Gary Pettitt is all about convergence, moving in new directions, and finding opportunities in the spaces opened up by advances in technology.

That’s what he did at The Discovery Channel, back when the Internet still required explaining. The ability to blend the worlds of television, the World Wide Web, and commerce created new possibilities for creatives and marketers. Back then, that phenomenon was called convergence, and Pettitt was one of the pioneers.

Fast forward to the present. Pettitt, a native of Kenya who once worked in Asia for Intercontinental Hotels, has transitioned to an entirely different industry – though he’s still all about convergence.

Gary Pettitt, owner, Seasonal Living.

Convergence creates opportunities, and Pettitt has built an eclectic outdoor products company called Seasonal Living by capitalizing on two related opportunities.

The first is the dissolution of the hard line that once divided indoor and outdoor living spaces. That line has blurred to the point that it can now be difficult to tell what separates the Outdoor Room from the rest of the home.

The casual industry and design leaders have been pushing this concept for years, and most leading casual furniture makers recognize this development in one way or another.

But Pettitt’s Seasonal Living takes things one step farther. The message seems to be this: Buy the sofa or table or lamp or urn that you love; put it wherever you like.

The second convergence phenomenon makes the first possible. New technologies, new materials, and new furniture-making techniques have led to high-performance products that can serve virtually anywhere, in residential or commercial environments.

Most medium- and high-end casual companies understand this angle. Seasonal Living, however, takes the notion to a new level.

“In the decade or so that we have been in business, I have seen such changes that allow the seamlessness (between indoors and out),” Pettitt says. “What we really focus on is leveraging this indoor/outdoor multifunctional, multiuse sort of product.” As a result, “There is no clear division between in, and outdoor, spaces.”

In Seasonal Living’s showroom at the High Point Market in April, Pettitt gestures to a curvaceous sectional sofa upholstered in white. It’s part of the Fizz collection and features a marine-grade plywood frame, reticulated foam cushions, water barriers, and performance fabric.

Most notably, it’s made in the U.S.A. (North Carolina, specifically) and typically ships before a container ship could get halfway from Shanghai to the Port of Los Angeles.

Why Fizz? Pettitt calls it Seasonal Living’s “Champagne sectional,” the top of the line. And he’s rather proud of it.

“Not only do we make it in America,” he says, “we turn it around in two to three weeks.” Even by the standards of the interior furniture industry, he rightly points out that such a quick turnaround is remarkable.

“We have a good relationship with an excellent U.S. manufacturer,” he says.

Customers may choose from a range of about 50 fabrics (currently mostly Sunbrella) that soon will expand to encompass nearly 100 fabrics. “We will have an exclusive with a company that will give us a range of fabrics in the market that no one else has,” Pettitt says.

“To be able to offer 100-plus fabrics with a two- to three-week turnaround – that kind of revolutionizes” the custom furniture business, he explains. And, he says, there are customers who want such near-instant gratification with a bespoke product.

“This ability to personalize furniture is another step in the direction of delivering product,” Pettitt says. “It is more customizable to an individual’s needs.”

Seasonal Living has plans to introduce two or three more U.S.-made products to the market in 2016, he says. It’s part of his company’s strategy to diversify more extensively its global sourcing footprint following last year’s shipping strikes at West Coast ports.

“Forget a shipping issue! What would happen in the event of something more significant?” he asks.

Seasonal Living makes it a point to source goods from multiple nations as well as different regions of the world. Portugal is now on Pettitt’s radar as a potential manufacturing source.

The Plato collection.

International Perspective

Pettitt made his first contacts with the furniture industry while living in Hong Kong. Furniture designer friends in Europe needed help finding craftsmen to make limited production furniture, what Pettitt describes as “odd pieces.” Pettitt, blessed with abundant good taste, became the link between a sketch or a concept and a deliverable product. Though it wasn’t his day job, he found the process enjoyable.

Later, when the dot.com boom went bust and The Discovery Channel wanted him to relocate yet again, he said no. He followed his heart to settle in Texas and began to consider his options.

Furniture beckoned. With Austin as a home base, he could satisfy his love of travel and exotic places while searching the world for products. Austin’s mild winters and temperate spring and summer caused him to think seriously about outdoor furnishings.

“I looked at the interior opportunities,” he says, “and I couldn’t see a way to compete in an effective way without being a ‘me, too.’ But I could in the outdoor space.”

More than a decade later, Seasonal Living still avoids “me, too” products.

Looking for synthetic wicker, perhaps in a shade of java or mocha or chocolate or brown? Shop elsewhere.

Want a collection that has dozens of SKUs, everything from a chaise to a bistro table to dining, sectionals, and a bin to store the cushions? Check another manufacturer’s catalog.

Yet Seasonal Living’s current catalog, with more than 200 pages, offers plenty of drool-worthy products. The company has nine collections. Teak and stainless steel are represented. There’s a taut sling-style range featuring Serge Ferrari’s Batyline-brand fabric, as well as a high-density polypropylene group with a weave inspired by the baskets used by rice farmers.

In tables, Seasonal Living offers products made of teak and lightweight concrete. Some concrete finishes look rather like polished concrete. Others have the patina of marble or alabaster. There’s also a broad array of ceramic products, including coffee tables, stools, plus vases, planters and urns.

All the products, the catalog reminds, are suitable for use indoors or out.

At 118 in. in length, the Athos dining table makes an eye-catching statement. Thanks to its lightweight concrete 
construction – which uses no resins or fiberglass, according to the catalog – it weighs just 300 pounds.

“It takes probably three guys to move it into place,” Pettitt says. A table of similar dimensions in solid concrete would require a crane, he says.

The Athos table retails for about $6,700. “That allows our retailers a healthy margin and the ability to discount to the design trade,” Pettitt says.

At the other end of the price spectrum are smallish but colorful vases and urns.

L to R: Helter Skelter vase, Square bottom jar, Harvey vase, Tranche vase, Carlotta vase, English planter.

A two-color glazed ceramic cube, 15 in. square and 19 in. tall, retails for about $615. It could be a table or serve as a stool, user’s choice. The Ibis table, which has a teak base and a ceramic top available in seven colors, lists for $465.

The striking designs and colors are in keeping with a philosophy Pettitt has had since the beginning.

Early on, he explains, he saw lots of ways to compete in the casual living marketplace without playing the “me, too” game.

“People always need small accent tables,” he says. “They need small ways to personalize and accessorize indoor or outdoor living spaces. It was an area that was overlooked.”

Some of Seasonal Living’s vases and urns have been staple products for years, changing only to reflect – or more accurately, stay ahead of – color trends.

Going for Unique

The emphasis is on offering personalization for the designer, the retailer, and the homeowner. Pettitt strives to make Seasonal Living the source for “something unique” that’s far from a “mass market look.”

In keeping with that philosophy, he says, all of Seasonal Living’s products can be described as handmade. That even goes for the concrete items. Each is hand finished.

“Our customers don’t want everything to be pumped out of the machine, 24/7,” Pettitt says.

Instead of offering “matchy-matchy” products, Pettitt says he aims for complementary items that can mingle for a “blended look.” The catalog bears this out.

Teak from the Spiral collection looks appropriate with a lightweight concrete table for two. The same table in a white finish is at home with the Cerulean seating collection that features two-tone woven strapping of solution-dyed acrylic.

The Cerulean collection.

After reviewing the catalog, it becomes apparent that Seasonal Living offers a range of products that is purposefully limited. There are no after-thoughts, no extra SKUs “just because.” Less, once again, is more.

“I’m not a designer by nature,” Pettitt says, “but I have an eye. I know what to look for. I know what our customers look for, and that’s what I’m always striving for – a blended look.

“We are not the most expensive in the market, and we are certainly not the cheapest,” he says. He describes the Seasonal Living look as curated and eclectic.

Designers of major collections get plenty of credit in Seasonal Living’s catalog. Among them is Florida-based Louis A. Lara, whose creations include the sleek Austin sectional. Austin features a stainless-steel frame protected by a clear powdercoat, quick-drying foam cushions covered in Sunbrella fabric, and seatbacks wrapped in leather-grained vinyl.

Lara also created Kai, seating inspired by the Adirondack chair. Inda – a family of battery-operated, LED lighting products – is another of his designs.

The bases of the table and floor lamps are of lightweight concrete, which provides enough stability to withstand a rather stiff breeze. Lamp shades, of easy-to-clean polyurethane, give the LED light source a warm, almost incandescent glow.

These aren’t lamps to read by; they are ambiance creators. “Designers and retailers say they’ve seen nothing else like them,” Pettitt says. Seasonal Living is pursuing patent protection for the cordless lamps. Battery packs provide about eight hours of light and recharge in six. The charging system is inductive; just set the battery pack on the charging base. There are no clips or clamps or wires to connect.

Pettitt expects many designers to specify the lamps for indoor use, which is perfectly in keeping with his notion that beautiful furnishings should be used wherever one wishes. He notes that 70 percent of Seasonal Living’s lightweight concrete tables are used indoors.

The Spiral collection.

Specialty Retailer Insights

Seasonal Living has exhibited at Casual Market Chicago, but Pettitt found the experience in temporary space less than ideal. The company has concentrated on High Point and, perhaps not surprisingly, found greater acceptance among traditional furniture stores than at specialty retailers.

But the company does have casual furniture stores among its fans, and Pettitt would welcome more.

Christie Boyd is co-owner of Porch in Carpinteria, California. She and business partner Diana Dolan encountered Seasonal Living at a trade show while working for another company.

“If we ever get our own store, this is going to be the first company we call,” she recalls saying. “And we did.”

Boyd calls Seasonal Living’s products “very contemporary, but not always hard-edged. There’s a lot of nature in the pieces, and some beautiful color.”

Pettitt, she says, “is really good at creating functional art. We’ve sold multiples of his beautiful reclaimed teak and concrete tables, and plenty of the small ceramic side tables, stools and urns. He’s not trendy. He’s designing for the long haul.”

Daniel Lubner of Clive Daniel Home, with two stores in south Florida, signed with Seasonal Living after first seeing its concrete tables about four years ago. They are, he says, “an absolute game changer.”

Clive Daniel Home markets to residential as well as hospitality customers and has 35 designers on staff. Seasonal Living products, he says, “play seamlessly to both sides of the equation. They are a big reason we feel able to separate ourselves from our competitors.”

The Accessories Resource Team (ART), a trade association of home decor professionals, has recognized Seasonal Living’s flair for design. The company has received five ARTS awards and been inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame. ARTS awards are presented by the Dallas Market Center.

Pettit says Seasonal Living has 24 sales representatives working the United States and Canada. Another six sales reps call on the hospitality industry, which he says is “a growing space.”

The company also is working “the e-channel. It’s a channel we can’t ignore,” he says. “But we are not going to put our products on mass-market sites. That’s not who our customer is, and we’re not about filling up other sites with pretty pictures.”

Pettitt is bullish on the direction in which he’s taking Seasonal Living. He feels good about the future and the population wave of Millennials and Gen-Xers who will provide the bulk of casual furniture customers for the next two or three decades.

He thinks of attitudes toward color today versus when he launched Seasonal Living – “People were very, very color hesitant” – and likes what he sees in the up-and-coming generation of consumers. Their tastes should bode well for Seasonal Living.

“Millennials and Gen-Xers are looking to personalize,” Pettitt says. “They are looking for ways to create their own unique indoor/outdoor living spaces. They’re more playful.” Home décor, he says, “is not so serious anymore.”

Seated on the broad arm of a chair, with an Inda lamp glowing softly nearby, Pettitt smiles. Though the chair arm is made of lightweight concrete, his expression says that he and Seasonal Living are in a quite comfortable position.