What's New in Casual Design?

Interesting article in Casual Living: Designers shaping casual industry By Cinde W. Ingram and Courtney Mueller.

As consumers' needs change for space, storage and styles change, designers lead the casual industry's evolution.

Marshall Mullins - Mosaic tabletops fit Mullins' design needs. He designs mosaic tables with wrought iron bases, a kind of old world Tuscany look.

We have had several tables with this look in our store. One made by Hammary:
Hermosa Square Cocktail Table W40.75 D40.75 H19

Carl Muller - Muller finds rewards solving design puzzles. His Wellinton chair won a
Design Excellence Award.

John Caldwell - "I've had such a lucky design life"

"The casual industry used to be for rich people," he said. "The expectation level now is so different that the average person expects to have a backyard and outdoor furniture in it

Frederic C. Doughty - Doughty designs to meet sophisticated tastes

Doughty finds his architectural training plays into his furniture designs because furniture does not set alone in nature.

Scott Coogan - Coogan follows his creative passions. Traveling mostly to Costa Rica, tropical ingredients
provided inspirations for 2006's furniture designs.

Shaun Sweeney - "I'm always up for a challenge"

He designed Woodard's new stepping stone tabletop from a path he saw while watching "Lord of the Rings." A chair was inspired from a wrought iron fence he saw while taking a walk in Cincinnati over Thanksgiving

Philip Behrens - "I'm an inside-out designer, not a stylist.

"I like all my designs to be natural, true to themselves," he said. "I don't like ornamentation for ornamentation's sake. I operate more on a level on what kind of identity are we trying to make. I'm an inside-out designer, not a stylist. I enjoy the hunt for the experience of the idea we are trying to do. That is above and beyond everything else — that is very thrilling and totally unpredictable."

Richard Frinier - Frinier brings home styles of far-off destinations"

For the last 25 years I have only worked with materials that are weather resistant," Frinier said. "While this creates a challenge in and of itself, I enjoy altering the materials with unique textures and colorations to enhance my designs.

One of his clients is Sunbrella by Glen Raven. We carry Sherrill fabrics which have licensed Sunbrella. What is so great about Sunbrella? It is a "performance fabric".

Inside your living room or in the kitchen, Sunbrella fabrics make you question all the old rules. Like twirling pasta on the love seat. And if a meatball happens to roll off your plate and across the furniture, just wipe it off. Because Sunbrella fabrics are worry free. So go ahead and sip red wine on the cream-colored sofa or let the kids eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches in the family room. And when your pets jump on the couch after playing in the rain, just sit back and relax. All the qualities that make Sunbrella stand up to the elements outdoors make it impervious to life indoors.

This a very good article and it is like high fashion. What you see on the runway soon shows up in the showroom. In some cases at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, it already has!

Bev & Mike