Patio tiki on a budget

Dew, wind, and one outdoor outlet (if you even have one) decide the shopping list. Indoor salt lamps, neon signs, and plug-in rattan pendants stay inside. For a first patio, buy outdoor-safe light, a table that can live outside for an evening, and mugs you will not cry over if someone walks them to the grass.

A balcony still counts. Skip 48-foot solar runs until you know whether the railing can take clips. Four solar flame torches or a short string of rattan globes will do more than a totem you trip over.

Solar flickering torches (the four-pack in the kit) sit in planter gaps or along a fence. Rattan lantern strings are connectable and warm; use them if you have a hook and are willing to bring them in after rain. The Brightech solar Edison lights are patio-only in the catalog for a reason. They want sky, not a basement window well.

If you do run a cord, keep it a table lamp with an outdoor rating, not a strip taped to wet wood. IP44 on a cordless wood-grain lamp is the kind of boring spec that saves a Saturday.

A folding wicker bistro set gives you a pour surface and two seats without dragging the dining table outside. Mix on a tray. Indoor bamboo kitchen carts swell and stain outside; leave those for the nook guide.

Drinks that travel: Painkillers (navy rum, pineapple, orange, cream of coconut), a rum punch you can batch in a pitcher, Dark ’n’ Stormy if you only want ginger beer and rum. Ceramic mugs keep crushed ice from melting as fast as a thin highball in July.

Phone speaker in a dry bowl is enough for a first patio. Surf records (Dale, Ventures) cut through talk better than quiet exotica. Save Martin Denny for when you move the party inside.

Pick Outdoor patio in the builder if you want the catalog filtered to gear that is marked outdoor-safe.