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Buying your first outdoor furniture is almost as exciting as buying your first house with a garden. Before you rush out to shop, take the time to figure out the best all-weather pieces for your patio, deck, or porch. I wish had (instead of ending up with outdoor furniture that underwhelms). Learn from my mistakes and avoid making expensive errors when shopping for outdoor furniture.

Here are five things to know before you choose the best outdoor furniture for your home:

1. Cheap furniture may end up costing you more.

Above: A decidedly *not-cheap* option for outdoor furniture is the well-made Serene line of sustainable teak pieces from Henry Hall Designs. Photograph by Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture, from Favorite Furniture: Sustainable Teak from an Italian Designer.

When you start shopping around on the internet for outdoor furniture, you'll notice that there's a huge range in prices. On the high end are retailers including Design Within Reach and Restoration Hardware (both of which sell single lounge chairs that go for upwards of $1,000) and on the low end are sites such as Overstock and Walmart (where entire sectionals can be had for under $700).

Guess where I ended up buying our outdoor furniture? Yep, enticed by the price tag, I went for a faux wicker sectional I spotted on a discount website during a late-night web crawl. It was cheap and not ugly: What more could I ask for?

Well, for starters, I should have asked that our seating wouldn't slide around every time we sat down. Our sectional was so lightweight that, unless you sat down very gingerly, the seats would slide and the cushions would skate. Our dog, who is not the most graceful animal to begin with, became so wary of the unstable seating that he now nervously paces our deck for several minutes before he gathers the courage to hop up.

The Lesson: Though it may be tempting, don't automatically go for the cheapest price you can get on outdoor furniture. The really cheap stuff tends to be lightweight and flimsy. That said, we also have this from Ikea, a lightweight but totally well-made lounge chair that I love, so this is by no means a blanket recommendation.

2. Some chair legs are too skinny for decks.

Above: The thin legs on the wrought-iron chairs pose no problems on this patio with pavers. Photograph by Hufton & Crow for Gundry & Ducker, from Steal This Look: A House With Slate Shingle Siding.

Before we bought a house with a yard, we lived in a small rental that had a wood deck. It was our first bit of outdoor space and we loved it, dressing it up with planters, a Weber grill, a lounge chair, and a vintage dining set that we scored at a garage sale. The set was charming and well-made, but the legs on the chairs were skinny, which meant they could easily sink into the gaps between the deck's wooden planks. We had to be vigilant about placing the chairs just so and constantly had to remind guests to do the same—not exactly the best setup for spontaneity and fun.

The Lesson: If you're shopping for an outdoor dining set for a wood deck, consider the chair legs and make sure they won't get trapped in a gap when you pull the chair out.

3. Some outdoor furniture materials may be wrong for your space.

Above: Rattan furniture does best in a covered area, but it's also fine in mild, dry climates. Photograph from Garden Visit: At Home with Jeweler Kathleen Whitaker in LA.

Here's a very incomplete list of the types of materials you'll find when shopping for outdoor furniture: teak, eucalyptus, stainless steel, aluminum, wrought iron, wicker, synthetic resin. Each material has pros and cons that make it ideal for certain climates and outdoor situations and not for others. Consider the various metals, for instance. Aluminum is lightweight, which means it's not great for areas that can experience high winds. Stainless steel is heavy and low-maintenance, but it can get super-hot when placed under the sun, so it's not ideal if you are planning to leave it exposed.