The piazza off the back of my Charleston bungalow has, for twelve years now, been the room where I do most of my actual living from late March through October. Beauregard sleeps under the rattan settee. The sweet tea sweats onto the side table. And every spring, when I sit down to plan what to repair, replace, or simply rearrange, I find myself reaching for catalogs the way I once reached for the morning paper at the Better Homes & Gardens office.
A good outdoor catalog is, in my view, more useful than a glossy magazine spread. It is honest about price, specific about dimensions, and it allows you to compare a half-dozen lounge chairs without ever leaving your kitchen. Below is a working list of the catalogs I keep in the basket beside my reading chair, with notes on what each is genuinely good for in 2026 and where I think they fall short.
For Furniture That Will Survive a Coastal Summer
Homecrest Outdoor Living
Homecrest has been making patio furniture in Wadena, Minnesota since 1953, and that longevity matters. Their frames are aluminum and steel; their sling fabrics hold up to UV and humidity in a way that the Target-aisle alternatives simply do not. I have a pair of their swivel rockers on the front porch that have weathered two named storms and shrug off the salt air without complaint. The catalog is not the slimmest in this stack, but it is the one I would press into the hands of any friend furnishing a covered porch from scratch.
BrylaneHome Outdoor
BrylaneHome released a new catalog for 2026 and remains a sensible source for cushions, umbrellas, and the workhorse pieces of a backyard, particularly if you are furnishing a rental property or a guesthouse and do not want to spend Frontgate money. Their proprietary fabrics are not Sunbrella, and you can feel the difference, but their value-to-comfort ratio is honest. I bought their zero-gravity loungers for my daughter's beach house and have not heard a complaint.
For Ornament and the Quiet Pleasure of a Garden Folly
Design Toscano
I will admit a soft spot for Design Toscano, who have been producing garden statuary, reproduction sculpture, and the occasional gargoyle for more than twenty-five years. Their resin pieces, reinforced with fiberglass, hold up better than anything cast from concrete I have placed in my own borders, and their bronze offerings, lost-wax cast, develop the patina that distinguishes a real sculpture from a souvenir. A frog on a lily pad, a small Saint Francis tucked into the boxwood, a sundial on the herb bed: Sister Parish would have approved of the principle, if not always the particular gnome.
Amish Country Gazebos
If you are at the stage of outdoor planning where the question is no longer cushion fabric but rather "shall we add a structure," Amish Country Gazebos out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania remains the standard. Custom-built, lifetime-warrantied, and shipped assembled or in panelized kits depending on what your driveway will accommodate. Expect to spend in the four figures at minimum; expect, also, that the gazebo will outlast you. My neighbor put one in fifteen years ago and it is still the centerpiece of her garden.
For the Garden Itself
Whatever Works
Whatever Works, owned by the Potpourri Group, is the catalog I turn to for the small, problem-solving items: the kneeling pad that does not crack, the deer-deterrent spray that actually deters, the trowel with the orange handle so you can find it in the mulch bed at dusk. It is not aspirational. It is, as the name suggests, practical. I keep it in the kitchen drawer rather than the living room basket, which I think is the appropriate compliment.
Rock-It Creations
For engraved garden stones, whether marking an herb bed or memorializing a spaniel who came before Beauregard, Rock-It Creations has done careful work for years. Their stones are sourced and engraved in the United States. The lettering holds up. I would not order one in a hurry; allow lead time, and choose your wording with the awareness that you will be reading it for a decade or more.
For Outdoor Entertaining
Harry & David
Harry & David is not, strictly speaking, a backyard decor catalog. But a Royal Riviera pear, served on a glass plate at twilight on the porch, is its own kind of decor. They remain the gold standard for gourmet gifts in this country, and their summer offerings, the cherries and the stone fruit in particular, are what I send to friends who have just bought beach houses. The catalog itself is a pleasure to flip through.
Favors.com
For the cocktail party, the engagement luncheon, the milestone birthday on the back lawn, Favors.com offers party decor in solid colors and seasonal motifs. It is a younger, brighter aesthetic than I personally gravitate toward, but I have used them when planning my granddaughter's college graduation gathering and found the quality entirely respectable for the price.
For Going Beyond the Backyard
The original list paired backyard catalogs with outdoor recreation catalogs, which I find a slightly odd marriage but understand the logic of. If your idea of summer extends beyond the property line, three remain worth your time:
- RailRiders — performance apparel for hiking, sailing, and travel in difficult climates. Built for hard wear, priced accordingly.
- Camping World — America's largest RV dealer, with over 200 locations and a parts catalog that is essential if you own a recreational vehicle of any vintage. They had over twenty percent year-over-year growth in 2025, so they are not going anywhere.
- 3Rivers Archery — for traditional longbow and recurve archery, a niche but devoted audience. Probably not your concern unless it already is.
- Smoky Mountain Knife Works — a Tennessee institution for collectible, kitchen, and outdoor knives. Useful for the camping cousin on your gift list.
A Note on How I Use These Catalogs Now
I read them with a pencil, the way I was taught to read manuscripts at Better Homes & Gardens. I circle the dimensions. I write the per-square-foot price in the margin when furniture is sold by the set. I tear out the pages of pieces I am considering and pin them to a corkboard in the laundry room for a week before I order, because I have learned that what looks marvelous in print at ten o'clock at night does not always look marvelous at the breakfast table the following Saturday.
The catalogs themselves have grown leaner over the last decade, with much of the inventory now living online. That is sensible. But there is still something to be said for the printed page, the ability to see twenty options at a glance, and the absence of the algorithm trying to predict what you will want next. A backyard, when it is done well, should feel like a refuge from precisely that kind of pressure.
