So, I’ve been scoping out the latest in casual outdoor furniture, lately — not for me, though. It’s for my pal Jack who (frankly) is so resistant to change, he just can’t ever seem to make a decision… Naturally, I’m happy to make it for him, the poor man!
Anyway, Jack has a really charming brick townhouse in the city, with several of those chair-style hammocks hanging on his covered verandah.
You know those hammock chairs? Now, those are clearly an invention of the devil! — the curved wood support will dig into your spine and make you hunch over like an old witch, not elegant or comfortable, no matter how you try to sit. If you’re looking to spend a warm summer night with a few good friends, talking over old times and watching the moths fly circles around the streetlights… you just don’t want to be doing it all twisted up like a pretzel.
Left to his own devices, he’ll stick with that furniture and all his friends will end up far beyond the reach of Robaxacet. He’ll be carrying us all home, one of these days, I swear — or paying for a chiropractor. Ain’t none of us gettin’ any younger, you know!
Don’t get me wrong — I love my own hammock. It’s one of those great big family-sized Mexican cotton-string units, and I’ve got it stretched between two century-old maple trees just out beside this old farmhouse of mine. Just the thought of it evokes lazy summer days, a little Jimmy Buffett on the headphones, and nowhere special you need to be… sheer Heaven!
But let’s be honest: Who among us really finds a hammock all that comfortable, after the first few minutes of lounging in the shade with your frosty Margarita? If you’re lying down, okay, maybe. But sitting up or lounging, reading or chatting, soaking in the passing parade? Not so good on the lower back, to be sure. And Jack’s chairs are worse.
Now, for outdoor furniture styles, I have to say that Adirondack chairs (sometimes called Muskoka chairs) are my sentimental favourite (wooden slats, low seats, high curved backs, broad arm-rests) — it just says “cottage country,” doesn’t it? And you see them all painted up in bold clear primary colours — cobalt blue, say — gorgous! But those big wooden chairs are just plain heavy, no fun to drag around if you need to mow the lawn, and on a porch they take up a lot of space.
So here’s what I’m thinking — what about an Outback Lounger? I haven’t seen one “up close and personal” yet, but they look like a good compromise between chairs and hammocks, and I really like the strong clean lines — very crisp, very yacht-club, yet very laid-back California…
I’m not crazy about the single-width ones, at least not in a small space like a covered verandah where you’d like to entertain at least two or three couples at once. But the Outback Chair Company (www.outbackchair.com), the guys who make this thing, just came out with a double-size lounger, 45 inches wide in the seat. I’ll have to measure Jack’s porch again, but I think it would fit just beautifully in at the end of the porch, side on, with its back towards the side railing and the next-door neighbours.
Then he can keep a couple of his old hammock chairs (if he insists) and turn them towards the Outback Lounger, with maybe a low narrow table in between. Everyone can still watch what’s happening out on the street, but a little less of the lining up like in one long row theatre seats! Better for the conversation… and also, that’ll free up about one-third of the length of his porch, leaving plenty of room for a second grouping of seats, if he wants, or maybe a little bar-and-grill area for getting down to some serious entertaining.
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