Garden Guru: Adirondack chairs still elegant a century later

By Norman Winter

I was once told that outdoor furniture should entice a person to sit and relax for an extended period of time.

After this week’s heat I feel more like sitting than working. Just as there are old-time favorite plants that have reached heirloom status, such as the fragrant the Confederate Jasmine, there are furniture styles that have stood the test of time.

One style that is as prominent today as it ever was is the Adirondack chair. Whether you have beach property at Tybee, one of the picturesque historic inns downtown, or simply enjoying being outdoors in the Lowcountry surrounded by majestic oaks, the Adirondack chair is for you. There is not a more comfortable place to sit in the morning with a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper.

Oddly enough, its existence is not as old as one might think. Thomas Lee is credited with coming up with the design in 1903 while looking for the perfect furniture for his summer home in Westport, N.Y. His friend Harry Bunnell was a carpenter. Bunnell got a patent in 1904 and started manufacturing the chairs, then called Westport chairs.

Originally the chairs were made of 11 pieces of hemlock and were painted green or brown. They have evolved, and today they may be made of 11 pieces or more of various types of woods, including mahogany, cypress, teak, cedar or man-made resin. The style is available in chairs, love seats, rockers, gliders and chaise lounges.

The chairs may be painted any number of colors. The ones you sat in at the beach were probably white. My first pair was a bright and cheerful yellow. A friend of mine in Koscusko, Miss., used her green and pink Adirondack furniture in some of the best outdoor designs I have seen.

The first I’ll mention was pretty as a painting. The Adirondack chairs as I alluded were brilliant hot pink and separated by a matching table. The sitting area was flanked by tall crape myrtles of a similar pink color. On the table was a containerized geranium in a tropical, flamingo-like pink.

In a shadier location, she clustered her Adirondack furniture in front of an outdoor fireplace next to an outdoor workroom that is similar to her turn-of-the-century, cottage-style home. In this outdoor room, she uses an Adirondack-style love seat with a matching coffee table, end table and set of chairs. Green is the predominant color in this secluded retreat, which is soothing and inviting. Trees and shrubs surround the area, and containers growing the succulent paddle plant, the fine-leafed asparagus fern and pink begonias provided additional texture.

Mr. Lee could neither have imagined all the color and design possibilities now found in Adirondack chairs, nor that his design would be popular from coast to coast, beach to the mountains and everything in-between. Lucky for us, he and Bunnell forever put their stamp on outdoor living.

If you don’t have at least one set of Adirondack chairs, put them on your shopping list. At the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens they are on our list. Once you get them, I promise you will relax outdoors. Follow me on Twitter @CGBGgardenguru.

Norman Winter is the director of the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens at the Historic Bamboo Farm, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.