More and more living is being done outside the confines of four walls and a ceiling. American homes have been sprouting porches and terraces that range through every degree of shelter to no shelter at all: the removable-glass enclosed porch, the screened porch, the open porch with roof, the terrace, the patio, the lawn … It is the perfect living-dining room for summer, an outdoor room …”

Russel Wright in the 1970s.

This quote could have been taken from a backyard makeover show on HGTV, a recent “how-to” book on outdoor design, or even the pages of this magazine. But the words were actually written in 1950 by Russel and Mary Wright in their book “Guide to Easier Living.” Few know of them today, but the couple – and Russel Wright in particular – were among the first to actively promote the concept of the Outdoor Room.

Wright, an “industrial” designer of furniture, flatware, glassware, rugs, lamps and even jukeboxes, is best known for his American Modern dinnerware, a line of richly colored, inexpensive, but well-designed tableware first introduced in the 1930s. With over 200 million pieces sold by 1959, it remains the best-selling dinnerware in American history.

Wright’s American Modern, like the rest of his designs, reflected his philosophy that everyone should have access to affordable, good design, and that all household appliances, furnishings and goods should make life and homemaking simpler for families.

The Wrights espoused that the 1930s standards for “gracious living” were based on outdated, Victorian-era lifestyles, when urban families often had the luxury of a full staff of household help. As American family life evolved without maids and other support staff, this formal lifestyle was no longer practical or sustainable.

Instead, the Wrights proposed that Americans needed a new, more casual and relaxed definition of gracious living. Their goal, according to their daughter, Ann, was to “increase the enjoyment and satisfaction of life in your home by drastically reducing the time and labor required in running your home.” Amen to that!

Melamine designed by Russel Wright.

Their philosophy advocated eliminating fussy draperies, ornate rugs, and silverware that needed frequent polishing in favor of easy-to-clean, washable surfaces and materials. They created practical-but-stylish stove-to-table cookware that eliminated the need to transfer food to another set of serving dishes, thereby reducing clean-up after dinner.

They pioneered the idea of a “Great Room,” a combined living room-dining room-kitchen with an open floorplan. They even published organizational planograms for his-and-hers closets, and developed detailed how-to charts for cleaning absolutely everything.

In his day, Russel Wright was a “lifestyle rock star,” akin to a modern-day Martha Stewart. Considered the first “celebrity designer,” he was the first to stamp his name on his products, and consumers lined up outside Macy’s and other department stores when a new shipment of American Modern dinnerware arrived, or to buy his and Mary’s book.

The Wrights’ ideas were considered ground-breaking at that time, but were eagerly embraced – and even considered liberating – by people faced with cleaning and maintaining their homes themselves.

“Guide to Easier Living.”

Even more revolutionary, however, was the Wrights’ proposal that a home’s living space should be expanded beyond the walls of the home into the outdoors. In fact, they devoted an entire chapter of their book to “Outdoor Living,” and in it, they may have been the first to coin the term “Outdoor Room.”

In the section on planning an outdoor living space, the Wrights write, “Outdoors needs some housekeeping, however casual, so plan and furnish for the greatest comfort and least maintenance. The outdoor ‘room’ is apt to get hard use, and there are sun, wind and rain to cope with. We have an all-inclusive rule: Look at the walls, floors and furnishings of any outdoor living area, and ask yourself whether you can wash them with a hose.”

The Wrights argued that a casual picnic or barbecue with paper napkins and disposable plates – versus the typical, formal dining table set with polished silverware and superfluous china serving pieces – was “the best way to entertain.” Besides a host of tips on outdoor dining, the book also offers suggestions on a variety of materials for alfresco flooring, walls and furniture.

Much of the book’s Outdoor Room design advice still rings true today, including suggestions to:

• Position the outdoor dining area near the indoor kitchen.
• Include a grill in the Outdoor Room, as well as an electrical outlet for coffee pots and other appliances that can be brought outdoors.
• Enlarge the window over the indoor kitchen sink to serve as a pass-through and buffet counter for the Outdoor Room.
• Add a closed cupboard to the space to hold outdoor tableware and other supplies.

Indoor-Outdoor Living at Home

Russel Wright practiced what he preached. His 75-acre home, Manitoga, epitomizes this indoor-outdoor lifestyle, and his house-studio was a virtual laboratory for his innovative ideas. Located in Garrison, New York, in the upstate Hudson Valley region, Manitoga is today a National Historic Landmark and an affiliate site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Studio.

The now-lush, natural, woodland property was an abandoned granite quarry that Wright purchased in 1942 and painstakingly and deliberately redesigned and reclaimed over a 30-year period until his death in 1976 (his wife Mary died in 1952).

He used his early background as a theatrical set designer to stage the natural scene he envisioned in the original barren property. He re-contoured the land, diverted a stream to create a waterfall and pond in a quarry pit, relocated boulders and trees to the exact spots he specified, and configured a series of trails linking a collection of Outdoor Rooms he designed on the property.

It took Wright 15 years of studying and reworking the grounds before deciding on the exact site for the house he dubbed “Dragon Rock,” named for the adjacent granite rock face his daughter said looked like a dragon. According to Allison Cross, executive director of the Russel Wright Design Center at Manitoga, “He did not want the house to dominate the landscape but rather blend into it, and the home truly blurs the lines between indoor and outdoor living.”

To bring the outdoors into the home, Wright incorporated hemlock needles into ceilings and birch bark on doors. He used rocks for door handles, created a rock wall in one of the showers, and included a two-story tree trunk as a support pillar running from the downstairs kitchen-dining area to the upper-level living room.

Noel Savage installing "Nimbus."

Wright used slabs of granite to build an indoor staircase, pressed butterflies and ferns between plexiglass panels to create sliding doors and partitions, and planted live mosses and sedum on the home’s cutting-edge “Green roof.”

Wright considered the fireplace the “burning heart of a home,” according to Manitoga’s external affairs manager, Dan Rigney, and he designed the hearth in the living room from massive boulders with an opening tall enough to fit four-foot logs. He also built an outdoor fireplace on the backside of the fireplace, which became the focal point of the outdoor sitting room just off the bedroom suites used by his daughter and her nanny.

To further bring the indoors out, Wright created a series of Outdoor Rooms throughout the property, each with its own vibe and purpose. “Joe’s Room,” for instance, was designed to be a quiet, reflective retreat with “walls” defined by the surrounding mountain laurels, “flooring” by the moss “carpet,” and a “vaulted ceiling” by the overhead tree canopy.

View of “Sanctuary” from the upper rim of Manitoga’s Quarry Pool. “Orbit, “Nimbus”, and “Planets”.

In the “Moss Room,” Wright planted a soft, mossy groundcover dotted with miniscule red berries to give the sense of a patterned carpet underfoot. Another secluded room he created on the edge of the quarry cliff – and accessible only by a hidden hallway delineated by parallel plantings of trees – provided entertaining views and sounds of the pond and waterfall below.

In addition to the Outdoor Rooms within the woods, Wright created outdoor living spaces directly adjacent to his house, as well. These Outdoor Rooms are built at the same elevation as the indoor living spaces to create a sense of seamless flow between indoors and out. Sliding glass walls in both the living room and kitchen-dining areas open directly to their outdoor counterparts.

The same irregular-shaped stone flooring is used in both these indoor and outdoor spaces to further emphasize the continuous transition. An outdoor pergola, covered with hanging vines, creates a naturally curtained hallway connecting the main part of the house with Wright’s studio and personal bedroom.

Today, Wright’s Manitoga home and property has been restored to its 1962 condition. It is open to the public as The Russel Wright Design Center, with tours of the woodland trails and outdoor living spaces, as well as his home and studio, offered Friday through Monday, May through mid-November. Industry and design professionals are invited to join the Center’s Design Circle membership, which offers lectures and retreats on Russel Wright, his design philosophy, and his indoor-outdoor lifestyle.

Terrace through the living room.

This outdoor living concept continues to inspire others through a youth summer camp and an annual artist-in-residence program. The 2015 artist in residence is Stephen Talasnik, whose aquatic sculptures made from reeds are on display in the quarry pond through November.

As the center’s executive director, Allison Cross says, “Russel Wright was among the first to embrace indoor-outdoor living as a lifestyle. While other designers and architects designed homes with an extended view to the outdoors, Wright was the first to create actual rooms outdoors and to bring the outdoors in and the indoors out.”  

He was a trailblazer who has left an indelible mark on the outdoor living industry. His legacy continues today in backyards all across the U.S. and Canada.

For more information on Russel Wright, Manitoga, and The Russel Wright Design Center visit www.VisitManitoga.org.