Backyard-Agains

Nicole Crews -- Casual Living, 10/24/2011 8:39:00 AM

Executive Editor Nicole Crews roosts on a barrel chair from Homecrest Outdoor Living’s Vintage Wire Frame Collection that originally debuted in 1967.A WAVE OF NOSTALGIA HAS BEEN ENVELOPING OUR LAND of late and it's evident in the kiddy comfort foods we crave, the throwback fashions we wear, the memory-fueled fun from childhood we seek out and, yes, the document vintage and retro-inspired furniture we desire.
     Flowing from Mid-Century Modern design forward into the funky, flamboyant waters of the 1970s, these looks of yesteryear have finally come to pool in that most wistful stretch of real estate - the great American backyard.
     It makes sense, because in times of economic uncertainty, global unrest and devastating natural disasters, the comfort of the past is a handy narcotic to rely upon - or in the case of casual furniture, to recline upon.
     Whether you grew up with the advent of modern suburbia when the U.S. was experiencing a Levittown, trickle-down post-WWII housing high (when grass was still that green stuff that makes up lawns) or were born a decade or two later, the backyard was a rite of passage.
     The nature-nurtured children of the 1960s kicked off their shoes and ran barefoot through it. (Ever heard of Woodstock? Yeah, so what if it was someone else's backyard?) Even the television-addled, latch-key kids of the ‘70s dragged themselves away their sitcoms and after-school specials for an occasional game of kickball.
     Today, many of these demographically diverse consumers are drawn back to those simpler times and are refurbishing their own backyards - as well as metro spaces with limited square footage - with designs that reflect that. Recessionistas are responding to economical retro scale as well if only as a 3-D reminder of eschewing excess.
     Homecrest Outdoor Living is one of today's casual companies capitalizing on all of these factors, and these riders of the retro wave gave buyers a sneak peak of their plan during the ICFA Market in Chicago last month.
     In 2013, the company will celebrate its 60th anniversary and is reintroducing the five-decade old, 15-piece Vintage Collection. It is stocking its inventory by buying back frames from consumers and paying exactly the cost of the frame from a 1967 price list. The buyback campaign starts in 2012 and then Homecrest will refinish the steel, replace the swivel kit, make new cushions with an era-appropriate pattern, install glides and re-sell pieces on a limited-supply basis thus incorporating recycling into the retro mix.
     Sometimes history is well-worth repeating, and while the bomb shelter hasn't made an across-the-backyard comeback yet, I have a feeling I know how some folks will decorate it.