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Beyond the Back Door

Taking the Inside, Outside

by Deidra Darsa, PR & media relations, Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Assn.

Posted: ARCHITECTURAL WEST – MAY/JUNE 2009

rench doors, skylights, bay windows, and high
ceilings are all ways to open a room and bring the
outdoors in, which, homeowners have tried to do
for years. These days, the trend has reversed as
consumers everywhere look to their backyards to extend their living
spaces and enjoy the fresh air, sunshine, and gardens; even on the
farm. And, with the help of outdoor fireplaces and fire pits for
warmth, elegant weather-resistant fabrics and furnishings, elaborate
kitchens featuring grills, sinks, and refrigerators, there’s barely a
need for a house at all.

“People are trying to bring indoor comfort and style and blend it
with our eco-friendly outdoor materials to create a luxury resort or
an exotic retreat in their backyards,” said Marcia Blake, president of
Outdoor Interiors. “They can vacation in their backyard or spend
time there after a stressful day at work.”
In the last year, the level of sophistication found in outdoor living
has grown to where now homeowners arrange cooking, dining,
conversational seating, and entertainment areas throughout their
outdoor areas creating communal gathering spots as well as peaceful
retreats featuring water or fire features.
“What I’m seeing is multiple areas in the backyard that are utilized
for different reasons,” said Blake. “For example, a free-standing
fireplace in the garden with a nice mantel and stone wall with an
alcove for artwork creates a nice living room setting where you can
sit and relax and enjoy the outdoors, the open sky, air, as well as the
fire.”

Outdoor kitchens with bar-type settings attract friends and family
as would an indoor kitchen island setting while the chef grills
dinner. “It’s not necessarily where they’re going to be eating, but
it’s an area where they can sit and have a glass of wine,” she said.
Often outdoor living settings are found beyond the backyard to
places where people combine their athletic endeavors with cozy corners,
whether that be a swimming pool, tennis court, or a horse stable.

Across the country upscale homes and equestrian facilities are both featuring outdoor living areas.

“I frequently have clients request an outdoor living area where they can relax around their
barns and look out over the landscape,” said John Blackburn, Blackburn
Architects. “I always try to include gathering areas in our barn
designs because a barn is not just a place to house a horse. They
very often become a place to socialize, so we try to put together
those spaces. We’ve done this on every farm.”
A client who recently bought a farm requested a very elaborate
tack room with a kitchen loft and an outside terrace that overlooks a
lake on the property. And another client requested a series of outside
areas, both under a trellis and open, including a fire pit and a
private terrace off an open kitchen. On the barn side, friends can
gather in the courtyard with views of the ocean and stay warmed by
the heat of an open fire pit.
“Owners spend a lot of money on their homes, barns, and properties
and they like to enjoy them,” said Blackburn. “So we like to
create a place where they can sit back and enjoy it and watch their
horses, much like the same way in which we create an outdoor living
area for a home overlooking a garden or other landscape features.”
Furnishing and decorating the outdoor room can be just as challenging
as decorating the interior of a home. “With the renewed
awareness of nature and our desire to preserve and protect the environment,
everybody is trending towards colors that are inspired by
water such as the blue greens of the ocean, orange, and reds of
Southwest red rock as well as the brown nutrient enriched soil and
green colors of the plants we grow,” says Blake, noting that those
colors can be found in deep-seated cushions, accent pillows and
throws, rugs and even drapery, all made exclusively for the outdoor
room.
Even though an outdoor room may be surrounded by gardens,
many homeowners are finding plants potted in glittering metallic
planters set the mood in any outdoor room. “I’m finding many
more container plants are incorporated in all of these settings,” she
said.Overall, an outdoor living area done right can add substantial
value to a home. But, perhaps more importantly, an outdoor living
space provides something unique, and that’s the “wow! factor.”

Outdoors comes inside: Durable, colorfast fabrics are doing double duty in the house.
- Sun, Apr. 06, 2008

By ELAINE MARKOUTSAS

Posted : Sun, Apr. 06, 2008

Universal Press Syndicate / Miami Herald

From the look of supple leather to silky chenille, plush mohair velvet to gossamer sheers, outdoor fabrics are showing sophistication that is a spot-on match to the most fashion-forward indoor counterparts.

Designed for outdoor furniture but with looks that mimic indoor decor, the fabrics have come full circle. The mission was accomplished, and now these outdoor fabrics are being marketed for indoor use as well.

And consumers are catching on to the fact that there’s incredible substance beyond the style. The durable materials are colorfast under exposure to intense sun and resistant to stains, mildew and odors.

”It’s a no-brainer,” says Joe Ruggiero, a television host and furniture designer based in Los Angeles. “You don’t have to worry about fading, pets, kids. With heavy wear, easy-care fabrics blow everything away.

”Durability makes the fabric perfect for outdoors. The softness, beautiful colors and patterns make it equally perfect in the home,” Ruggiero says.

Some casual furniture manufacturers, such as O.W. Lee, have taken the initiative to create collections of professionally coordinated outdoor fabrics for furniture, along with draperies and accessories such as pillows, throws and table runners. This simplifies selections and provides a complete ensemble.

Designer Marcia Blake is spearheading Outdoor Couture, which currently offers 18 pillows, four styles of throws, two types of table runners and draperies with rod pockets or tab tops.

”It helps give a finishing touch to a well-dressed room,” says Blake, who also heads her own company, Outdoor Interiors, based in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Ruggiero, whose first collection of woven outdoor furniture recently debuted with Woodard Furniture, shows his indoor line for Norwalk Furniture with upholstery from his Sunbrella Fabrics collection, some of which is available by the yard to consumers through Calico Corners. He also does cast-aluminum designs for Terra Furniture.

He recently showcased his Sunbrella fabrics on runway models in an apparel show with the panache of haute couture. Ruggiero designed 16 outfits, from evening to poolside, including saris and kimonos, for the show in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sunbrella, which is a registered trademark of Glen Raven, is perhaps the most recognizable name in weatherproof coverings, known in the industry as performance fabrics.

Recently, Maine designer Angela Adams, whose signature is bold graphic designs, put together a collection for Sunbrella under the Architex label. They were intended for outdoor use but were suitable for indoor use as well.

Another company with performance fabrics is Crypton Super Fabrics, launched in 1994 and chiefly known for antimicrobial properties. Crypton is a supplier of fabrics for hotels, hospitals, cruise ships and fast-food establishments. According to its website, the company boasts installations of more than 60 million yards of fabric “from Buckingham Palace to the White House to your house.”

And Crypton has made enormous inroads into the home, with chenilles, leathers, velvets and corduroys — finishes you’d never expect to withstand the elements. Architect Michael Graves and photographer William Wegman have designed collections for Crypton. Both have created dog beds, the former in fetching toile with a suede gusset and piping, the latter in his signature canine silhouette pattern.

At the high end, Perennials Fabrics and Chella are well established in the industry. Donghia, Robert Allen (Portico), Scalamandre (Island Cloth), Marimekko and Designers Guild have outdoor fabric collections, as do licensed home furnishings groups such as Tommy Bahama (Laneventure) and Ralph Lauren Home.

The label Hyde Me, available to the trade, offers convincing fabrics that resemble real hides, such as ostrich, snakeskin, crocodile, lizard, rhinoceros and kid-smooth leathers.

Still, many designers remain unaware of the enormous design potential that performance fabrics offer. ”It’s the best-kept secret in the industry,” an interior designer recently told Ruggiero.

Yet a handful of design professionals long have appreciated the benefits of outdoor fabrics. When the estate of the late fashion designer Bill Blass went up for auction at Sotheby’s in October 2003, it was revealed that his interiors were filled with sofas and chairs covered in white Sunbrella fabrics to keep them canine safe.

Practicality, after all, is a huge part of the attraction. It’s not a big leap from application in sunrooms to interiors throughout the house. Performance fabrics are perfect for kids’ rooms or as shower curtains, bedding and draperies. It’s a formidable throw-in-the-wash solution for sunny climes such as Florida and Arizona. Some designers use them as inner liners to protect exquisite, fragile silks from disintegrating in the sun.

”You don’t even have to worry about ketchup on white fabric,” says Richard Frinier, a California-based, designer known for transforming outdoor living with his trendsetting designs. No worries about pillows or cushions handled by kids with pizza- or brownie-caked fingers. Or paw prints from muddy pets.

Frinier’s Estancia collection for Century Leisure drew raves at the annual casual furniture market at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago and the furniture markets in High Point, N.C. Frinier used weather-friendly leather that fit Spanish colonial-style chairs and chaises like a glove.

With softer, deeper cushions on frames that range from silky smooth teak and mahogany to fetching woven wickers to wrought iron and cast aluminum in styles covering Mission to Louis XV, country to streamlined modern, the very furniture designed to bring indoors style out is coming back into the house.

”We’re designing furniture that has no boundaries,” Frinier says. “Indoors, outdoors, you decide.”

Combining comfort and style with wearability is a winning formula.

”People want to bring the outdoors inside — but they don’t want to give up luxury or comfort,” says Ed Tashjian, vice president of marketing at Century Furniture. ”Living casually doesn’t mean unrefined,” Tashjian says. “People still want fine style, proportions and exquisite designs.”

As technology continues to advance what’s possible in fiber and textile design, combining the best of indoor fashion with outdoor practicality, lines between the two blur even further. That evolution really is revolutionary, as it may well transform the way we live inside as well as outside, removing that precious ”look but don’t touch” factor from luxe decor.

Says Frinier: “It allows people to live with their furniture, not have to worry about it.”

For all media inquiries regarding Outdoor Interiors™ and Marcia Blake

Please contact us via email: media@outdoorinteriors.com.

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