IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 22, 2013–
With its new Lakeside Woven seating collection, Tropitone Furniture Co., a

leading manufacturer of fine casual furniture, is bringing a uniquely versatile and fashionable “look of leather” to the outdoor room.

According to Michael Echolds, chief executive officer of Tropitone, while Lakeside Woven is constructed around some of the company’s classic design traditions, the collection represents a distinctively new approach to woven seating.

“The woven style of wicker and rattan furniture has had an enduring popularity in the marketplace because of the relaxed and leisurely atmosphere it helps us create within our own homes and backyards,” Echolds said. “But because of the popular appeal of this style, many woven casual furniture options are already available to consumers.

“Tropitone’s goal with Lakeside Woven is to offer a stylish, innovative, and less traditional approach to woven seating that resembles the texture and richness of leather and with the durability necessary for outdoor use,” Echolds said.

Tropitone’s vice president of design, Peter Homestead, who designed Lakeside Woven, said that it is visually unlike any of Tropitone’s other collections today. Yet, it is constructed based on some of Tropitone’s most well-established design traditions. Even the dramatically different seating system is designed around the same materials and manufacturing processes as used in the company’s traditional sling collections — but with a result that offers consumers a bold, new style.

The collection, designed by Homestead, won a Design Excellence Award in an industry awards program co-sponsored by the Summer & Casual Furniture Manufacturers Association and the Chicago-based Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. Over 140 products were entered in the awards program, which is intended to recognize innovation and creative casual furniture product design. Tropitone’s Lakeside Woven was among the 10 new products to be recognized with the Design Excellence Award.

“As with all of Tropitone’s products,” Homestead said, “the furniture frame that the woven material in Lakeside Woven surrounds is powder-coated aluminum to resist corrosion and the elements. The woven material in the collection is made by melting colored vinyl and then extruding it around an inner core of polyester thread. This is the same construction as the Textilene material used in our sling furniture since 1978.

“However, in the case of Lakeside Woven, we’ve created two woven shapes — a twisted cord weave as well as a wide, flat weave. This wider, flat weave and the twisted cord are woven together by hand to make a seat. Then another color that coordinates with the base color is applied to the woven material using a patina process.

“Because of the density of the woven material in the Lakeside Woven seating system, which has a weightier look and feel — as well as the rich, textured appearance of leather — this seating system bears little resemblance to our traditional sling seats,” Homestead said.

According to Echolds, the colors that Tropitone has chosen for the Lakeside Woven fabrics are Saddle (a deep brown) and Bisque (an antiqued off-white), which work well with many of the frame finishes and fabrics in Tropitone’s extensive color palette. However, these two colors are designed specifically to complement the company’s Java tabletop offered in Coffee and Linen.

Among the recent additions to Tropitone’s Stoneworks Collections is the Java tabletop, which has a highly textured surface that looks like wicker. But since it is constructed of high-density urethane, it is weather resistant and more practical for outdoor use, and unlike wicker, it doesn’t require the use of glass to create a level surface for dining.

“Consumers are decorating their outdoor rooms,” Echolds said, “to reflect the sophistication and gracious style found inside the home. Neutral colors — whether deep tones or light airy hues — help create a tasteful, refined look that can be easily accented to work with individual decorating preferences. The colors we’ve used with Lakeside Woven and Java are neutral tones for this reason. And with the strong presence of leather inside homes today, we believe Lakeside Woven offers a good-looking, high-quality and durable approach to creating the ‘look of leather’ for the outdoor room,” Echolds said.

Included in the Lakeside Woven seating collection are a high-back dining chair, a high-back swivel rocker, a chaise lounge, a swivel barstool, a double glider, and an action lounger with a coordinating ottoman.

Founded in 1954, Tropitone is based in Irvine, and is recognized throughout the casual furniture marketplace for its design leadership as well as its commitment to service and value. The company sells its products to retailers, designers and the hospitality trade under the Tropitone and Basta Sole trademarks. In addition to its headquarters and manufacturing plant in Irvine, the company operates a manufacturing facility in Sarasota, Fla. For more information about the company, visit www.tropitone.com.