Designer Richard Frinier and manufacturer Brown Jordan have become pretty much synonymous through the years. Frinier joined the company some 30 years back, eventually devoting 22 years to “shaping its stylistic identity, ultimately as chief creative officer, with defining collections such as Quantum, Fusion, Legend, and Streamline, the first two of which remain in the lineup today” (InteriorDesign). Frinier officially left Brown Jordan in 2002 to begin his own consultancy, but they’ve rejoined forces for the recent Frinier Collection of outdoor furnishings: “Still,” “Drift,” and “Cloud Nine.”

Cloud Nine. Designed by Richard Frinier.

Timeless Elegance and an Ethereal Aesthetic

This tantalizing trio is comprised of three distinct lines with a certain philosophic affinity. All told, the profusion of chaises, easy chairs, loveseats, and high/low tables embodies Frinier’s musings about slowing down. The designer might be talking to all of us in the Western World when he conjectures about our frenetically-paced lives, but he’s speaking specifically to the rapid output of A&D: “I thought about how much has happened in this world and our industry over the past 30 years, how we are all moving so fast… So, I asked myself, What would happen if you had the time to slow down and be still . . . and allowed your mind to drift . . . wouldn’t that feel like you were on cloud nine?” So what, exactly, pray tell, would Cloud Nine feel like?

Would that I had a sampling of those auspiciously-numbered aluminum frames and contoured mesh seats and backs (Brown Jordan calls them “Parabolic Slings”) that constitute the latter. For I’d imagine that reclining in the Cloud Nine Chaise is a nice approximation of atmospheric relaxation. And not to take anything away from either Still or Drift—both of which are luxuriously compelling in their own right—but for my hypothetical money, Cloud Nine is the showstopper. The collection is sculptural yet ineffable, light in ambiance yet solid of structure. The pieces, in fact, look like clouds. The gray powder coated aluminum and slightly grayer mesh seat and back suggest all the wondrous gradations of those cottony vapors, those billowing brumes.

Via InteriorDesign.