Dan's Papers - April 25, 2008 - Extending the Indoors Out

The onset of summer marks the exciting return to outdoor dining. Suddenly, your backyard needs to become a great room, dining room, kitchen and den. The best way to turn your backyard into a beautiful, summer guest-ready hangout is to simply add a few pieces of the right outdoor furniture and accessories. With Hamptonites and designers becoming increasingly creative and innovative with exterior design, there is a bevy of new options for decorating your yard.

The first look is a chic, modern beach look. Nothing says mod and sexy like giant candles in your backyard. Designer du jour Gandia Blasco, based in Spain and creator of uber-hip, but fully functional and interesting-looking outdoor furniture, has created plexi glass and aluminum outdoor candles that come in vertical sizes up to 16 x 16" (smaller ones are 8 x 8") and horizontal sizes up to 8 x 8" and 24-inches-high. If you are ready to make a real statement - and have a large backyard - you might want to go for the giant candles, which are 16 x 16" horizontally and 40 inches high. The candles come in sleek orange, calming teal or a very sexy, translucent white called "frozen." The candles will look great next your '80s-esque white outdoor couches and lounge chairs. The overall effect will be a summery, if not downright classy, modernized Caribbean look.

A more classic approach to outdoor designing is using the right wood that fits with the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired outdoor/indoor synthesis. This second look is a bit more masculine, but still quite summery. Batavia Sophisticated Outdoor Furniture, based in New Jersey, sells Westminster Teak's wooden furniture, which is excavated from the jungles of Indonesia. The dining sets and loungers come with a lifetime guarantee, securing a long-lasting look of authenticity. The wooden bar set is a unique and interesting look for a Hamptons backyard bash. The wood was even voted as best overall outdoor wooden furniture by The Wall Street Journal. It looks clean, authentic and is perfect for families.

If you want neither a sexy, chic beach look nor authentic, masculine look, perhaps an architectural, industrial look will recreate your backyard. Rollner Architectural Metals makes outdoor chairs, tables and couches that are thin and silver, for a very sleek and minimalist look. This can create a sophisticated yet simple backyard. He complements his thin-cut, exactly carved and meticulous-looking metals with white or navy cushions, which provide comfort and color. The unique furniture is available at Tides Home in Brooklyn.

Whether it's beach chic, classic wood or industrial mod, the backyard becomes the most important area of design and leisure over the summer. Creating the perfect yard is a daunting task, but with the right designers and furniture pieces, your backyard can become the best room in the house. Or, rather, outside the house!