I don’t have any tips or wisdom regarding teak furniture today, but I did find an excellent idea for some summertime fun from a great little book by Lee Anne White called “Outdoor Living Idea Book” (2005, The Taunton Press). It provides a vast array of ideas for creatively sprucing up your outdoor room, be it in the garden or on the deck. And not only does it highlight the use of teak furniture, but it also shows every variety of outdoor furniture under the sun.

So here is a clipping from the book that just illustrates a few simple ways to have fun with your kids and your garden at the same time. With my affinity for forts, I wish my parents had stumbled across this when I was little. (Click on the image below to enlarge.)

It’s Friday, so no shop talk about teak furniture or outdoor furniture of any kind. Instead, this Friday I have something I think you’ll find amazing. The photos below are of chalk drawings done by Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner. I’d like to thank impactlab.com for posting these and more on the web. Keep in mind, these are all TWO DIMENSIONAL DRAWINGS. The 3D effects are a result of how the images are drawn combined with the angle at which the photos are taken.

These photos of the same drawing but at different angles show how distorted the actual drawings must be in order to give the 3D effect when shot at the correct angle.

I’ll try to come up with some interesting teak furniture topic this weekend to talk about on Tuesday. Until then . . .

Tiny cracks that occur on the ends of your teak furniture (in fact all outdoor furniture made from wood), such as the tops of legs or front of arms, are known as “end check.” Checking is caused by shrinkage differences between the surface and the interior of drying lumber. Since the ends dry first, they tend to shrink first but are restrained by the swollen interior. This differential results in stresses building up near the surface, which causes the teak to check. End checking is completely normal for teak furniture (again for all wood furniture used outdoors) and does not affect the structural integrity of the furniture.

No teak furniture talk today. Instead take a look at this scary piece of furniture. Definitely not a fan.

It may make a nice piece for Hannibal Lecter, though.

Another hectic week, so I won’t be able to craft beautiful prose about teak furniture. Just another quick word about the emerging trend in outdoor furniture — the pulling of interior elements into the outdoor room.

Thanks to dramatic improvements in materials science, manufacturers have been able to produce a number of products traditionally reserved for the indoors that can now join you outside. Two weeks ago I talked about outdoor artwork. Today I’ll just briefly mention that two other items that are more commonly being used outside are outdoor rugs and outdoor lamps.

Amazingly, these rugs and lights would look at home inside of anyone’s house, but you can leave them outdoors season after season. Moreover, you can dramatically enhance the look of your outdoor furniture simply by adding the splashes of color and style brought by outdoor rugs and lamps.

By way of a little self promotion, Arthur Lauer has an extensive line of outdoor rugs and outdoor lighting that nicely complement our teak furniture. Take a look; I think you’ll enjoy.

Until Friday . . .

As many of you who read the teak journAL know, Friday’s are not the day to discuss teak furniture. Instead I post something short, sweet, and hopefully enjoyable. Today I have a quote about alarm clocks.

The only thing worse than hearing the alarm clock in the morning is not hearing it.

- Unkown

Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to write about teak furniture or much of anything else today as I have to leave town and am running out of time. So I’ll just a cover a tiny portion of an overall trend sweeping the outdoor home.

The trend: anything that can be done indoors can be (and is or soon will be) done outdoors. As people are beginning to live a greater portion of their lives in their outdoor rooms, they want a seamless transition from the indoors. So whether it�s the look of the outdoor furniture itself or the accessories that accent it, the indoors is moving outside.

One example is outdoor artwork. Traditionally reserved for the living room, dining room, and hallways, advances in printing and materials technology have allowed companies to produce artwork that can hang on the exterior walls of your home 365 days a year with no noticeable problems. The company that helps us make our pieces, Open Air Designs, prints the digital images of our artwork with ultraviolet inks onto an aluminum composite substrate. The piece is then cured and coated with UV inhibitors to protect it from the elements. Lastly, the printed sheets are scored and folded to create the look of stretched canvas, and voila, you have a work of art that has all of the appeal of indoor art but all of the durability needed for outdoors.

And when you think about it, it makes complete sense. Because behind your deep seating set or your teak dining collection is usually a big, blank, ugly clapboard, brick, stucco, or aluminum siding wall. What better way to beautify that space than with some weatherproof artwork that will further make your outdoor room feel like home?

What do word origins, optical illusions, or jokes have to do with teak furniture? Nothing, but there’s no need to discuss business all the time. Each Friday I will have an interesting item with little to do with teak or outdoor furniture. I hope you enjoy.

In frontier America, a person unable to write was often required to sign a document. Under such circumstances, in lieu of a name it was legal to sign an “X” on the form.

Often, a party to a contract agreed to it under pressure and didn’t want to observe its terms. Oral lore insisted that when crosses were doubled, one being placed over the other, the first was cancelled or made null. This double-cross was common enough to give its name to any act of deception or betrayal.
Source: “Why You Say It” by Webb Garrison (1992).

Take bold risks with outdoor throw pillows.

When it comes to teak furniture, deep seating collections in particular, color palettes are where many of us take our risks. However, there is a safe and easy way to be bold. To buy deep seating cushions in anything other than basic solids may be a bit much (imagine an outdoor furniture collection covered in Burberry© or polka dots). The best way to venture out is to buy outdoor throw pillows upholstered in decorative fabrics or exotic colors.

This strategy will allow you to add rich splashes of color that will really make your teak furniture pop. Additionally, since outdoor throw pillows are relatively inexpensive, you don’t have to be afraid to experiment, and you can buy new pillows with new colors and patterns as your tastes or color trends change.

What do cartoons, “best of” lists, or short stories have to do with teak furniture? Not much, but lighten up. On Fridays I’ll post something interesting that probably has very little to do with teak or outdoor furniture, but it should at least make you smile or think.

I ran across this on the Internet today and thought it was cute.