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Saturday, June 11, 2011

Patio Furniture: Wicker!

With the summer season almost here (Finally!) we decided to focus on patio furniture design for a series of blogs. This first blog will focus on wicker and woven furniture, one of our favourite kinds of patio furniture. During the long summer nights that last place you want to be is inside a hot house, but often times patio aren't comfortable places to spend hours on end. But not anymore! We found a few great patio sets that make your back yard escape just like you're inside, but with natural air conditioning!

We really like this first wicker patio set. The dark and medium wicker is largely woven, making the contrast visible. This gives more texture to the pieces and with the wooded arms, the various tones of brown pick up the grain in the wood. We also like how there are a lot of pieces included in this set, two benches, a chair, a bench, and an ottoman. The high backs on the pieces make them more comfortable to relax on and more like indoor furniture, which is a common trend this summer. Also, we really like the cushions in varying tones of green. They go from olive to kelly to very light green, which goes really well with the greenery of your back yard and the tones of the wicker itself. We think this set is great and would go well with any patio with a modern vibe.

This wicker is very different from the first. It's made of stronger wicker with a large weave that has a sort of honey comb design which is really unique. This is just one sectional pieces that is 3 different pieces pushed together. This feature makes the options endless for putting them together. Also, it's very cost effective because whenever you want to change up the look of your patio you can just rearrange the pieces. The back is lower on this one, but the extra cushions help to keep it comfortable. We like that the grey colour of the wicker almost looks like stone, but we would have put a brighter colour cushion on it. With the grey cushions it becomes too monotone. Other than that, we think this piece is really unique and would work well in any space by just changing the colour of the cushions.

We don't like this wicker because we think it looks very old fashioned. This example shows typical traditional wicker, something that we're not too fond of. The tight weave and the designs in the back of the chair scream 1970s and the cushions don't help. To improve this set, we would not paint it. Tightly woven wicker can look very nice, even though it is more traditional. Not painting helps the look or painting a dark colour will bring this piece into this decade, a definite plus. Also, different cushion covers and even thicker cushions and back cushions can update the look and make it a lot more comfortable too. The example below shows how you can update this older style wicker while still keeping it more traditional. This set would work well on a covered porch of a cabin or a stone patio.


Wicker can look extremely modern too:


This wicker chair is a work of art. The flower designs are all hand made and it must have taken hours to make. We really like the large back on this chair. It is very oversized which adds to the modern feel. Also, we like how the base of the chair is black while the top is a light wood colour. This two-toning helps ground the chair and looks really cool. The black bottom almost looks like it was turned upside down. We think this chair is beautiful and super modern and we could see in by a pool in LA or at a high end hotel.

This final wicker piece is also very modern. It is a oversized bench with a matching stool, but that's not what makes is so modern. It is very deep, a new feature in furniture, and the stool connects to the bench in a ying and yang kind of style. The dark wicker makes the piece look younger, and the curved lines also add to this effect. Finally, the powder blue and white cushions complete the modern look. We think this pieces would look great on any pool deck in a tropical destination.

Overall, wicker is a great medium for patio furniture. There are many different weaves and style, each unique to whatever theme you are trying to capture. They work in all patio, backyard, and deck spaces when they are chosen to match this theme, and with neutral coloured wicker and fun cushions it's hard to go wrong!

-Hayley, Vanja, & Alexandra (*Double Post)

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