Most people shopping for an Italian sofa set picture four pieces: a sofa, two chairs and a coffee table. RODA, the family company that makes RODA outdoor furniture on Lake Varese, sells its sets that way too, as pieces from one family that share a frame, a finish and a fabric list. You choose how many of each.
Start with the sofa and its wall
Put the sofa where people will look at something good: the garden, the pool, the evening light. Its back goes against a wall, a hedge or a screen when you can manage it. A sofa floating in the middle of a deck feels exposed.
RODA Spool by Rodolfo Dordoni comes in one-, two- and three-seat sizes. The three-seater is about 93 inches long and the two-seater about 71 3/4. All three share a depth of 38 1/4 inches, so they line up at the front when you set them in an L.
Add the chairs
A pair of chairs facing the sofa closes the circle. In Spool the one-seater sofa, about 41 3/4 inches wide, does this job. It is a lounge chair with the same back and cushions as the sofa, so the set reads as one piece of furniture.
Leave about 3 feet of walking room behind the chairs if people pass there. Set the chairs so the seat edges sit around 5 to 6 feet from the sofa front. Guests can then talk across the table without leaning.
Spool tables at cushion height
Spool sits low. The frame is about 10 5/8 inches off the ground and the cushion adds 4 3/8, so the seat lands near 15 inches. The two Spool coffee tables stand about 14 7/8 inches high, level with the cushion, which is where a glass wants to be. One is square at 31 1/2 inches, the other a rectangle of 47 1/4 by 31 1/2, with tops in Carrara marble, Luna or Farsena stone, or natural gres.
A rule of thumb: the coffee table runs about two thirds of the sofa length and leaves 14 to 18 inches of floor between its edge and the cushion. With a three-seater Spool, the rectangular table fits that rule.
The set, counted
A Spool set for a terrace
- Spool
- 3sofa sizes, one to three seats
- 2backs, cord or padded belts
- 2coffee tables in stone or gres
- 13cord colors with recycled ones
- 38 1/4inch depth on every size
The small set: Thea
Plenty of terraces have no room for a three-seater. RODA Thea by Adam D. Tihany is a compact family: a one-seater sofa, a two-seater sofa and two round tables. Tihany drew it with hotels and ships in mind, so it keeps a low seat, wide arms and a small footprint.
The backs and arms are rows of vertical aluminum slats with gaps between them, which let light and air through. The side table is about 17 3/4 inches across and the coffee table about 27 2/3, both with tops in porcelain stoneware or wavy glass. On a city balcony, a two-seater and the side table cover an evening for two.
Side by side
Two ways to build the set
-
RODA Spool
- Sofa
- Two-seater or three-seater, about 71 3/4 or 93 in
- Chairs
- One-seater sofa, about 41 3/4 in, as a lounge chair
- Tables
- Square 31 1/2 in or rectangle 47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in
- Frame
- Powder coated stainless steel in smoke, milk or rust
- Back
- Wound cord or padded belts
- Best on
- A wide terrace or a pool house
-
RODA Thea
- Sofa
- Two-seater sofa
- Chairs
- One-seater sofa
- Tables
- Side table about 17 3/4 in, coffee table about 27 2/3 in
- Frame
- Powder coated aluminum in smoke, milk or rust
- Back
- Vertical aluminum slats
- Best on
- A balcony, a hotel terrace, a small patio
Pick the finish once
Both families come in the same three frame colors: smoke, milk and rust. Choose the frame first, then the cushions. Spool adds a second choice, the back: wound cord in thirteen colors counting recycled clay, mint and rose, or a row of padded belts in gray-sand, gray-blue or recycled clay and stone. The cord back throws striped shadows on the seat in the afternoon; the belts look quieter.
Tell us your terrace size and how many people sit there on a usual evening through the form below. We send back a Spool or Thea set sized to it, with a written price for each piece.
