This week, we decided to change things up a bit, and brought a touch of the outdoors inside. With the latest storm  of this very snowy winter showing up earlier this week, it felt NOTHING like spring outside. So we decided to make it feel like spring inside! We set up the Observatory Hill Studio with some pieces from our Barlow Tyrie outdoor furniture collection, and dressed the table with some of our new iittala dinnerware. The result? This easy, breezy, spring-inspired setting, which made us forget about the cold outside... at least until we stepped back out into it.

The setting started with this Barlow Tyrie Aura furniture, an aluminum and teak line in a lovely champagne color. We featured the 60" rectangular dining table and these stacking armchairs to go with it. We also put up a Barlow Tyrie Sail Aluminum Rectangular Parasol (9'9" x 7'3") to further set the springtime mood.

Dinnerware came from one of our iittala collections - actually the same collection we shared in last week's setting, iittala Teema, but in the new 2013 color: celadon! It's really perfect for spring, and a wonderful addition to this line. For these settings, we used several different dinnerware pieces, including a dinner plate, a salad plate and a soup/cereal bowl.

The glassware came from our Alessi Mami collection. For the stemware we used the Mami Red Wine Glass, and for the water glasses we used Mami Whiskey Tumblers. Please, no comments on the fact that we put white wine into red wine glasses, and water into whiskey glasses. We were exercising our creative side!

The flatware we used was the David Mellor Chelsea Collection, a simple, modern design made of stainless steel. This particular collection is a great one, because it's basic design and and balanced hand-feel makes it widely appealing. The placemats were Chilewich Mini Basketweave in Aloe, another really neutral pick, which helped the celadon dinnerware stand out.

The napkins, another standout against this neutral background, were Libeco Home Polylin Blend Napkins in Blue Sky, a lovely periwinkle color that reminds me of blue skies and summertime. Such a refreshing thought!

If you're in the market for new outdoor furniture like what we've shown here, we hope you'll stop in sometime! Outdoor entertaining season is almost upon us, and we've got some great merchandise available this year. That, and plenty of dinnerware to dress up your current or new outdoor table.

Happy first week of spring! Stay warm out there.