Best outdoor furniture covers for winter: plan ahead now

The best outdoor furniture covers will protect your patio set from the elements, so it pays to plan ahead and shop early so that you're ready for any bad weather. 

Whether you're looking to keep the rain off an outdoor corner sofa, protect a garden dining table and chairs from the frost or cover up a bistro set before the snow, if you don't have a shed or garage big enough to store your outdoor furniture set over the winter then a waterproof yet breathable cover will help to protect your investment and prolong the life of your garden furniture. 

It can often be worth buying a cover at the time you purchase your outdoor furniture, as the retailer you buy your seating or table from may have a bespoke cover designed to fit your furniture perfectly, but if not, we've rounded up the best garden furniture covers for a generic fit.

Of course, if you're super organised and are researching covers before committing to an outdoor seating purchase, our best garden furniture buying guide can give you some shopping inspiration. But if you've already bought your alfresco set-up and now want to ensure it stays looking pristine, read on to find the best outdoor furniture covers on the Gardeningetc team's radar. 

The best outdoor furniture covers

A wide range of size options makes Dokon's garden furniture covers a versatile solution for any number of outdoor furniture set-ups. This rectangular version alone comes in nine different sizes, so you're highly likely to find a good fit for you.

Perfect for shielding a garden dining table and chairs, or a wide garden sofa or chaise, the protective cover is made from heavy-duty black waterproof fabric, that promises to be UV, fade and tear-resistant too. The robust outer shell also features mesh-covered air vents to prevent wind lofting and allow air circulation to reduce the risk of mould or mildew formation - and handily the vents can double up as handles to make lifting your cover on that bit easier.

If your garden furniture set has legs, then this option also features one of the best means to secure the cover that we've seen, with four straps at the base and click-clack closures to attach the cover to the furniture to keep it locked into place.

If the outdoor furniture that you want to cover up doesn't have legs that you can attach the Dokon cover's base straps around, then you're going to need an alternative means of securing a garden furniture cover, and this option from VonHaus offers a good solution. 

Large enough to cover most garden corner sofa sets (or outdoor dining tables and chairs), this protective cover features an elastic drawstring at the base which can be tightened underneath your furniture to hold it in place. 

Made from a similar strong 600D polyester with a water-resistant PVC lining, this cover aims to protect your furniture set against wind, rain, frost, and sun fading, and has air vents to allow for air circulation and dedicated padded handles for easier manouevreing.

Although this outdoor furniture cover is specifically designed for Kettler's Palma sofa unit, the size is a good fit for many other outdoor sofas too.

And if you're the proud owner of one of this year's best garden benches, but only want to use it in the summer months, it works well for bench seats too, protecting furniture from UV, frost, tree sap and bird droppings so your seating is kept spick and span and ready to use whenever the sun shines. 

A pull cord at the base ensures a snug fit around your seating, and side vents allow for air circulation. Kettler also offers a set of four weights for protective covers that can be filled with sand and clipped onto your furniture cover if you want some extra ballast, and a tent pole for use with protective covers to lift the centre of your furniture cover and prevent water from pooling.

If you just have a corner sofa to cover - rather than a corner sofa set with additional coffee table or lounge chair - or you would prefer to cover each item in a set separately for a snugger fit, then this ingenious L-shaped cover makes short work of protecting this tricky-shaped seating.

Heavy-duty 600D polyester with a water-resistant PVC lining ensures weather-resistance, whilst an elasticated drawstring at the base means you can adjust this cover to fit securely. 

If your sofa cushions themselves aren't already UV resistant, then this protective cover also works well in the summer months, blocking out sunshine when your sofa isn't in use to keep the colour of your sofa as vibrant as when you first bought it.

Most of the best bistro sets for small spaces are designed to fold up for space-saving storage when they're not in use, but if you have a design that doesn't, then this compact cover is a great way to keep a small patio table and up to two chairs protected from the elements.

A pull-cord at the base helps to secure the cover in place whilst the water-resistant fabric ensures no water gets through.

It's a shame not to have any air vents or handles added to the fabric cover, but as this is a smaller protective cover there's more chance for air to get in underneath the base, and lifting on and off is fairly straightforward, so they aren't such important features.

If you have a circular garden table then for the best fit you're going to need a matching circular outdoor furniture cover, and this two-tone option from Amazon Basics could be a good fit. 

After a roster of grey and black options, we like this predominantly white design which features a coffee-brown splashback trim at the base to disguise any muddy marks. The upper section will potentially mark more easily than the darker coloured options, but you can hose it down, and if you have a light coloured wall you want to store your garden table against then this option feels less visually bulky than the darker colours.

A handy meshed air vent with velcro closers allows air to circulate once your table is undercover, and a drawstring cord at the base is backed up by four straps with click-clack clasp closures to really make sure this cover stays in place  - as long as your table has four legs to fasten them around.

For ensuring a singular chair looks as good in the spring as it did when you covered it up in autumn, this seat cover from VonHaus will do the trick.

Padded handles allow you to take the cover on and off easily, whilst an elasticated drawstring at the base plus fastening clips ensures the fit is as snug and secure as possible.

Meanwhile, covered air vents help to keep air circulating to prevent mould or mildew from forming underneath.

If you're lucky enough to have got your hands on one of this year's sell out items - the hanging garden egg chair - then you will want to keep it looking its best, and you'll know that it's a pretty awkward shape to store or cover properly. 

That's where Charles Bentley's specialist rattan hanging swing seat comes into its own, offering a tailored fit designed especially for egg or pod hanging chairs. 

The heavy-duty 600D PVC polyester is waterproof and has an elasticated cord at the base threaded through four rust-resistant aluminium eyelets with a toggle catch to secure. To make it much simpler to fit this cover to a tall item, it also features a front zip for easy access.

What to look for in the best outdoor furniture covers

Fit

This is an obvious one, but always measure your garden furniture first to make sure you know exactly how big of a cover you need. For easy fitting, it's often best to go for a slightly larger cover to ensure you can get it on easily, but don't go too large as excess material is more likely to catch the wind and it can be less effective at keeping moisture out. 

Breathability

Look out for furniture covers that are made from breathable materials such as polyester, Oxford cloth, or other synthetic weaves, and that have air vents within the fabric. As well as helping to prevent wind lofting, air vents prevent moisture from getting in but allow air to circulate so that mould or mildew don't develop under the cover.

Can it be secured?

A furniture cover should have loops, ties, elasticated drawstrings, straps or some other means to fasten it tightly around your furniture and ensure rain can't be blown underneath it, as well as to prevent the cover from being blown away in strong winds. For added peace of mind, you can also buy clip-on weights for the base of outdoor furniture covers if you wish. 

Water resistance

Most outdoor furniture covers offer water resistance, however, they prefer not to have standing water left on them for any length of time. Depending on the shape of your garden furniture, it's a good idea to find a way to lift the centre of your furniture cover so that this is the highest point, otherwise water can pool in the middle of it during a downpour. An upturned plastic plant pot can be a good quick fix or you can buy specially designed tent poles for use with outdoor furniture covers.

UV resistance

Unless your garden furniture itself is UV-resistant, protecting it from year-round UV light can be well worth doing to prevent your set from fading or discolouring. This can be particularly important to ensure that synthetic rattan garden furniture stays looking its best. Most covers will offer some UV protection, but look to see if its mentioned in the product text to be sure.