A lanai is a place to sit back and relax, and you'll need a place to do so, so the first thing on your furniture list is probably a sitting room set. While your lanai is covered to keep off rain, you'll still want to get outdoor furniture so that it'll handle moisture that gets trapped in the patio and so it won't be damaged by extreme temperatures or by people coming in out of the rain and sitting on it. Make sure to get an outdoor set like this one.

Since Lanais are a common Hawaiian patio style, it makes sense to have some Hawaiian or Hawaii-themed decorations. One thing that people often think about when they think about Hawaii is pineapples, so you can include them in your decor to give a Hawaiian feel. Get a pineapple lamp like this, or get furnishings with pineapple pictures or patterns to make your lanai feel tropical. This is also a fun, decorative piece of furniture that will create a laid back feeling.

Hawaii is the place of choice for a lanai, and if you're not in Hawaii, you want to feel like you are; otherwise, you'd just be looking for patio ideas. You don't have to build furniture with Hawaiian styles and Hawaiin decorations on it to make this work; instead, you can add Hawaiian pillows and other accents to make the furniture feel more tropical. For example, you can get these palm leaf pillows to add a tropical vibe to your couch.

If you have a small lanai, you still want to get the most of it, but you might need to get your furniture in smaller or more compact sizes. No matter how small your lanai is, you'll want to make sure you have a comfortable place to eat and drink, whether it's during a gathering or every day. Try getting a compact bar and table set like this so that you can have a place to put your food and drinks and still be reasonably comfortable.

Since a lanai is a comfortable lounge and patio, you'll want to relax and lay back sometimes. For a lanai whose primary purpose is giving you a place to sit on your own or with a few friends, you should have plenty of space and be focused on comfortable furniture like a daybed. Try building an outdoor daybed using these directions so that you can have a comfortable place to sit or nap. Since it's made of wood, it'll be sturdier than most daybeds you can buy online.

One issue you might have with a soft-sided lanai or one that doesn't have sturdy studs to mount shelves to is that there might not be a lot of table or storage space or places to put decorations. Instead of relying on walls for this, you can get a hanging shelf set like this that will look and act like wall shelves, but it hangs from the ceiling so that you can use it even if your walls aren't designed for it.

If you have strong enough ceiling supports, you open up an entirely new dimension to your lanai. Instead of placing everything on the ground, you can hang some of your furniture. This creates a relaxing hammock-like feeling that will gently sway you to sleep, relax you, or entertain the kids. Try building a hanging daybed like this to create the ultimate relaxing experience as you drift away in your tropical paradise… Make sure the structure will handle it before you build it.

Hawaii and palm trees go together so well that many Hawaiian-themed decorations have palm trees on them. When you see palm trees, you think of tropical places like Hawaii, so if you want to create a tropical paradise like a lanai, you'll want to think about adding some palm trees like this palm tree lamp. A lamp is also a great way to create a small cone of light and comfort when you're spending time in the lanai at night.

A lot of patio furniture is wicker, and wicker gives off a homey and old fashioned feeling that makes people comfortable instantly. That's exactly the feeling you want in a lanai, even if wicker doesn't immediately make you think, "I'm in Hawaii." Get a wicker lamp like this to create a cocoon of light and give off a warm and rustic vibe that will make you feel happy and calm, the way you deserve to feel in your lanai.

While your lanai could feel like an outdoor patio with coverings, there's another way to go about furnishing it. Instead of making an outdoor space that's covered, make it feel like an indoor space that's been placed outside. You can make furniture that looks like indoor furniture and coat it with sealants to make sure it's safe to use outside. Try making a marble-topped table using these instructions, and add a coating to make it a little more weather resistant.

If you want to add a little more Hawaiian and tropical vibes to your lanai, you don't need new furniture; you can just add Hawaiian touches to the existing stuff. Try getting a Hawaiian skirt like this to put on your bar. While it's probably not durable enough to use for a long time, it's cheap enough to replace easily, and nothing gives off Hawaiian vibes like a Hawaiian skirt. Think about adding this to a tiki bar or even just a coffee table.

Since your lanai is covered, you can use it at night without worrying about mosquitoes or other bugs. It'll also hold in some heat from the daytime so that it won't cool off right away. If you like to spend time in it at night, though, you'll need lighting. Try buying and setting up lamp posts with lanterns like these to put in each corner to make a well-lit space with a traditional and outdoorsy feel to it.

A chaise lounge is a comfortable place to lie down if you're just trying to relax and maybe take a nap. Lanais are comfortable places to rest, and adding a chaise lounge will definitely make them more comfortable. You can get an adjustable one like this so that you can lie down at any angle that's comfortable. Make sure it's designed for outdoors like this one, too, so that it can handle temperature changes and won't be affected by moisture those changes create.

If you want your lanai to feel like an outdoor living room, and plan to use it for sitting after dinner or lounging during a summer gathering, then you'll want living room furniture. That said, a couch won't be your only piece of furniture, so you'll need to plan around the other pieces. One way to make sure it's the right size and shape for you is to build a sectional sofa yourself using the directions in this article from Lamberts Lately. You can make one like theirs with cushions since the lanai is covered to keep out the rain.

If you're out in a lanai, you've probably got a drink in hand, whether it's a tequila sunrise or a Mt. Dew, and you don't want to have to get up to set it down when you're done or sit there with the cold drink chilling your hands during the fall. Drink holders are one of the more valuable features for lanai furniture, and if you can't find good outdoor furniture with drink holders, you can use the directions in this article from Home Made By Carmona to make an outdoor sofa with drink holders yourself.

Depending on how your lanai is covered, you might not be able to hang things from the walls. This means that if you want decorations or want to store some of your outdoor dishes, grill accessories, or decorations on shelves, you'll need freestanding shelves. Think about getting decorative scrollwork shelves like these to blend in with any metal furniture and give off an old fashioned and homey feeling. The scrollwork makes the shelf a decoration as well as a furniture piece, too.

Rocking back and forth is a soothing feeling rivaled by little else. When we sit in rocking chairs, we feel more comfortable than in a still chair, and many people find themselves rocking and tipping chairs back for this same reason. A lanai should feel relaxed, and outdoor rocking chairs like these will help you feel happy and relaxed. Think about getting a few sets if you're likely to have a lot of guests since these rocking chairs don't take up as much room as most.

When you set up your lanai, there are a lot of furniture pieces you can look for, from the fanciest to the simplest. One of the most basic things you'll want, whether you're designing the lanai to feel like a sitting room, dining room, or even an outdoor kitchen, is chairs. A lot of outdoor chairs are cheap plastic or very expensive, but you can walk the middle ground between those by making outdoor chairs using these directions from Thrifty and Chic.

Chaise lounges are incredibly comfortable and make wonderful places to either sleep or sit back. While a lot of them have a modern design, you can also find them in tropical designs like this teak chaise lounge from Amazon. It's made from teak, a tropical wood, and the light wood looks more tropical than metal or plastic. The lounge is adjustable so that you can sit up to eat or drink or lie back to nap.

If you want an authentic Hawaiian or tropical lanai, one of the things you should look for is tropical woods like Acacia that can be found in Hawaii. While not all Acacia is from Hawaii, some of it is, and the wood has a tropical look that'll make everything mesh together with tropical decorations. You can get acacia bar stools like this for your bar or build or buy other furniture that fits how you plan to use your lanai.

While your furniture will have protection from rain and weather, it'll still be subject to temperature changes and other issues from being outside, and it's never a bad idea to use weather-resistant outdoor furniture. Since it's covered, though, you can leave the furniture out all year long, so you don't have to worry about buying furniture that's easy to move in and out during cold weather. As a result, you can make heavy but pretty furniture like this concrete side table with a light wood base that will match tropical decorations using these instructions by Brad Rodriguez.

Just because you want to eat outside in your lanai doesn't mean you need a typical grill setup. There are a lot of ways to cook things, and you can explore these by putting a variety of furniture in your lanai. Try getting a burner bar table like this that you can cook on and that also has a decorative antique look. When the burner's not in use, you can slide the decorative panels over the burners and use it as an end table or bar again.

For everyday use, an ice bucket wouldn't be practical. After all, you'd have to replace the ice each time you went out, and it'd be a lot easier to just run in and grab drinks a lot of the time. If you like to host parties or get-togethers, an ice bucket is a neat way to provide ice-cold drinks without the costs of a refrigerator and running power outside. You can even make a table with a built-in ice bucket like this using these instructions from The Handyman's Daughter.

Is your lanai a sitting room, a lounge, or maybe a dining area? If you want to use your lanai to eat meals outside during the nicer seasons, you'll want a dining set like this that's designed for outdoor use. The set is designed to be comfortable, with armrests, and if you don't have a lot of room, the stools fit underneath the chairs and table to save space. This makes it great if you like to eat meals in the lanai but also want a place to nap or sit back.