Apr 17, 2013
I am so proud of my new outdoor furniture line with Skyline Design! My designs are about really living luxuriously outdoors.
That doesn’t mean living formally, so don’t get scared!
Living luxuriously outdoors is about scale and proportion. Sofas deep enough to really relax or curl up in. Chaises that are long enough and wide enough to stretch out and roll over. Daybeds that actually are daybeds! That means that they are long enough and wide enough to…luxuriate on!
My outdoor furniture is available from fine retailers across the U.S. and internationally. But, I want to help you use it to its best advantage and make your outdoor living space the biggest, the best, the most fun, the most usable and the sexiest it can be! It is actually easy to do if you think about your outdoor living and dining spaces the same way you consider their indoor counterparts. Living in southern California, we have the quintessential indoor/outdoor lifestyle. New homes here are designed to flow seamlessly from interior to exterior. It’s a really great way to live but it also means that the plastic stacking dining chairs and Costco lounge chairs are OUT!
Define your main furniture groups. In other words, where are you going sit and where are you going to eat? For seating it is important to remember you don’t want to be sitting on top of each other when it is warm so make sure you have plenty of options and not just count your outdoor sofa as seating for four. As Moe, in the Three Stooges used to say to Larry and Curly, “Spread out!” My new “Hollywood” sofa is big enough and deep enough to seat 4 on the inside…and the really great thing about the construction is that the arms and back are actually made to sit on! Remember when you mother told you NOT to sit on the back of the chair? Well, it is not true with my furniture! My outdoor sofa is floating on my patio so that you can circulate around it and sit on all sides! I like to say that my sofa sits 12, four on the inside and eight around the sides and back (LOL)!
If there is one point I want you walk away with it is this, scale is everything when creating a really fabulous outdoor living space. This is true for the furniture and accessories alike. Second to scale is lighting. Just like inside your home, lighting is key to a truly successful design. In spring, summer and even fall most people use their outdoor spaces as early and late as possible through the seasons. You want and need more than just hurricanes with candles. You should be able to dine and entertain but you should also be able to read and see!
Sitting in the shadows is not what you want here!
Speaking of outdoor accessories, the TV is as typical to outdoor living space today as the cooler was in years past. I have recently seen some luxury motor-homes (or mobile estates as they are now called…) seriously? Are they kidding me!?) with outdoor TV’s as standard equipment! Flip a button and it comes out of the side of the camper, hit the button again and it hides itself away for travel and storage!
With all these new accessories, like remotes, electric starters for your fire-pit, etc. the remote needs a place to be stored away too. My new outdoor “Melrose” end table actually has a working drawer! It’s all about the details, they make the difference. The details in the furniture you buy and the details you bring to your space to personalize the statement you make outdoors!
Stay tuned I have plenty more to talk about when it comes to outdoors. You can see the Dann Foley Lifestyle furniture for outdoors on my website, www.danninc.com. There is a link that takes you right the catalog where you can see the full line!