What’s on Point for 2024

Jackie Hirschhaut

With consumers reporting increasing time spent outdoors on the patios, decks and other spaces around their homes, many households are intent on creating an exterior room that feels like an escape from the pressures of their daily lives. Here’s a sampling of options seen at the show to cater to those needs in 2024.

Best of Show

As a complement to a variety of basic seating options, the most interesting occasional tables for the out-of-doors successfully mimic popular indoor looks. Bernhardt Exteriors earned the Lillian B. Winchester Best of Show award with a simulated faux bois motif to create an organic outdoor look. Constructed in cast aluminum, the Milos cocktail table features intertwined branches of a tree while the Cyprus side table resembles a slender tree trunk. Mixed media is still a popular trend and the glass-reinforced concrete tabletops are shown in a bone finish, paired with shiny nickel bases for an elegant flair.

Fire Pits Gain Popularity

It’s not unusual to see an exquisite fire feature as the central component of many outdoor seating arrangements. In a unique upscale approach for next year, Ocean Rock USA utilized a single porcelain slab over a metal frame for its Carrara Marble Porcelain Fire Table. The construction creates a work of art through the seamless connection of all veining patterns on the surface. The maintenance-free unit turns into a coffee table with a porcelain lid that can be in place at all times or tucked underneath with a special sliding storage system when burning.

Eco-friendly Outdoor Performance Fabrics

Legendary outdoor furnishings designer Richard Frinier translated the restorative practice of rebalancing our internal energy through connecting with the earth in a new line of cushion and pillow fabrics. Richard has created Strada Sky for Sunbrella, with an irregular striated pattern that reflects the ever-changing appearance and movement of clouds in the sky in tandem with a cross-section of the earth’s rock sediments. Utilizing recycled solution-dyed acrylic yarns, the result is a unique performance fabric that personifies the rhythm and balance of nature in a wide range of hues.

With greater time enjoying the out-of-doors, retailers and designers have significantly expanded the product offerings available through the casual furnishings and outdoor furniture showrooms at AmericasMart Atlanta. The next Casual Market Atlanta runs July 15-18, 2024 (the Gift & Home Market overlaps July 16-22). For information and registration, visit casualmarketatlanta.com. GP

Jackie Hirschhaut is the executive director of the International Casual Furnishings Association. She can be reached at jackie@icfanet.org.