It was a beautiful weekend in Austin in the high 60s, low 70s, with the sun shining bright—a marked difference from the bitterly cold, snow-covered days we faced a couple weeks ago. As Spring emerges, it’s the perfect time to ready our patios and outdoor spaces. As many of you know, we’re building a pool (which will hopefully be done in a few weeks), and have been spending a LOT of time browsing outdoor furniture and outdoor spaces in general. I can’t wait to share more of our plans and progress, but essentially the vision is to have a functional, modern outdoor entertaining area—simple lines, beautiful materials and defined spaces: pool, fire pit, dining and lounging. While the feel will overwhelmingly be contemporary, I want to imbue some traditional touches, textures and warmth for contrast. But ultimately, and most importantly, we want this to feel like a space where we can come together as a family outdoors.

Here are some of the pieces we’ve loved, including the ones we’re planning to use in our new outdoor area.

Dining Furniture

For our dining space, we’re opting for teak furniture, warming up our rather modern, tonal white/black space with more traditional, long-lasting pieces. We purchased the  TEAK CALERO TABLE from World Market and paired it with these super comfy SHERWOOD TEAK DINING CHAIRS I found on Overstock. Here are some other furniture pieces we loved.

Lounge Furniture

We’ll have a couple spaces for lounge furniture: a poolside space for chaises, and a small deck area for lounging (hello after workday happy hours!). I knew I wanted our chaises to be modern and black (or nearly black) to connect with our black Adirondacks chairs, and when I came across the INDIO METAL CHAISES from Pottery Barn, I started saving.  We’ve ordered two to start and they should arrive in April…  cannot wait! In between the chaises we’re using these fantastic FAUX WOODEN STUMPS from Target to add a little contrast/texture. I’m still deciding on the sofa/chair combos, but am loving the INDIO COLLECTION here too, or the new TULUM COLLECTION. I think for us, the most important two things are for the furniture to feel comfortable, and for the cushions (and frames) to be able to weather the elements.

Entertaining & Decor

I can’t wait to be able to invite friends over to enjoy the space we are so excitedly and thoughtfully planning, and that includes all the details, from dinnerware and glasses, to trays, lanterns and linens.