15
Creative Modern Coffee Tables & Coffee Table Designs
Article by steve, filed under Furniture & Decor in
the Design category.
No ivilng room would be complete without its centerpiece: the
coffee table. As a focus for family, friends, football and fun, the coffee
table can’t be beat…but it CAN be OFFbeat, as these 15 creative coffee table
designs show so well.
Noguchi Throws Down the Coaster
( Images via: Classic Design and Noguchi Museum Store )
It’s hard to say what the first piece of furniture worthy of the name“coffee table” was or where it was conceived but
for most of us the term brings up an image of the iconic Noguchi coffee table. First produced in 1944 in
association with the Herman Miller company, Isamu Noguchi’s tour de force is a
simple, organic, ultimately pleasing design that set the bar for urban cool.
Bring On the Coffee Cats
( Images via: Retro To Go, Roomgoods and ProductWiki )
Noguchi’s very basic coffee table design has inspired numerous
copies – or should we say homages? – over the last 60-odd years. The Moebius, Butterfly and Cross tables
are all undeniably interesting but at the same time face a frustrating
conundrum: how does one improve a superb minimalist design whose signature
feature is its simple magnificence?
Domino Theory
( Images via: SIDD and Design Spotter )
This dynamic coffee table design from Canada’s SIDD Fine Woodworking makes you think for a moment before setting down your mug o’
java. Better use a coaster before you do – each Domino is constructed by a
single SIDD craftsman over a period of six weeks and bears the artisan’s
signature on the underside.
I Sea What You Did There…
( Images via: Nerd Approved and Everything Nautical )
Any successful living room suggests a sense of peace and harmony to the user, and the latter quality is best expressed by the Fender Stratocaster coffee table from Fender Custom Furniture of Portland, Oregon. Solid maple construction is custom stained to evoke the warm,vintage look of Fender’s famous Stratocasters; enhanced by chrome plated tuning pegs and silk screened graphics. FCF has enjoyed great response with the Strat table and will be following it up with a coffee table based on the rockin’ Telecaster.
( Images
via: Nerd Approved and Everything Nautical )
What’s
up, dock? The Nautical Rowing Dory Coffee Table from Everything Nautical, of course. The 48-inch long table features
detachable oars – for those REALLY rainy days, one assumes – and a fitted glass
top that nestles just within the gunwales. A genuinely thoughtful design, the
Nautical Dory includes a pair of removable shelves that allow you to set the
table on end and use it as a bookshelf or, even better, a maritime curio case
for your seashells & scrimshaw.
The Age of Aquariums
( Images via: Gizmodo Germany and Shirley Aquatics )
Sticking
with our nautical theme, it’s not really a surprise there are aquarium coffee
tables… what IS odd is that there are so many. Perhaps it’s the way watching
fish swim can be so relaxing; maybe having water in front of you can make one
thirsty. No problems there, unless of course watching fish in front of you
makes you hungry… and drive your cat crazy.
Take Me to Your Melitta
( Images
via: Seanmichchaelragan.com )
Geek furniture doesn’t get much more geeky than the ZAP coffee table, a one-off, home made Space
Invaders tribute from Sean Ragan of Austin, Texas. Layered with handmade
Mexican Talavera tiles in cobalt blue and lemon yellow, the 38 by 51 inch table
cost Ragan about $415 in materials – which he kindly posts spreadsheet-style
for anyone who’s contemplating a similar project. Ragan is offering the table
for sale so if your games room (what geeks call a living room) needs that
finishing touch, you know who to call.
( Images via: Design Milk )
From Space Invaders to space savers: the hand-crafted Futaba
coffee table unfolds into a stylish loveseat when unexpected guests arrive…
from the Delta Quadrant. If it was just a little larger (or you were a little
shorter), the Futaba could double as a sofa bed. Sleeping on your coffee table?
It’s more likely than you think.
The Periodic Coffee Table of the Elements
( Images via: Designboom and Element Displays )
There’s nothing worse than a geek with a sense of humor,
unless it’s a geek with no sense of humor. In any case, the Periodic Table of
the Elements would even make ol’ Mendeleev himself crack a smile, until he read
the price tag ($8,550). Pricey or not, it’s a table… of the elements… get it?
Not exactly a thigh-slapper but if you’re going to make a joke, at least carry
it through to the end and that’s exactly what Element Displays has
done. All of the elements are sealed into clear acrylic blocks and set into a
4-ft. wide burred oak table. Built-in lighting illuminates the blocks and the
more reactive elements are sealed in inert Argon gas or mineral oil. There
appear to be quite a few blocks labeled with the “radioactive” symbol, so
unless you want your coffee re-heated for you we suggest using a lead coaster.
ROSIE says, Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me!
( Images via: Engadget and Savant )
The world’s first interactive coffee table costs a cool
$35,000 but like all new technology, the price should fall as the ROSIE Coffee
Table Touchpanel Controller begins to fly off the shelves and into America’s
homes. Featuring an Apple OS-X based operating system and an Intel processor,
the ROSIE coffee table is really too good to rest coffee mugs on… and besides,
spill-proofing the screen has been one of the biggest issues the Savant design team had to deal with. Isn’t
this what Microsoft’s highly touted Surface table was supposed to do?
Godzilla’s iPhone, or Your Coffee Table?
( Images via: iLounge and SlipperyBrick )
Not everyone has 35 grand to blow on a coffee table these
days, but that doesn’t mean one must do without. Take the iPhone coffee table,
crafted by iLounge readers Tuan Nguyen, Ken Thomas and
associates from corrugate cardboard glued together with white glue. It’s not
interactive but it does include a set of iPhone icon coasters coffee-sipping
guests can use to rest their mugs on. The table doesn’t have an iPhone dock,
unfortunately, but as it’s just a design concept made of cardboard perhaps that
might be asking a bit much.
Coffee, Tea or Napalm?
( Images via: Motoart )
Please return your Motoart coffee tables to the upright
position… which
would be a different position from the ones these genuine recycled aircraft
parts assumed in their previous lives aboard F-4 Phantom fighters, Boeing 707
jetliners and B-52 Stratofortress bombers. Seriously, a coffee table made from
chromed Phantom afterburner cans? That lights up at night with red LEDs? You know you want one.
The Coffee Table Book Lamp Table
( Images via: Robot Nine )
Takeshi Ishiguro’s Book of Lights is
the ultimate coffee table book – it’s a table top and reading light all in one.
Granted, the three .06 watt LEDs don’t hold a candle to, well, a candle but
this is one design project that favors form instead of function. Anyway, anyone
who can combine a working lamp with a pop-up book deserves kudos in my, er,
book.
Kramer’s Coffee Table Book
No collection of coffee tables should be without Cosmo
Kramer’s “coffee
table book that turns into a coffee table”,
as demonstrated by the hipster dufus himself on a very special Live with Regis
and Kathie Lee. SONY liked the concept so much they employed the theme to
package their 32-DVD Complete Series of
Seinfeld set. This may be the only one of Kramer’s crazy concepts to ever reach
fruition – on TV or in real life.
The Coffin Table
( images via: WebEcoist )
All good things must come to an end, and that includes you –
whether you’ve been good or not. Prepare for the day you shuffle off this
mortal coil with the Biodegradable Coffin coffee table from Halfway House Design.
Designed by Charles Constantine of the Pratt Institute – we’re assuming that’s a
school – the eco-friendly, biodegradable
pine wood Memento coffee table will stylishly store books, games, wine… and one
day, you.
Collected by: www.thewoodfactory.com.vn
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