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 . . .

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?

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.