The Good Life

Style: Sitting Out

By Karla Bruning

It was only a matter of time before today's style-obsessed young consumers turned their attention to the patio. Chic enough for the indoors and sturdy enough to weather the elements, the latest outdoor furniture places a premium on quality and fabulousness.

"Outdoor furniture is really taking off," says Jane Humzy, founder of Jane Hamley Wells, a Chicago-based distributor that also makes its own line in Thailand. "People are increasing their design sensibility. The textures and material are refined enough that they can work indoors and outdoors."

Humzy's company creates a whole new spin on garden seating with the Capsule Turntable lounge/gazebo, essentially an outdoor room made from teak and aluminum on a rotating base. The roughly 2.5-meter cube with slatted sides contains a built-in table and seats, and a retractable roof. "It's a statement piece," says Humzy ($19,999; janehamleywells.com ).

Freeline International, a fledgling design house in the Netherlands, brings elements of indoor design into the open air. The whimsically cocoonlike plu'MO resort chair is woven from a blend of synthetic rattan around an aluminum frame ($2,000; free-line.nl ).