What, When, Where: The Great Outdoors

By Erin Marvin

Now that winter is finally behind us, I’ve been seeing a lot of blogs that focus on ways to freshen up your home’s interiors for the spring season (including a great post by our own guest blogger, Katie Rosenfeld). But now that the weather is really warming up, many of us are eager to spend time outdoors. With that in mind, I’ve found some great outdoor furniture and accessories that make it easy to go al fresco and enjoy the spring weather in style.

The JANUS et Cie Beauty Book has been sitting on my desk for weeks, taunting me with its vibrant orange cover and glossy pages filled with large photos of the company’s gorgeous JANUSfiber and JANUSwood collections, as well as other unique pieces made from metal and rattan.

Here are just a few of my favorite items:

Design Within Reach recently introduced five new outdoor collections including Ollie, designed by skateboarder/designer Royce Nelson for DWR Design Studio, and the New Zealand-inspired Rusa, designed by Grant Kirkpatrick and Jon Wesley Rahman for KAA Design.

Not as new, but just as fabulous is the Walter Lamb collection–I love the mid-century–modern feel of this glamorous lounge chair. (It’s no surprise the collection was recognized with a MoMA design award.)

While the boys of spring may do their best to avoid getting benched, I’d happily take one for the team if it meant resting on one of these stylish, enameled Christofi and Dark Harbor benches from John Lyle.

Lekker is one of my favorite go-to places for home accessories (inside and out). Setting the mood is easy with a few of these Lumbra lanterns by Blomus. Strategically place them around the patio or pool area, or hang them for a starry glow.

Add warmth to an outdoor setting with this tabletop fire pit, made of ceramic and stainless steel and measuring just over a foot in diameter.

And, of course, no outdoor environment is complete without a few of our feathered friends to add bright pops of color and, when we’re lucky, song. The chic, stainless-steel Andidar bird feeder sits on a tall, hardwood stake base.

Those with a green thumb will appreciate the Salus potting sink by Stone Forest. Carved from blocks of black granite, it’s definitely not your garden variety sink.

Also carved from natural materials (boulders), each Ishi natural basin is unique and a perfect complement to the natural landscape.

Perhaps one of my favorite finds is the Vesta fire table, also from Stone Forest. Last fall I sat around the fire pit at Alma Nove in Hingham, Massachusetts, and ever since I’ve been thinking how great it would be to have something similar, but smaller, for my own home. I think this is it!

And, finally, though it’s still a little too chilly to put to good use just yet, I had to share this very cool, very modern Vola FS3 freestanding shower from Hastings Tile & Bath. Just think of it as something to look forward to when summer arrives!