Designers unveil latest in outdoor furniture

Outdoor living spaces have come a long way from the days when outdoor furnishings meant a few inexpensive folding chairs around a flimsy plastic table.

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Gloster's Oyster Reef collection, featuring a teak farmhouse-style table, blends contemporary and rustic.

Today's outdoor chairs might be wrought iron or wrought aluminum, with upholstered seats. The table might be stone or wood or an elegant faux version of either, and would not look out of place inside in the dining room. Add outdoor sound systems, carpets and lighting, and the back yard or balcony can look and feel like an extension of the home.

Designer Michael Berman's Marin collection for Brown Jordan includes a lounge chair in flame suede with leather pillow.

That notion is being ramped up this spring and summer; manufacturers are offering new furniture, textiles and materials that resemble indoor furnishings yet can withstand the elements.

Getting the right look can be tricky. You don't want it to seem as if you just plunked a sofa from the living room down onto the patio.

Here's a look at what's hot for Warm Weather 2015:

VINTAGE MODERN AND ULTRAMODERN: Watch for midcentury modern styling in outdoor pieces to coordinate with this popular interior style. Gloster's Dansk collection (gloster.com) includes a chair with marine-grade, leather-look upholstery and teak tables, designed by Povl Eskildsen.

After World War II, the California designer Walter Lamb was helping salvage sunken warships at Pearl Harbor when he started messing around with the brass tubing and fittings. His prototypical outdoor furniture collection was put into production by Brown Jordan, a Pasadena-based company that pioneered outdoor furniture. Today's versions of Lamb's pieces, available through Design With Reach (dwr.com), are still crafted from brass, which you can leave alone to develop a patina or polish to retain a shine. The seats are marine-grade cording.

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Designers unveil latest in outdoor furniture