House & Home Interviews the ARD Outdoor Team

Whether you’re working on a condo project, a Resort Spa, or a Country Golf Club, there’s five things that you really need to keep in mind. ARD Outdoor can be the perfect partner to help you avoid a lot of the pain.

ARD Outdoor realizes that each project has its own unique needs and the designers have their own vision for what they would like to see. So with that, our customization team is able to work with you. From the shape of the coffee table, to the size of the chair, to the length of the sofa, the feet, the nuts and bolts, and the screws – any of the decorative finishes. All of these details can be customized to make sure that your project is unique and able to deliver a product that meets the requirements of what you’re looking for.

I think what sets ARD apart from some of the other manufacturers out there is when a customer comes to us and they’re designing what they want, you know it’s not out of a box it’s not it comes this way in this colour we sit down we find out the style of their home we find out their personal style it allows the customer to create something with us. We also have a quick ship program for those projects where you don’t have as much lead time we can still work with the product that we have in stock customize your cushions because those are sown in Canada and make sure that you get everything on time.

At ARD Outdoor we realize that you need to source the highest quality contract grade materials that’s going to include poly woven fibers plantation grown teak you might be looking for some hemp mixed in to the poly fibers some different pieces that give the uniqueness to your project and you can work with that in confidence knowing that it’s weather resistant.

Everything we design has to be suitable for outdoors you’re looking for durability in different environments whether it be salt water salt air extreme heat extreme cold ice and a lot of things don’t make it past that test so if we can provide the materials that they don’t have to do anything with just leave it outside and let it run its course that’s our goal.

During the design process or the customization process, we’re thinking about every detail and that’s going to include quick dry foam we want something that’s mold and mildew resistant that we can highly recommend knowing that you’re going to get the lifespan out of your project. When you have a major storm that comes in two three four o’clock and your cushions are soaked and you can’t use your furniture it’s upsetting using outdoor foam allows the customer to get back into their set and I think it just gives people an assurance that if they left their cushions outside no big deal!

The workmanship of the product is incredibly important I’m sure everyone’s had a design issue where they’ve seen the weaves start to come undone they’ve seen cushions start to unravel no matter how good the material is if it’s not woven properly if it’s not assembled properly you will have problems down the road. When you look at our factory here in Toronto which has been around since 1964 and some of the same staff have been with us for 25-30 years.they pay such attention to detail and I think that stems from my father and my grandfather how passionate we are about this business and our staff are as well and I think that extra level that they’re loyal to us and they’re loyal to the product you know the workmanship in every little detail as far as I’m concerned sets the standard in this industry.

Our average year of tenure here at Cana foam is 28 years on the average. We’re very lucky that when they come here to work they come to stay maybe it’s a work conditions maybe it’s the atmosphere of the factory maybe it’s a product or maybe it’s a management and the truth is without our staff we really couldn’t be here standing and doing today.

We’re proud to offer a variety of styles to meet the different demands of every project you need something that has a very Caribbean theme or it could be quite traditional maybe something that is mid-century modern contemporary transitional piece no matter what the theme is we’ll make sure that we have a style that suits that.

I find that with some of the designers out there when we take their inspiration it opens the door to so many new possibilities that we didn’t even think of and sometimes designers will come in they’ll make one little suggestion on a colour or a pillow or an accent and it just looks amazing and you want to incorporate that in your design going forward and I think that’s what we try to foster in our environment here. At the end of the day, we’re grabbing ideas from a database that is 50 years old and with so many interesting designs that we’ve used in the past and all we do is improve them time and time again.

No one wants to work with a company with a bad reputation that’s a given we’re able to bring you 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry that reputation has been respected and continues to be as we fulfill projects that make you look good you haven’t I first fight at all I mean we’re an outdoor furniture company and that’s it. The reason companies keep coming back to us is because we’re devoted to what we do our mentality within our corporate culture is still family-run it’s people who care who run the company.

All of our representatives have worked in the furniture industry for decades. They understand design they understand furniture construction they understand sourcing how the piece is put together and then ultimately what you’re going to see as your end result.

As soon as you sit back and you let the industry kind of catch up to what you’re doing I think you get a back page as far as designers. I think a lot of people do look at our designs and think you know I could see that going in this space so you have to be ahead of the curve always.

I’ve been in the furniture business for over 20 years and I’m very proud to work with this product knowing of the quality that it delivers the return on someone’s investment. I think it’s really important to create beautiful spaces and when someone asked me what do I do I tell them I create beautiful outdoor spaces.

Being in this industry, of course, I love the outdoors and I love nature and so you know to make these beautiful pieces that we can sit and relax and enjoy. I love it more than anything and I think that’s why our customers keep coming back to us, I mean we try to create those items to enjoy those moments!

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