It’s porch-sitting weather in New York. Our back porch in Southampton is fully furnished –a sofa and easy chairs, coffee table, dining table for eight, and a large, low daybed that Julia has adopted as her favorite place to jump and sprawl. The front porch, however, is completely bare, which seems like a waste of a nice spot to sit, especially now that the privet hedges around the front yard have grown high enough to make it feel like a lush, green outdoor room.
This summer, I’m pulling together a little seating group to take advantage of this space. We bought a couple of new wicker armchairs, I’m painting a couple of tag sale chairs (which is proving more difficult that I anticipated), and I’m having some bright striped cushions made to (with luck) pull it all together. I’ll let you know how it comes out.
This little lounging area needed a cocktail table, though — something interesting and large enough to hold drinks, books and magazines, but light enough to easily move around. I wasn’t having much luck finding such a thing, but at a store called Just Scandinavian in New York, I found a large tray covered in a vibrant pattern created by Josef Frank, an Austrian/Swedish designer known primarily for his textile designs from the first half of the 20th century. (I’ve always liked the bold, colorful Frank patterns, and we have several in our Southampton house –on pillows, an upholstered bench and the wallpaper in the powder room.)
The 25” tray is $245 and is made of lightweight molded plywood covered with printed linen fabric and covered again with a smooth matte waterproof coating. Just Scandinavian has a wide range of Frank-patterned pillows, trays and beautifully printed linen yardage (it’s the only place in know in the United States that imports it from Sweden). The store is located at 161 Hudson Street in New York and online at www.justscandinavian.com.
To turn the tray into a table, I found this base at West Elm (www.westelm.com), currently on sale for $62.99. It’s light, sturdy and fits the tray well. It may also come in handy in the winter months to support a large Indian brass tray that I’m thinking might make an interesting coffee table for the study.
So much for the easy part of my project. Tomorrow I’ve got to finish painting those chairs.
