Garden Variety

OUTDOOR-FURNITURE OPTIONS ARE BLOOMING. ARCHITECT LEE LEDBETTER AND DECORATOR FAWN GALLI COMPARE NOTES.

- Charles Curkin

Lee, thank you for letting us into your beautiful garden in New Orleans. Tell us about how you chose to furnish this outdoor room.

LEE LEDBETTER: There is a tradition in New Orleans of painted-iron furniture because of the climate. Wood disintegrates in our humidity, or it gets covered in algae. The iron just works here, and it speaks to the tradition.

FAWN GALLI: I love that your furniture looks contemporary. It’s a great foil for the lush gardens around the house. Does the mid century architecture of your house, which is in a Victorian district, inform your outdoor design choices?

LL: I have this vintage 1940s iron furniture designed by Billy Haines, which came from an estate in Texas. They’re wonderful large chairs with loose seat and back cushions. There’s also a Salterini ribbon table and chairs. Fawn, in the introduction to your new book, you describe growing up on a wooden houseboat in Northern California, then in a cabin your father built without electricity or indoor plumbing. What did that teach you about living outdoors?