GREAT AMERICAN PORCH LIVING No wonder we eventually grew wistful behind our sealed windows and began begging architects and builders to let us go out and play again. Today, outdoor rooms rank among homeowners’ most-requested features. Although the old-fashioned front porch is tops, the list also includes total facilities for living out-of-doors. Are you ready for a complete exterior kitchen, refrigerator and all? LaneVenture has introduced one by famed Southern architect William E. Poole that also offers a graceful brick fireplace—not for cooking, min Playing all the angles. The elegant turret on this Queen Anne Victorian porch makes this summer’s favorite playground for family and friends. d you, but to gather around on a chilly evening. Another manufacturer of outdoor furniture, O.W. Lee, is featuring a “firepit”—a mosaic-topped table with gas-fired ceramic “logs” piled in the center. (The gas can be either natural or propane, run in, unseen, from a companion side table.) And these are just the highlights of what’s happening for America’s outdoors, previewed at the International Casual Furniture and Accessories Market earlier this year in Chicago. There is much more new under the sun to enhance the old-fashioned joys of porch-sitting this summer. • Express yourself. An outdoor porch is the right site for an amusing collection of birdhouses. Exuberant climbing vines and hanging baskets provide just enough privacy for a cozy seating area. Fresh as all outdoors. A glassed-in porch embraces the out-of-doors and offers sunshine and breezes, plus no worries about the weather. photo: Brad Simmons

What’s In For The Great Outdoors Big, cushy, deep seating. New fabric and fiber technologies let you enjoy all the comforts of your indoor living room out-of-doors. Look for sofas, loveseats and club chairs in all-weather fabrics that shrug off summer’s rainstorms in great style. Fashion-forward fabrics. Once all outdoor fabrics seemed stolen from awnings and umbrellas. No more. While the same engineering makes today’s textiles resist the usual hazards (water, mildew, fading), they’ve gone stylish, with bolder colors and patterns (florals) and textures (chenilles) you’d expect to find indoors. Dressmaker touches. This summer’s porch is positively glam with upholstery enhanced by trimmings like tassels, twisted cordings and contrasting weltings. Outdoor lamps. We mean real table and floor lamps with real shades that are made to live the al fresco life effortlessly. One manufacturer, Shady Lady, even adds a decorative bow to the shades, which are made of the same all-weather fabric as today’s upholstery. ‘Chat groups.’ A new category of outdoor furniture that consists of low, comfortable chairs and a companion low table to encourage conversation and conviviality. Table stars. Wicker and plain wood no longer rule; nowadays, outdoor tables are showing off alternative tops of tumbled marble, faux stone, mosaic and granite. Look for large dining tables with leaves and wings so they can metamorphose into huge when the doorbell signals unexpected company.

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