Outdoor cushions for Cyprus verandas, roof terraces and pools

3,415 hours of sun and 0.1 rainy days in July

Limassol's climate table, from the Cyprus Meteorological Service, reads like a sunbed's worst dream: about 3,415 hours of sunshine a year, 391 of them in July. Rainy days average 51.8 a year and just 0.1 in July and in August. July and August afternoons average 92 to 93°F (33.5 to 33.7°C).

The island's tourism office puts summer at 11.5 hours of bright sunshine a day across six months, with midday humidity on the central plain as low as 15 to 30%. Hot, dry summers run from mid-May to mid-September.

UV is the headline. Limassol's average UV index peaks at 11 in July, and the EPA's scale calls 8 and up very high to extreme. That fades color and tires fiber, so outdoor cushions in Cyprus start with UV-resistant outdoor fabric, and indoor cloth stays indoors. The Arizona and Southwest page deals with the same dry, hard light, and the Croatia page covers a windier, saltier Mediterranean coast.

Villas, flat roofs and courtyard houses

Three kinds of outdoor seat do most of the work here.

The villa: a pool, a covered veranda and a row of loungers. Under a solid veranda roof, standard foam in outdoor fabric is enough. On the open deck, loungers take the full sun, so plan where they rest at midday. The sunbed size Pattern covers the hinge split.

The flat roof terrace: the sunniest seat on the island, with nothing overhead. Build daybed and bench cushions one person can carry down the stairs.

The village house: in old villages such as Pano Lefkara, bare stone fronts with few openings, rooms arranged around an inner courtyard and flat rammed-earth roofs are typical, and later two-story houses added long balconies. A shaded courtyard bench under a roof can even take an indoor linen-look, as long as it comes in when the winter rain does.

Not every cushion here lives outside. A parent wrote to the workshop about a round reading tunnel built into a children's cabinet, 37.4 in (95 cm) across and 18.1 in (46 cm) deep, with the seat 5.9 in (15 cm) above the lowest point. They wanted medium-firm HR foam that stays flat for an infant, under a washable zip cover. The workshop worked out the curved underside from photos, and production waited until the fabric was chosen: an oatmeal linen-look.

Light colors, washable covers, somewhere shady

Pick light colors. Ivory, sand, stone and dove gray stay cooler under bare legs in August, and they sit easily against limewash and travertine, like the ivory pinstripe by the pool in the photo. Keep the strong colors for small pillows you carry in at night.

The workshop's outdoor range is woven polyester with a water-repellent, UV-resistant finish, in roughly 150 to 200 colors across several charts. The UV rating varies by code, so ask for yours. For striped loungers, look at the membrane family.

Dust is the other summer job. Every cushion has a zippered cover, and covers wash at 86°F (30°C), inside out, on a gentle cycle; air dry them. Shake and brush the dust off first, or it turns to mud in the drum. The cover washing Pattern has the details.

Winter is short and mild, but it's real: about 60% of the year's rain falls from December to February. Rain doesn't negotiate. Water-repellent fabric sheds a shower, yet water still finds the seams and zipper, and a soaked cushion wants 24 to 48 hours to dry. Where do your loungers spend January, friend?