Newest Porch Gliders
Are Quietly Taking Off

August 24, 2004 -- To glide, perchance to lounge.

It is hard, nearly impossible, not to lose all sensibility while floating through the air sprawled on the dreamiest of all pieces of outdoor furniture, the venerable porch glider. While some prefer the cushy lounge chair, and others the lilting swing, most people seem to drop into a nostalgic coma when talking about a glider, recalling long-gone teenage romances and hot summer evenings trying to catch even the faintest of breezes.

This is despite the fact that the gliders most of us grew up with were typically squeaky and unstable contraptions, of unremarkable design and made of cheap materials. Many lasted only a few summers before collapsing, and disappeared from most patios even as those even cheaper stackable plastic chairs multiplied like rabbits.

But gliders are now trying to take off again -- quietly, this time around.

The traditional glider that became popular during the 1920s has been redesigned, with operational improvements that have mostly eliminated those annoying screeches and wobbles. Many are more comfortable than the old clankers, using better materials such as teak and brass. And after perusing some of the models now offered to consumers both online and off, we were impressed.

Classic Two-Person Adirondack Glider by Hammacher Schlemmer. Price: $550. Comment: It costs a lot to look so simple, but this deep ride is dreamy.

With August fast approaching, it is now a little late in the season for glider shopping, meaning some models may be in short supply at retailers. On the other hand, consumers might benefit from sale prices as stores make room for autumn wares. There are also shipping costs, and gliders ordered via the Web or catalogs can take a few weeks for delivery.

These heartier gliders are part of a bigger trend in the multibillion-dollar outdoor-furniture industry, which has been trumpeting the idea of creating "outdoor rooms" that rival indoor spaces in terms of comfort and configuration. It is apparently not good enough any longer to throw out a few pieces of wood or metal furniture and call it a patio. Instead, an elaborately designed outdoor room is now being touted as a way to increase living space while enhancing a house's resale value.

Devon Glider by Smith & Hawken. Price: $449. Comment: Gliding along in this teak unit is languid, though bigger would be better.

While I'm not sure that an outdoor room is more than a marketing ploy to sell more mosaic tables and plush outdoor couches, I do agree with the concept that effective outdoor spaces must be more than whatever happens to be on sale at Home Depot that week. In many ways, the outdoor room seems aimed at recreating the harmony of the traditional front porch -- think of those bucolic porch scenes on "The Waltons" -- which fewer people these days have or use.

That has been a pity for the fate of the glider, one of the porch's most satisfying mainstays. Thus, I place a top priority on making sure one is part of the outdoor room. To find out the best choices, my partner-in-laze, Ed, and I took as many as we could for a ride, and perused others (that weren't in our local stores' stock) via the Web or catalog. All of the gliders we considered are typical "platform" gliders, which means they rested and glided above a stationary frame, as opposed to some gliders that sashay back and forth within a track.

Walton Lane Triple Glider by Restoration Hardware. Price: $195. Comment: A perfect retro knock-off that is a fitting tribute to smooth times where problems could be solved by floating on air.

Perhaps the best-looking glider we encountered was Smith & Hawken's Devon unit. The unit is made of handsome teak, like much of the furniture sold at the upscale gardening retailer. It uses a solid brass glider mechanism to create a pleasing rocking motion with enough range to be satisfying, but not so much to make you nauseous. The simple square design may seem spare to some, and looks a bit Puritan, but the glider is surprisingly comfortable, and cushions (about $99 each) can also be added. Its major downside is the price, now listed by the manufacturer at $449 compared with $599 earlier in the year, which still seems high given that the glider is a bit smaller than others available.

Orvis makes a similar-looking unit, made of cypress, at a much lower price of $250. While teak weathers better naturally, you can paint the cypress if you want and it doesn't require oiling the way teak often does. While the Orvis glider seems slightly less smooth than Smith & Hawken's Devon, and less tony-looking, its simplicity is attractive and its manufacture solid. This is a glider for those with fewer pretensions.

If a larger size -- or elitist tone -- is more important, Hammacher Schlemmer makes a squarish glider out of mahogany with a smooth ball-bearing suspension. I felt this one had more heft, when I tried it out in one of Hammacher's stores, and had more attractive-looking side panels. In addition, it was better priced at $250. Another glider offered by the retailer that I didn't get the chance to sit in was its two-person Adirondack glider. With its wide plank arms and deep seats, the Adirondack seems well suited to being mounted on the equivalent of skates -- because it tempers the furniture's squat feeling. Such comfort comes at a high price: about $550.

World's Smoothest Glider by Orvis. Price: $250. Comment: It's basic and made of a lesser wood than the Devon, but tells the world that you are a practical porch sitter.

In the end, though, my favorite glider wasn't a wood one, but one made of lightweight steel and painted in muted two-tone enamel with tubular sides: It is called the Walton Lane glider and is sold by Restoration Hardware. While it has none of the solidity of the wood gliders, it is a better reminder of all those cheap gliders we squeaked on nightly. Despite its colder metal form and less-robust gliding arms, which created a tipsier ride (with side-to-side as well as back-and-forth motion), this glider's homey look and retro stamped design brings an immediate reconnection with the past. Also attractive is the fact that the largest triple glider costs just $195, with doubles at $165 and a single at $110.

While I fully realized I was being played by clever designers and marketers nudging me into daydreaming about simpler and lazier days, it's the kind of consumer reverie that I suppose is hard to resist. But why should you anyway? It has become a very bumpy world since the glider's heyday, so taking any opportunity to float along seems like an awfully good idea.

Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.