I spread GE Exterior Silicone II on the bike bars and wrapped them with the wicker. I used large clamps to hold the wicker in place until the silicone dried (This was not an easy or fast process). I used a whole can of Minwax Polyurethan on the wicker, straw, wood, willow, bamboo, handle bars and seats. The wicker soaks up the Poly and it acts as an extra glue and hardener. I plan to do extra coats periodically. I even coated the burlap fabric with the Poly. I am not a confident gardener about what to plant in the baskets. Temperatures are already gettin' up to 100. It will probably need to be potted plants. This Fall, I plan to fill the back basket with coconut liner then those miniature pumpkin gourds that I am growing in the back yard. Last year people were using my bike as a photo op on Halloween night. I had painted it with spray primer to look like rust and It had yellow pansies in it.

oopsie - where in the "nook" would you put the bookcase? It's where it is now because 1) I had planned on doing built-on bookcases on either side when we built the house, had been looking for a matching (IKEA) one for other side until my dad brought the Victrola over and 2) now it balances the Victrola. The Victrola is on that side b/c of where the crank is. The LS is 5ft long and 3ft deep - so can't move it to other end of area rug until we make the nook bigger, since it's too hard to get past Ds's chair. I don't want to move the sofa down closer to the bay - I like it centered on the slider. Eventually we'll build in bookcases and a window seat (not deep - will follow the contours of the bay so we can still fit the tree). The opening to the bay is 9 ft across, with 1ft 11" wall space on either side (where bookcase and Victrola are). Until we can afford to get that done we're living with the sofabed (bad idea to put it in the "great room" open to kitchen), we were trying to seat 5-7 people so bought LS and then found ottoman at GW, but I'm willing to get rid of the LS and ottoman as long as we can still seat 4-5 comfortably (not on wooden dining chairs & barstools). 2 chairs could be split up on either side of slider, LS cannot ;-) I sort of like the monochromatic scheme (very soothing), but would like to bring more pattern (besides tone-on-tone stripes) into the room. I wouldn't be adverse to painting the walls a different color when/if we redo the tile in the kitchen, but it would have to work with the oak cabinets, pine trim, tan carpet, linen shades and khaki/mocha sofa. Well, maybe not the carpet b/c if/when we do tile (and sunroom) I'd likely be putting hardwoods in FR. But the sofa and shades have to stay - we have too much $$ into them.

Lynn, it's either this one or very like. Kind of similar to cast-iron, but much lighter. The label didn't say anything about powdercoating, but the website says it's powdercoated, so that makes me worry less. Angc, I feel your pain. We bought a Target Mission-style dresser last year, and it fell apart within a year. Only $275, cheap as dressers go, but for me it was an expensive learning experience, and a mistake I don't want to make again! Were your chairs folding chairs or extruded aluminum like this loveseat? We'd have the loveseat under a patio, like your chairs, but yours is the outcome I'm hoping to avoid. Hence this post.... would love to hear about other Target patio furniture experiences if anyone else is reading! Here is a link that might be useful: cute Target aluminum patio loveseat

Thanks, Loribee. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Hubby says we can head over to Macy's tomorrow to look at the Chloe and a few other chairs. Maybe look at ottomans too because Cassie has decided she loves the loveseat with the ottoman from my office for her head. :) springmeadow - I was hoping that too. But the backs of them, where you place your head, were almost brown with dirt and wear. Ditto the arms. Threadbare in those places. Then we checked them over to see if they would be worth recovering, even though it would be expensive, but hubby said there was evidence of breakage at the bottom of one and on the leg of the other. Still looking. I would really like to keep it at around $500/$600 a chair, if possible. The Chloe is on sale right now for $449.