Post-war Patio Furniture

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Walter Lamb is best known for his revolutionary and widely loved patio furniture — he salvaged metal tubing from sunken ships in Pearl Harbor in the 1940s to create seating, dining, and lounging pieces for outdoor living areas. His enduring and classic mid-century furniture designs have adorned patios (aka lanais) worldwide since then, and serve especially well when featuring a view.

Lamb worked the shaped tubing and fittings he’d gathered from battleship wreckage into proper frames and wrapped the structures in marine-grade cotton cording to create comfortable, element-proof outdoor furniture. Ours have been wrapped in the highest marine-grade UV resistant rope to withstand the Hawaii sunshine. On the windy Kohala Coast, where sturdy pieces of furniture have blown away, these pieces remain in place during the most brutal gusts. Thanks to their clean, low profiles and nearly see-through construction, views are not obstructed or spoiled.

Today Walter Lamb’s patio furniture has an esteemed place in the history of design. Pieces such as this are rarely offered, but may be found on occasion where distinctive vintage furnishings are sold. Here is an example of a bench by Walter Lamb that is similar to ours.


The four armchairs belong to a round dining table that is not shown. It is missing its glass top, due to the high winds. The small table also has a glass top, but that is weighted down at all times by a large lazy susan.

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