Luxe furniture styles showing up outdoors

By BONNIE BRITTON,Gannett News Service
Outdoor furniture once meant woven plastic folding chairs with hollow aluminum frames.
Or wooden picnic tables.
Or white stackable resin chairs.
These days, the trend is to extend a home’s living space outside with furniture fit for Cleopatra – or Hollywood’s elite.


It’s the resort-spa-luxury look brought home to deck, patio or pool.
Richard Frinier talks about it in a column posted on the High Point International Home Furnishings Market Web site, www.highpointmarket.org.
He writes of what he calls “Resort-at-Home” trends, “bringing the essence of world travel to our own backyards.”
Whether it’s a double chaise with canopy from Restoration Hardware’s Antibes collection or a Plantation Siesta and Canopy sofa from Gloster, the new furniture is designed to make you forget about folding furniture and plastic Adirondack chairs stacked high at supermarkets.
Taking their place: Deep-seating sofas and chairs with plump cushions, polyresin bases with the look of wicker and adjustable lounges. You can also find outdoor furniture of carved wood, wicker, cast aluminum and wrought iron that’s barely distinguishable from indoor designs being sold at high-end markets and big box stores.
La-Z-Boy, best known for making Grandpa’s comfy recliner, is getting into the outdoor furniture business for the first time, partnering with furniture stalwart Brown Jordan International. The La-Z-Boy outdoor line, introduced earlier this year, is sold exclusively at Sam’s Club.
Naturally, one of the items in the line is a recliner, made of all-weather resin weave on an all-aluminum frame. The recliner has three positions, a built-in footrest and cushions covered in bold red quick-drying, colorfast fabric.
“As consumers have continued to understand that the outdoors … is another room in the house, they’re spending more dollars, and that’s allowing manufacturers like ourselves to reinvest in technology,” says Chris Carmicle, president of Brown Jordan.
The new outdoor furniture takes what resembles an indoor room and pushes it outdoors, he says. “It’s the only room in your house your neighbors can see without being invited inside. It’s finally time people start thinking about what’s on the back of their house.”
Carmicle cites an all-weather La-Z-Boy oval double chaise with adjustable tables, umbrella and seat as “a really fun item.” It retails for about $888.
Dave Heslar, manager of Leland’s in Indianapolis, says “there are new permutations of old ideas” in the outdoor furnishings industry. Glass tabletops have not disappeared, but cast aluminum, faux stone and synthetics are moving in.
As for wood, teak is the “it” material this season.
“It’s the only one we have a great deal of faith in,” says Heslar. “It weathers well, is very, very sturdy and very minimal in terms of care.”
And unlike the low-end, old-style furniture that often was tossed out or repaired when the webbing broke or the frame rusted, today’s best outdoor furniture is warranted for as long as 15 years, while cushions should last six to eight years without replacement.
“It used to be that the norm was, ‘We’ll come in and get a table and four chairs and we’ll eat out there.’ Most people are finding out there are bugs out there.”
Now, Heslar says, people are doing more than just eating.
“It’s a great place to sit and read the newspaper, read a book or socialize. They’re tailoring the furniture more to those types of uses.”