By Terry Lin
Here at Outer, we don’t take product development lightly. We are excited to announce the newest addition to our outdoor furniture product lineup: outdoor rugs!
Not only do rugs tie a space together, they create the feeling of a true living room, outside. Like with our outdoor sofa, we considered every aspect to ensure our outdoor rugs are durable, stylish, and eco-friendly. Here’s a look under the rug, so to speak, at how we made the newest piece in our collection.
On style…
Rugs are the unsung heroes when creating comfortable and stylish spaces. While often overlooked, the rug sets the stage for your space. I’d venture to say that most family rooms don’t feel like a family room without a rug.
When designing a space, our rugs fall into the same category as our sofas. They are foundational pieces. We didn’t want the rug’s pattern or color to drive the aesthetics of a space (see: tail wags the dog), so we kept the look neutral to ensure it fits within your decorating design style, whatever that may be.
Of course, neutral doesn’t mean boring. Our design has a subtle texture over dominant patterns, hence the understated herringbone pattern.
This also allows you to switch out your outdoor decor by color, season, event, or personal whim. Our rugs come in three different sizes to accommodate various outdoor areas: 5x8, 8x10, and 9x12.
On practicality…
Rugs get dirty. That’s just a fact of life. Outdoor rugs get really dirty. Our rugs have a dominant color when seen from afar, but upon closer inspection, you’ll notice a dithering effect. They’re made up of a palette of colors. This effect helps to hide the dirt — the best kind of optical illusion.
You'd normally never look at rug this close, but we wanted to give you a detailed view of the weave pattern. We've created a dithered pattern that helps with hiding the inevitable dirt from outdoor use.
If the rug has been sitting in a damp location and is screaming for a bath, we made sure that you can use a 1:3 laundry detergent:water mixture, or any rug cleaning solution, to get it looking fabulous again.
This means your rugs will look brand-new for years to come, and leads us to our next highlight…
On sustainability and eco-friendliness…
While sustainability and eco-friendliness may seem like they are one in the same, we tackled these issues separately when launching our outdoor rugs.
On the eco-friendly side: We considered this in our materials and manufacturing processes. We used 100% recycled plastic bottles, rather than virgin plastics, to make the rugs. This not only gives plastics a second life, it keeps them out of landfills. We are creating a demand for recycled plastics (vs. virgin which are not nearly as environmentally friendly) from our manufacturers and suppliers, which encourages them to operate differently. A win-win in our books.
On the sustainability side: We wanted our rugs to have a long lifespan. If a product gets worn out every year, you’ll need to replace it just as often. Each replacement comes with its own environmental cost (energy, water, waste, greenhouse gases). When designing our rugs — and every other product — we put them to the test to make sure they can withstand a long (and happy) life outdoors.
On keeping the sustainability conversation going…
Our rugs are more than an essential element for your outdoor space, they’re a conversation piece. The numbers on the packaging may seem like random numbers (The 441, The 882, The 1188) but they are actually very intentional: they reflect the number of plastic bottles—PET plastic, to be specific—used to make each rug. The numbers correspond with the rug size, so approximately 441 bottles make up our 5x8, 882 for the 8x10, and 1188 for the 9x12.
Our hope is that the numbers become natural conversation starters and help keep this issue top of mind.
We can’t wait to see how you incorporate these new foundational pieces into your outdoor spaces. Be sure to snap a photo of your “outdoor living rooms” featuring the Outer rug, and tag us on Instagram (@liveouter). We look forward to getting inspired by your personal style.