WENDY DAHLE
Special to The Herald
Factory-direct may mean straight from the factory, but few patio furniture stores can actually claim their furniture is made in the United States these days, says Mark Baugh, general manager for Patio Outlets and Design Centers of Ellenton and Sarasota.
But the centers, retailers of Windward patio furniture, can say their furniture is manufactured right here in Sarasota, at a factory just north of the airport.
“If you buy from our store, you do buy from the factory,” Baugh said. “We simply manufacture it and put it in our stores.”
David Peace started making Windward furniture in his own garage in 1990. Now, 16 years later, the company became Windward Design Group, and has three buildings of nearly 65,000 square feet of space, not including the outlet stores.
Windward Design Group also owns the Patio Outlet and Design Center Stores and Patio and Poolside, which sells its furniture.
“That’s where it all started,” Peace said. “It kind of grew up over the years.”
Windward Design Group sells its furniture in both the retail and commercial markets. Besides customers buying for their own patios and backyards, Windward furniture can be found at the Dolphin Resort at Disney World, Nickelodeon theme parks, Sheraton Hotels and Holiday Inns, Baugh said.
Although the company started out making strap chairs and chaises, it now makes 16 different lines of furniture. The company makes everything from its original strap chairs or a simple sling-back chair to what is called a “deep seating” group.
All of the furniture is made with a powder-coated aluminum frame, and is available in standard colors like antique sunrise, bronze age, cotton crater, luna, mahogany and moccasin.
Over the years, the strap chairs and chaises have remained a staple and come in more than 36 vinyl colors. In fact, during this time of year, the furniture sells quicker than the company can make it, said Peace.
“It’s nothing real fancy, but it’s good,” he said. “It’s like a Chevrolet. It may not be a Corvette, but people always come back.”
Deep-seating groups are more elaborate versions of the original patio furniture, said Peace. As the market has changed over the years, patio furniture has taken “more of an indoor out approach,” Baugh said.
“People wanted to be more comfortable,” he said.
The Portofino is designed to be a living room set made for the outdoors, Baugh said. A conversation group can start at $3,500. A custom-designed set with a stone-top table and more “bells and whistles” can cost as much as $7,500, Baugh said.
Anyone can custom order patio furniture to their liking from the Patio Outlets and Design Centers, Baugh said and Peace. The company also manufactures accessories for most of their furniture.
“Everything we do is made-to-order,” Peace said. “We can do anything we want because we manufacture it here.”
Peace and Baugh boasted about Windward’s 15-year warranty on their furniture. The warranty and craftsmanship is what sets them apart from other stores and manufacturers, he said.
“They might save a hundred dollars here or there, but they know where they can go back to when they have an issue,” Baugh said.
