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?