We’ll often be caught feeling the texture of a material or sniffing the VOC-Free fragrance of the latest environmentally sustainable finish. But there’s more to the feel and smell of a material and finish and it’s one of the things that excites us most about the job we do. We often refer to the ‘usual suspects’ in terms of what works in our industry, particularly in the difficult context of outdoor furniture and structures. But that doesn’t stop our endless journey in discovering new solutions that we can experiment with, and there are some amazing companies and individuals doing even more amazing things in this space out there in the world.
Sustainable use of our planet’s limited resources
The ‘Holy Grail’ is a material and finish that doesn’t require any maintenance. We’ve found, however, that these types of finishes are often heavily processed and are ‘end-of-life’ products that are difficult to be recycled or reused, which is not great when it comes to sustainable use of our planet's limited resources. Materials and finishes that excite us most are natural, require a bit of TLC, and will patina with age in a way that not only protects a product over the course of it’s design life, but tells a story of where it came from and the people that interact with it every day.
