Spring Trends: Designs For Every Element

Indoor, outdoor, outdoor, indoor. In the interior design world, they’ve fused, and now all of the square meters we have – whether they have walls and ceilings or not – are part of the space we play out our lives in.

Whereas once modern outdoor furniture tended to be boxy, scratchy and struggled to shake off the rain, its successors have advanced so much they’re any-weather-proof and almost indistinguishable from indoor designs

These designs are a fusion of ultra-high-tech fabrics which expertly repel water and dry speedily, as well as banish mould and UV and insect damage – all while feeling delightfully soft – and materials with naturally occurring outdoor-resistant properties – such as the rattan in B&B Italia’s Crinoline Outdoor Armchair by Patricia Urquiola or the teak in Knoll’s Petal Dining Table by Richard Schultz.

But what makes designer modern outdoor furniture indoor-worthy, beyond its exceptional feel, is that it now looks just as beautiful as their indoor counterparts. At last, as much design energy is being poured into these outdoor pieces as into any other.

What’s now being produced for terraces, gardens, patios and balconies are beautiful, soon-to-be-icons made by celebrated design names and brands, such as Molteni&C’s Palinfrasca seating collection by Vincent Van Duysen, with its oversized woven teak back, Poltrona Frau’s The Secret Garden Dining Table by Roberto Lazzeroni, in hand enamelled stone, Cane-Line’s Mellow seating system, with its organic curved forms made up of comfortable, quick-drying modules, or the Gubi Epic Outdoor Table collection by GamFratesi, in decorative Botanic Green Quartzite.

Then there are the world-renowned classics we’ve long known and loved that have been refreshed with weatherproof finishes to complete the blurring of indoor and out, from the DS-600 Outdoor Snake Sofa by De Sede in a choice of water-repellent or water-permeable fabrics, to the Arc Outdoor Dining Table by Foster & Partners for Molteni&C, printed from a single block of ultra-lightweight cement, or Cassina’s Utrecht XL Outdoor chair in recycled PET fibre and water-repellent lining.

Crafted with the same innovation and beauty as indoor pieces, today’s furniture is designed to move fluidly between indoor and out. Modern outdoor designs are both stylish and resilient, seeing open-air spaces become true extensions of the home as indoor-worthy aesthetics and outdoor resilience finally coalesce.