Not long ago, outdoor furniture was largely comprised of those flimsy, folding aluminum chairs, with interwoven plastic strips for the backs and seats, that always left little red square marks across the backs of your thighs. Some of the fancier chairs had golden plastic threads sewn through them, which mainly served to enhance the red squares with scratch marks, as they caused an irritating, incessant itch, like the kind you get from the tag in your tee shirt. Most people don’t know it, but that’s what led to the popularity of Capri pants in the ‘60′s.
Luckily, outdoor furniture has evolved in many ways, and for many reasons, besides technological advancements in manufacturing techniques and synthetic materials. The growing number of enclosed porches and patios, and the population explosion of gazebos, which are often used as cottages, have effectively eliminated “outdoor season.” This has created a new attitude toward outdoor furniture, which is not only chosen as a part of the décor of a porch, patio, or gazebo, but is expected to provide the same comfort – with the same longevity – as indoor furniture.
If that sounds like a tall order, maybe it’s time to visit CedarStore.com, and get acquainted with the new generation of outdoor furniture. From conventional to contemporary, the selection of dining sets, patio chairs, garden benches, porch swings, gliders, ottomans, coffee tables, end tables, and picnic tables, is staggering.
The wide variety of materials available is mind-boggling as well. Of course, you can still get traditional wood furniture. After all, you can’t go wrong with cedar, which has natural oils that help to keep it radiant, while protecting it from insects and decay. Treated pine is also a great choice, because it’s kiln-dried before and after treatment, to help it resist decay, warping, and splintering. In fact, you can’t make a bad choice at CedarStore.com, where all of the wood furniture is hand-crafted.
Luxurious cherry wood, with its natural decay resistance, also makes gorgeous, easy-to-maintain outdoor furniture. For those who want the ultimate in durable, maintenance-free wood, teak, with its generous supply of natural oils and minerals that make it highly resistant to decay and warping, makes some of the most spectacular outdoor furniture.
In synthetics, polywood, which is made partially from recycled plastics, and looks incredibly like real wood, is used to build virtually indestructible outdoor furniture, as is thermo-plastic. Another advantage of these materials is that they are available in a rainbow of beautiful colors.
For outdoor furniture that is elegant, stylish, and graceful, yet tough, durable, and indestructible, there’s wrought iron. CedarStore.com has a variety of classic wrought iron furniture, including many tables that are decorated with stunning designs made from hand-set art glass, that have to be seen to be appreciated.
Speaking of things that have to be seen, you’ll be amazed at the new aluminum outdoor furniture. Unlike its flimsy, crumpling, disposable predecessors, today’s aluminum picnic tables, dining sets, chairs, and benches, won’t crack, break, bend, or rust. And you won’t believe the array of brilliant colors you’ll find – on the furniture, not your thighs!
At CedarStore.com, you’ll find outdoor furniture in every size, style, and shape, to fit every space, décor, and budget. They’ll even customize it for you! Visit their website, call 888-293-2339, or e-mail contact@cedarstore.com, for more information.
The marriage between fine art tile and high end furniture has been a long time coming.
Customized imaging, a process with which you press images on tiles using a heat press, specially coated tiles and special dyes, has generally remained in the realm of Aunt Ethel’s photo on a tile (“We Love You Aunt Ethel!”) or the local football team on a tile mural. The process itself is rarely used for fine art.
Generally speaking, those who sell custom imaged tile and related substrates are not artists. The subtleties and skill required for quality tile creation, such as formidable digital art skills like designing from scratch, retouching, airbrushing, cropping, etc., are the exception rather than the rule.
When my husband and I opened our art tile company, we were intent on changing that tradition. Our numerous galleries of original art have succeeded in giving art-appreciating tile customers a formidable selection from which to choose, not to mention an unheard-of option: custom, “from-scratch” design.
What has also remained elusive was putting that custom imaged fine art tile on high end wood furniture. That option has never existed anywhere, because the very few available furniture pieces that are created to receive tile are made in a Pacific Rim assembly line. They are unexceptional, with boxy, uninspired lines. The wells routed out to receive the tile are never sized properly, often forcing the use of grout to awkwardly fill huge gaps on the sides. Additionally, tile furniture has been relegated to Walmart’s low end patio furniture department.
That’s why we’ve embarked on an unprecedented marriage between custom art tile and fine, hand-carved wood furniture, offering a ground-breaking concept: let the customer design their own fine furniture down to the leg, frame and cockbead, stain, finish and embedded art tile.From hand-carved armoires to luscious end tables to heirloom-worthy coffee tables, The Painted Forest has succeeded in taking both tile and fine furniture to a brand new level, something only fine art custom imaged tile could have achieved.
As far as Aunt Ethel goes, there are always going to be hundreds of people who can slap her photo on a tile. But the China Cabinet it’s displayed on—the one with the art nouveau stained glass parabolas artfully embedded in the cabinet doors— is a different story altogether.
Mindy Sommers