FURNITURE
Outdoor furniture is a different design problem than indoor furniture. The sun fades it, the rain finds every joint, and the cushions sit in moisture for half the season. A patio set that looks correct in May usually looks tired by August. The brands that take outdoor design seriously are the ones that treat it as engineering first and aesthetics second.
Muuto launched its first outdoor collection in 2019 and has built it out across four distinct material families since. The post below covers all four: the powder-coated steel of the Linear Steel Series by Thomas Bentzen, the upholstered lounge comfort of the Settle Series by Anderssen & Voll, the recycled-plastic shells of the Fiber Outdoor pieces by Iskos-Berlin, and the FSC-certified teak of the Assemble Series, also by Anderssen & Voll. Four series, four material conversations, one Scandinavian design vocabulary running through all of them.
Each series is built around a different idea of what outdoor living should feel like. Read the post as a guide to which material family fits the patio, terrace, or garden you are actually working with.
Linear Steel Series by Thomas Bentzen
The Linear Steel Series came from Thomas Bentzen's interest in translating the traditional Nordic oak garden table into a material that would actually survive a Scandinavian winter. The visual reference is wood. The execution is steel. Welded steel frames, hot-dip galvanized seats, aluzinc-treated legs, and a deep matte UV-resistant powder-coated finish that holds its colour through sun and rain.
The detail work is where the design earns its name. Half-circular intersecting legs, folded edges along the seat surfaces, and small spacings cut into the seats and tabletops to let water flow through rather than pool. The bench seats lean 1.5 degrees toward the centre, which is the kind of engineering decision a casual look at the piece will miss completely but a season of rain will reveal.
This is the series for the patio or garden where the look needs to feel architectural rather than residential. Cafe-style breakfast on a balcony, a long bench-and-table arrangement in a backyard, a Lounge Armchair on its own as a sculptural piece on a deck. The geometry is restrained enough to read as an extension of the architecture rather than a separate decorative layer. View the full Muuto Linear Steel Series.
Settle Series by Anderssen & Voll
Anderssen & Voll started the Settle Series from a different problem. Upholstered outdoor furniture has a long history in Southern Europe and South America, and the Scandinavian mid-century masters worked with it too. The question was whether a Norwegian design duo could build an outdoor sofa that felt like an indoor sofa without giving up the durability the outdoors actually requires.
The answer is in the construction. An electro-galvanized, primed, and powder-coated steel frame provides corrosion resistance through Canadian winters. The intersecting tubular base creates a visual path that shows how the frame supports the upholstery above it, which is the design move that keeps the piece feeling light rather than heavy. The armrests are FSC-certified Sapele Mahogany, generous enough to double as small side tables. The cushions are filled with quick-dry foam in multiple layers for the seats and single layer for the backs, wrapped in durable outdoor textiles with anti-slip surfaces. The cushions are designed to dry through after a rain shower rather than holding moisture.
This is the series for the patio or covered terrace where the outdoor space is read as another living room. Long evenings outside with drinks, weekend afternoons with a book, the kind of outdoor furniture that gets used rather than just looked at. The 2 Seater is right-sized for a smaller terrace or a balcony with a view. The 3 Seater anchors a larger outdoor lounge area. The Lounge Chair and Lounge Bed extend the system into single-seat lounging and full-recline lounging respectively. View the full Muuto Settle Series.
The Settle is restrained in a way that lets the outdoor space do the talking. The lines are quiet, the upholstery is soft in a way you feel before you see, and the whole arrangement settles into a patio or terrace rather than dominating it. It lets you actually relax outdoors instead of perching.
Jenna, Interior Design Specialist
Fiber Outdoor Series by Iskos-Berlin
Iskos-Berlin originally designed the Fiber Chair as an indoor piece in 2014, working with a composite of plastic and wood fibers to create a shell chair that felt warmer and more tactile than conventional plastic furniture. The Fiber Outdoor version takes that same design language and rebuilds it in a material specified for outdoor life.
The outdoor shell is made from a minimum of 85% recycled plastic, with each chair giving new life to at least 2 kg of plastic waste. UV stabilizers are added to the composite to hold the colour through sun exposure that would fade most outdoor furniture within a season. The base is galvanized steel tube with the same deep matte powder coating used across the Muuto outdoor range. Available in Anthracite Black, Grey, Brown Red, and Dusty Green.
This is the chair for the outdoor dining table that needs to look considered without being precious. Family dining, patio breakfasts, the chair that gets pulled across a stone surface twice a day and shows no wear for it. The Side Chair is the workhorse. The Armchair adds a small arm-rest height and reads as the head-of-table piece. View the Fiber Outdoor Armchair and Fiber Outdoor Side Chair.
Assemble Series by Anderssen & Voll
The Assemble Series is the second collection Anderssen & Voll designed for Muuto's outdoor range, and it pulls in the opposite material direction from Settle. Where Settle uses upholstery to bring indoor softness outside, Assemble works with the material outdoor furniture has used for centuries: solid teak. The wood is FSC-certified, which means the harvest is traceable to responsibly managed forests, and the joinery is exposed rather than hidden.
Teak is the traditional choice for outdoor wood because of how it behaves over time. The natural oils in the wood resist water and decay without sealants, and the surface develops a silvery-grey patina over years of outdoor exposure that most owners come to prefer to the original honey colour. The piece looks different in year five than it does in year one, and that is part of the design intent rather than a flaw to manage.
This is the series for the garden or backyard where the outdoor furniture is meant to feel grounded in the landscape rather than placed on top of it. The Coffee Table sits low and works as a centrepiece for a Settle lounge arrangement. The Bench works for casual seating along a fence line or against a wall. The Table is a full outdoor dining piece that grows visibly more characterful with each passing summer. View the full Muuto Assemble Series.
Four series, four materials, four design conversations about what outdoor furniture should do. The Linear Steel Series is the architectural anchor for outdoor spaces where the design needs to read as restrained and considered. The Settle Series is the upholstered lounge piece for outdoor spaces that function as another living room. The Fiber Outdoor pieces are the everyday workhorse seats for outdoor dining. The Assemble Series is the solid teak collection for outdoor spaces that want a material with its own time signature.
The throughline is the Muuto design vocabulary, which keeps the four series readable as one collection even though no single material runs across all of them. Mix freely. A Settle lounge area sitting on a deck, an Assemble dining table with Fiber Outdoor chairs around it, a Linear Steel bench as a secondary seating piece against the back fence. The pieces are designed to work together as a system across material families.
If you want help thinking through which Muuto series fits your outdoor space, our in-house design team works with clients across Canada on everything from single-room consultations to full interior and exterior projects.
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