There are few wallflowers among this year’s most fashion-forward furnishings for “outdoor rooms.”
The hottest look in alfresco seating is contemporary, and these pieces – often with sculptural profiles – are practically upstaging lush landscaping and fancy barbecues. They are edgy but not at the expense of comfort. They are bold but not overpowering. Understated yet sometimes daring, they complement many architectural styles.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, consumers annually spend more than $40 billion upgrading outdoor living accessories and garden amenities. A fully equipped outdoor room might include furniture, lighting, area rugs and accessories such as throws, weatherproof art, televisions and sound systems. Rounding out amenities: kitchen appliances, bars, fireplaces and pavilions.
Following an indoors trend toward less fussy, more streamlined looks, modern style is also blossoming outdoors. That translates into sleek, sexy lines, sweeping curves and sculptural shapes.
Outdoor design styles are also taking inspiration from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, as well as from Italian Riviera, Japanese and Hawaiian influences.
Materials now represent the best that technology has to offer. Even slings have been updated, including the seamless mesh that stretches over Brown Jordan’s new Vista chaises, framed in cast and tubular aluminum.
Weatherproof wicker has taken off too. It’s especially fresh in espresso and honey or taupe shades. Designers are pushing the wicker envelope with different weaves, from tightly wound to open patterns that appear transparent.
Boxy, generously scaled chairs called Yin and Yang, designed for JANUS et Cie, a trendsetting high-end company based in Los Angeles, are intriguing. A gridded weave peeks through the cushions, and although the synthetic material appears fragile, it’s woven over a steel frame and durable foundation. It’s an unlikely marriage: high tech meets macrame.
“We refer to our collection as artful transition,” says Janice Feldman, president and chief executive of JANUS et Cie. “The forms are sculptural (and) eclectic in nature, both by their mix of materials and their woven qualities.”
Hularo is an all-weather resin weave that’s a registered trademark of the German manufacturer Dedon. It’s the choice for designer Richard Frinier’s Marrakesh collection. While some pieces have more traditional looks, the lounge chairs sound a contemporary note with their slim backrests. Refreshingly simple, their arched bases recall Moorish architecture.
Frinier long has been an innovator in casual furniture. Kyoto, his latest collection for Century Leisure, translates traditional elements from teahouses and shoji screens to graphic lines of the back and side panels of the aluminum frames, finished to resemble Raku pottery, a crackle-glazed ceramic that originated in Asia in the 16th century.
Some outdoor pieces rely on familiar form but take a modern turn with finishes and fabrics. The duVal Alexander daybed from McKinnon and Harris, for example, is a classic profile crafted in solid aluminum. With splayed legs, canted sides and latticed panels, the piece looks as if it were plucked from a timeless English garden. A soft green powder-coated finish, teamed with a lively stripe in watermelon pink and apple, lends a crisp, hip look.
Just as familiar is the grid that backs teak chairs in the Mandalay collection from Terra Furniture. But proportions make them contemporary. Other times, the most recognizable forms assume dynamic new personalities as is the case with designer Terry Hunziker interpretation of a rustic icon, the Adirondack chair. A powder-coated aluminum frame with teak, part of the Camano collection for Sutherland Teak, sets up its ground-hugging frame.
Another reason for modern outdoor furnishings: the proliferation of urban gardens. In cities such as Chicago, where residential lots generally are limited to 25 feet by 125 feet and new houses are forced to expand upward rather than sideways, roof decks have become the newest challenge for landscape designers and architects.
Smith and Hawken’s spring catalog shows Corsica, a boxy, woven grouping, photographed on an urban terrace. The synthetic wicker sits on a teak platform, traditional materials expressed in contemporary shape, with deep seats, plump cushions and extra-wide armrests.
Connecting the dots between living spaces indoors and out requires furniture that is interchangeable stylistically, at least in sophistication and quality. That’s why we’re seeing the kind of edging on outdoor pillows that you would expect to find in the living room.
A demand for more color and pattern also has grown with the introduction of more extensive outdoor fabric lines from companies such as Sunbrella, Glen Raven, Perennials, Waverly and to-the-trade sources such as Donghia and Designers Guild. A Ralph Lauren outdoor fabric collection is starting to show up on Lloyd Flanders furniture.
Manufacturers also are acutely aware of consumer desire for comfort.
“Cuddle chairs are very popular because of the demographics,” says Cinde Ingram, managing editor of Casual Living, a trade publication. “Boomers are aging, and we like to have soft cushions.”
There’s also a romantic aspect to outdoor furnishings inspired by stylish, spare designs photographed at luxury resorts.
“My clients travel the world,” Frinier says. “They recognize Andalusia (a region of southern Spain, the name of his collection for Century Leisure) or Bali – whatever is the magical place that helps create an experiential home resort and transport the spirit.”
