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Outdoor & Patio Sizes

Calculators for the measurements a patio comes down to: the umbrella over the table or the seats, the rug under them, the string lights overhead and the table itself.

The back of a brick house with a deck, a stone patio with a striped umbrella over a round table, and a fire pit

Shade

Size a patio umbrella for a table or a seating area, round or rectangular, and the base it needs.

Underfoot

Size an outdoor rug for a seating area or a dining table, with patio showing around it.

Lights

Work out how many feet of string lights a patio, deck or yard takes, the strands to buy and where to hang them.

The table

Size an outdoor dining table for the people it seats and the space around it.

Start with the shade

A patio umbrella is sized from what it shades, not from the space around it. The patio umbrella size calculator takes the table's size, or the size of a seating area without one, and works out the canopy to look for: wide enough to reach past the edge so the people sitting there are in the shade, and the standard size that comes closest. Over a long rectangular table it compares a round canopy with a rectangular one.

The same result says how heavy a base the umbrella needs, with the pole through the table or standing on its own, because a canopy that size catches the wind.

A rug underfoot

A patio at dusk with floor cushions and leather poufs on a patterned rug, under string lights and an umbrella

An outdoor rug pulls a seating area together, as long as it's big enough. The outdoor rug size calculator sizes it from the furniture: under the front legs of the seats, or every leg, with rug to spare past the ends, or under a dining table far enough that the chairs stay on it when they're pulled out. Then it checks the rug against the patio, so some of the patio still shows around it.

It also covers what a rug outdoors needs: keeping it clear of a fire pit or a grill, a backing that won't mark a composite deck, and a pad to hold it down in the wind.

Light it at night

String lights, lanterns and candles lighting a patio seating corner with cushions and a wooden ladder

For the evenings, the string lights length calculator works out how many feet of lights a patio, deck or yard takes around the edge, in a zigzag or crisscrossed corner to corner, with extra for the drape and the run to the outlet. It also says which strands add up to that length and where to hang them.

Size the table

The table comes before the umbrella. The dining table size calculator works outdoors too: it sizes the table for the people it seats and leaves room to pull the chairs out, and its result carries straight over to the umbrella calculator.

Measure the patio first

Before you shop, measure the table across its top, or the seating area from the outside of one seat to the outside of the one across from it. Then note what's above and beside it: a wall, a railing, a gutter or a tree branch can stop a canopy from opening all the way. For string lights, measure between the posts, walls or fence they will hang from, and the way the cord will run to the outlet.

How these tools work

Each calculator states the rule it uses and the assumptions behind it, right on the page under "How we calculate." The result is a starting point you can adjust to your patio and the sun it gets.

Everything runs in your browser: the numbers you type stay on your device. Use Copy link to save a result or send it to someone helping you shop.