll find something useful. It’s the same table every time. All four sets are built round a rectangular teak table that measures 200cm closed and 300cm with both leaves out, 110cm wide, with a double leaf extender and a parasol hole with a cap.

So the decision isn’t really about the table at all. It’s about what goes round it: how many chairs, whether you want benches, and how you’ll use the set on an ordinary Tuesday as well as on the day the whole family turns up. This guide goes through each set, what you get for the money, and the questions worth answering before you choose.

The four sets at a glance

Here is what each set contains, taken from the product pages.

• 10-seater:the extending table with 10 teak stacking chairs. £1,599.
• 12-seater:the same table with 12 teak stacking chairs. £1,999.
• 14-seater:the same table with 8 stacking chairs and 2 teak benches. £2,399.
• 16-seater, the Lumina:the same table with 4 stacking chairs and 4 teak benches. £2,699.

The stacking chairs are the same in every set: 95cm high, 52cm wide and 63cm deep, with a 45cm seat height. The benches are 155cm wide, 86cm high and 60cm deep, also with a 45cm seat height. Because chairs and benches share a seat height, you can mix them round the table without anyone sitting noticeably higher or lower than the person next to them.

Start with your ordinary day, not your biggest one

Most people buy a large table for a handful of occasions a year: a summer birthday, a family barbecue, the bank holiday when everyone comes over. The rest of the time it’s four or five people eating dinner outside on a warm evening.

That matters here because the table closes down to 200cm. At that length it works as a sensible everyday table, and the leaves only come out when you need them.

So before you look at seat counts, think about two numbers:

1. How many people sit at the table most weeks?
2. How many need a seat on the busiest day of the year?

The first tells you how the closed table needs to work. The second tells you which set to buy. If the gap between them is large, it’s also worth thinking about where the spare chairs or benches will live when they aren’t in use, which we come to later.

The 10-seater: ten chairs, the simplest choice

The 10-seater is the plainest of the four and the cheapest at £1,599.

With the table fully open at 300cm, ten chairs work out neatly. Four 52cm chairs along each long side take up 208cm of the 300cm edge, which leaves plenty of room between them. One chair goes at each 110cm end. That’s ten, with space to spare.

Close the table to 200cm and you can still seat eight: three chairs along each side (156cm of a 200cm edge) and one at each end. The two chairs left over stack with the others.

Who it suits: households that host up to ten a few times a year and want every guest on a proper chair with a back. Chairs are also easier for anyone who finds stepping over a bench awkward. Our post on garden furniture that works as you get older goes into seat heights and getting in and out of chairs in more detail.

The 12-seater: two more chairs, and a pricing quirk worth knowing

The 12-seater is the same table with twelve stacking chairs, at £1,999.

At full length, twelve chairs means five along each long side and one at each end. Five 52cm chairs take up 260cm of the 300cm side, which gives each person 60cm of table edge. That’s the same 60cm per person we use as the working figure in our guide to how much space a teak garden furniture set needs. It’s comfortable, but noticeably closer than the 10-seater layout.

Here is the quirk. Our teak stacking chairs are also sold singly at £199. The 10-seater set at £1,599 plus two extra chairs at £199 each comes to £1,997. The 12-seater costs £1,999. So the two routes to twelve chairs cost almost exactly the same.

That gives you a choice that most people don’t realise they have. If you’re not sure whether you need ten or twelve, you can buy the 10-seater now and add chairs later, one at a time, without paying more for the privilege. If you know you’ll need twelve, buying the set gets everything delivered together.

Who it suits: families who regularly seat more than ten, and anyone who wants matching chairs all the way round rather than a mix of chairs and benches.

The 14-seater: chairs at the ends, benches down the sides

The 14-seater swaps four chairs for two benches. It comes with 8 stacking chairs and 2 benches, at £2,399.

There’s more than one way to lay it out, but here is one that works on paper at full length. Put one bench along each long side. That takes 155cm of the 300cm edge and seats three. Two chairs sit alongside each bench, adding 104cm, so each long side uses 259cm and seats five. Two chairs go at each 110cm end, using 104cm of the width. Five on each side and two at each end makes fourteen.

Two chairs side by side at a 110cm end is snug. Each person gets 55cm of table edge, a little under the 60cm figure we normally work to. It’s fine for a meal, especially with children at the ends, but it’s tighter than the sides.

On a bench, three people share 155cm, which works out at a little under 52cm each. That’s slightly closer than a chair. Benches suit children well, and they suit relaxed meals where people shuffle up to make room for one more.

Who it suits: big family gatherings with children, and anyone who likes the look of benches but still wants proper chairs at the ends of the table.

The 16-seater: the Lumina set, mostly benches

The Lumina is the largest set, with 4 stacking chairs and 4 benches, at £2,699.

With the table fully open, two benches go along each long side. Two 155cm benches end to end measure 310cm, so together they run 10cm past the 300cm table, about 5cm at each end. That seats six along each side. The four chairs go two at each end. Six, six, two and two makes sixteen.

That layout depends on the table being fully extended. Closed at 200cm, there’s room for one bench per side, so you would seat ten (three on each bench and two at each end) and store the other two benches.

Who it suits: very large gatherings, and households who are happy for most people to sit on benches. Before choosing it, think hard about where four 155cm benches will go when they aren’t round the table. Benches don’t stack the way the chairs do.

Chairs or benches: what actually changes

The real difference between these four sets is the mix of chairs and benches, so it’s worth looking at that on its own.

Getting in and out. With a chair, you pull it back and sit down. With a bench, the person in the middle has to step over the seat or wait for the people either side to get up. For older guests, or anyone with stiff knees, chairs are easier.

Fitting people in. A bench is more forgiving. Three adults fit on a 155cm bench, and on a busy day four children often will. A chair seats one person, however small they are.

Storage. This is where chairs win clearly. Our stacking chairs stack in sets of four, so twelve chairs make three neat stacks. A 155cm bench takes up its full length wherever you put it, and four of them need real space.

Covers. Benches pushed under a closed table change the outline you need to cover. If you plan to cover the set over winter, our guide to garden furniture covers by set size is worth reading alongside this one.

Comfort over a long meal. Our chairs have a 50cm seat depth and stand 95cm tall. The benches are 86cm high, so they aren’t backless stools, but a chair still holds you more individually over a three-hour lunch. If long meals are the point, lean towards chairs. Cushions for the stacking chairs are available in green and grey.

What each seat costs

Divide each set’s price by the number of seats and the four sets are closer than they first look.

The 10-seater is the cheapest per seat. The other three sit within about £5 of each other. Moving up from ten to sixteen seats costs £1,100 more, but each seat costs only around £9 more. The price follows the number of people you’re seating, so you aren’t paying a big premium for the larger sets.

One more comparison. The 10-seater plus four extra chairs comes to £2,395, against £2,399 for the 14-seater. Fourteen chairs round a 300cm by 110cm table means five per side at 60cm each and two at each end at 55cm each, the same tight ends as the bench layout. It works on paper. Whether it suits you comes down to the chairs or benches question above.

Three examples worked through

These are illustrations, not customers, but they show how the two numbers from earlier lead to different sets.

A couple who host their extended family twice a summer. On most days it’s two people at the table, and on the big days it’s ten adults. The closed table seats eight comfortably, so on an ordinary evening two or four chairs come out of the stack and the rest stay put. The 10-seater covers the big days without anything sitting unused.

A family of five with both sets of grandparents nearby and plenty of cousins. Their ordinary day is five people, and their busiest is around fourteen, at least four of them children. Benches suit the children, and the chairs at the ends suit the grandparents. The 14-seater fits that household better than twelve identical chairs would.

Someone who isn’t sure yet. They’ve just moved, don’t know how often they’ll host, and think it could be anything from eight to twelve. The 10-seater is the sensible start, because two more chairs bought later bring it to the same total as the 12-seater set.

Another 10-seater, with end chairs

There’s one more set built on a table of the same size. The Large Teak Garden Dining Set has a table listed at 200cm, extending to 300cm, by 110cm wide, and 74cm to 76cm high. It comes with 8 stacking chairs and 2 premium end chairs, at £1,999.

The end chairs are listed at approximately 60cm to 65cm wide and 65cm to 70cm deep, so they’re roomier than the stacking chairs. That works out at £199.90 per seat, the most of any set here. What you’re paying for is the two larger chairs at the head and foot of the table. If you like the idea of a proper head of the table, it’s the one to look at. If you just need ten seats, the standard 10-seater gets you there for £400 less.

If ten is more than you need

Not everyone needs a 3m table. If your busiest days are eight people, these are worth comparing before you commit to one of the larger sets:

• Teak Outdoor Extending Table 160cm to 230cm, 120cm wide and 76cm high, seats up to eight. £899, table only.
• Teak Extending Table with 8 Stacking Chairs, 170cm to 240cm by 120cm, with double butterfly leaves and eight stacking chairs. It seats four closed and eight open. £899.
• 8 Seater Oval Extending Teak Garden Dining Set, 180cm to 240cm by 110cm, with eight high-back teak armchairs. £1,299.

The extending table with eight chairs is notable: at £899 it costs £700 less than the 10-seater. If eight is genuinely your limit, there’s no reason to pay for a table that seats ten.

Space, shade and the parasol hole

A 300cm table needs a big patio once the chairs are pulled out. We won’t repeat the measuring here, because our guide to how much space a teak garden furniture set needs covers it properly, including how to mark out a table at its full extended length on your patio. The key point is the one that guide makes: always plan for the table open, not closed.

All four sets have a parasol hole with a cap built into the table, so a centre-pole parasol can go straight through the middle. On a table this long, one parasol won’t shade everyone at full length. If shade matters to you, read our comparison of cantilever and centre-pole parasols before you choose one.

Over the winter

Teak itself copes with being left outside, and our post on whether to cover teak garden furniture in winter explains what happens to it if you don’t. What changes from set to set is how much floor space the furniture takes up when it isn’t being used.

With the 10-seater and 12-seater, the chairs stack in fours, so the whole set packs down to a closed table and two or three stacks of chairs. With the 14-seater and the Lumina, the benches stay full length. If you have a shed or a garage, measure it against a 155cm bench before you choose a bench set.

If you’re covering the table, close the leaves first. A 200cm table is far easier to cover than a 300cm one, and our rectangle 10-seater cover is 400cm by 200cm if you’d rather cover the whole set together.

Ordering

Each of these sets can be ordered with a 10% holding deposit, with a delivery month chosen at checkout, and delivery is free to mainland England, Wales and southern Scotland. Northern Scotland, Northern Ireland and offshore islands are charged a flat rate. Most of the set pages give a delivery time of around ten working days, so check the page for the set you choose. Ordering in autumn or winter for a spring delivery means the set arrives ready for the first warm weekend, not halfway through summer.

Picking yours

Ask yourself one thing first: do you want everyone on a chair, or are you happy with benches?

If it’s chairs, choose between the 10-seater and the 12-seater, remembering that you can grow the 10-seater to twelve later for almost exactly the same money. If benches suit your household, the 14-seater gives you a mix, and the Lumina seats the most people at the lowest cost per seat of the bench sets.

You can compare all of them, along with our smaller tables, in our teak outdoor dining sets range. If you’d like to talk through a layout before ordering, call us on 020 7871 3842.