When we set up a dozen chairs around the campfire without comment, people consistently claimed them from largest to smallest. The Renetto Original Canopy Chair, a cleverly designed specialty seat, patio furniture sets is ideal for anyone who wants sun protection and doesn’t mind a heavier, bulkier chair. Despite the Renetto’s weight, our testers found it easy to carry and simple to set up and adjust.
These styles don’t take all that long to set up, but it’s a small sacrifice in time that you make with most portable chairs. For us, we try and keep our packable chairs under or around 2 pounds to minimize their impact on our pack weight. Bringing along a chair is already outside of the typical realm of “essentials,” but 2 pounds can be something worth swinging for a short weekend trek. Activities beyond your backyard, like camping, tailgating, and hanging in the park, require a lightweight folding lawn chair that you can pack up, throw in your car, and easily carry to your desired destination.
Because weight isn’t a major factor, you can get a well-made and comfortable camping chair at a reasonable price—starting at around $50 and reaching as much as $300 for the YETI Trailhead. Top choices from this category include the REI Co-op Skyward Chair, Alps Mountaineering King Kong, and GCI Outdoor Kickback Rocker. This review represents a combined effort of two of our senior review editors, Ethan Newman and Maggie Nichols. Not only that, but he’s spent years of his life car camping, and that means spending a ton of time in camp chairs. He has gotten even pickier over the past few years as chronic spine issues have surfaced, so he’s always on the lookout for a quality, comfortable, and supportive sitting surface. Maggie is a seasoned multi-sport athlete who’s spent years guiding folks both young and old in the great outdoors — and requires a comfortable seat from which to write about it all.
Don’t underestimate the design potential of a basic folding lawn chair. Yes, it may be utilitarian and nondescript, but this ubiquitous piece of outdoor furniture can serve as a blank canvas for forward-thinking design that borders on artwork. The material is also plasticky and heats up underneath us after sitting for a while, which leaves something to be desired. But if you love the classic look and want a simple, very portable lawn chair, this might just be the ticket. It has one of the longest packed down lengths and is surprisingly heavy at nearly 17 pounds. The rocking feature also is really only nice if you’re on flat, stable ground.
Our testers found that the super slouchy shape is somewhat uncomfortable for those who prefer a straighter spine, which is a relatively common complaint among camping models. The carrying bag’s stitching also started unthreading the moment we started using it, which makes us worry about the overall durability of the product. Still, it’s considerably more affordable than many other options in this review, so if you’re looking for a price-point camp chair, look no further. Finding a balance between comfort, durability, and affordability can be difficult when shopping for a camping-style chair. It offers plenty of sitting space for a camping chair, and some testers were impressed with the comfort of the padded canvas seat. We were also mightily impressed with its listed 800-lb weight capacity, more than double of any other chair we tested.
Like the brand’s hammocks, the Lounger practically cradles you on all sides, with an aluminum frame that suspends the nylon seat. And unlike the similarly shaped Helinox Sunset above, the ENO includes a cup holder, two cargo pockets, and even a pillow for cushioning your head as you recline. The powder-coated aluminum frame makes the chairs very sturdy and durable. patio furniture sets The garden chairs have a soft-to-the-touch, weather-resistant textilene top and can be adjusted into 7 positions, so you can always find the most comfortable seating position. Thanks to their lightweight construction, the chairs can be easily moved around. Our favorite low-profile lawn chair, which doubles as a beach chair, is the ITA Leisure Chair.
This is further exacerbated by the strict ninety-degree angle of the chair, which doesn’t allow the user to recline at all without pushing their legs into the pistons. While we appreciate GCI trying new things in the camp chair world, we wouldn’t really recommend this chair. Fredric Arnold might not be a name that rings a bell for most Southerners, yet you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognize the inventor’s most memorable creation. It was 1956 when Arnold first patented his aluminum folding seat—aka the lawn chair—and it didn’t take long for its appeal to grow. If you meandered down any suburban side street in the early sixties, you’d find a couple clinking cocktail glasses on their front lawn, perched in Arnold originals. (In its prime, his company churned out around 14,000 of them a day.) It wasn’t until the casual-furniture market usurped the practical but not plush folding seat that these picnic staples got relegated to the garage.
However, a two seater table set with foldable chairs should fit even limited spaces. And with foldable furniture, you can easily put them aside if you need space for other activities. Enjoy breakfast with the first sunshine of the day, and lunch under an umbrella if it gets too hot. Luckily, there’s a range of chairs to suit the style and dimensions of your sunny spot – from lounging in clean-line design to meals seated on slatted wood, and more.