Tables

November 7, 2014November 6, 2014

Furniture System is the Center of Entertainment

For better of worse, dining has gotten pretty casual in our modern times, with many people taking their meals on a couch, at a small kitchen table or, if we have one, counter. Paying for and maintaining a dedicated dining room whose main function is to be on standby for the occasional dinner party doesn’t make much financial sense. But having the capacity to properly entertain is pretty sweet, which is why the Smart Living TV wall system by Ozzio Design is pretty sweet. Concealed inside the entertainment center are chambers that hold a collapsing dining table and six folding chairs.

The front panel holds a large TV, which swings out of the way to access the chairs. This makes the system ideal for folks for whom the TV is a room’s centerpiece (not a judgment statement, just a fact).

The system is available in the US through Resource Furniture. The TV rack/storage element can be ordered without the side shelving for $5,300 in a lacquer finish. The “Mini Long” table starts at $2,040, and a set of 6 Nobys chairs starts at $960. Grand total: $10,950.

We know some our readers are going to get in a tizzy about the cost. That’s fine. But hear us out post-tizzy. A dedicated dining room is easily 100 sq ft. In cities like San Francisco and New York, price per square foot for an apartment purchase regularly exceeds $1000–i.e. $100K. But let’s say you live in a city like Washington DC, where one and two bedrooms only cost around $500 per square foot. That’s still $50K. Not to mention, any reasonably high quality entertainment center, dining table and chairs is going to run you at least a couple grand. Depending on your priorities and means, this math is way easier to justify than paying for a room that’s used a couple times a month.

January 20, 2014January 20, 2014

Make Any Surface a Table

One of the marvels of Kickstarter is that successful products tend to be either: A. common products done well (backpacks, dress shirts, etc) or B. products whose usefulness is so profoundly obvious, you wonder why no one made it up until now. The Floyd Leg is an example of B. It’s a table leg that clamps onto any board to make an instant table.

There’s not a whole heck of a lot to say about the Floyd Legs. They will be available in both 29″ dining and 16″ coffee table heights. They feature a clean design and will be available in multiple powder-coated colors. They will have a machined F-clamp attached to an 11 gauge cold-rolled steel leg shaft. Kyle Hoff and Alex O’Dell, the guys behind the project, say they are ideal for light to medium use, such as a desk or planter table. Because of a lack of cross-bracing, they say that making them into a dining table is not ideal, though we suspect it’d work if the surface wasn’t too big.

We see the Floyd Leg as a perfect compliment to small space living. Because of their svelte size, you can hide them away if you don’t need a table most of the time. You could keep a couple easy-to-store boards around to suit whatever function you needed on a particular day. If you move to a larger space–or a smaller one for that matter–all you need to do is switch out the surface to make an appropriate sized table.

The project has has met an amazing $165K of its $18K funding goal. A $189 pledge will get you a set of 16″ or 29″ legs. Projected delivery is late April of this year. See more on their Kickstarter page.

September 27, 2013September 27, 2013

Being a Lightweight is a Good Thing

Maybe it’s because I am in the process of moving, but the prospect of having a lighter existence is very appealing right now. I am not referring to a metaphoric lightening–fewer obligations, less stress, etc. I am referring to a reduction in mass. Wouldn’t it be cool if everything we had was light and easy to move, handle and ship? Bucky Fuller thought so.

The problem is, unless you want to get that carbon fiber easy chair, is lightweight is synonymous with flimsy. British industrial designer Benjamin Hubert‘s Ripple table defies this notion that light and strong can’t coexist in furniture in design. The table 8′ x 3’ table is an astonishingly light 19 lbs thanks to a specially laminated, birch plywood made with Canadian wood manufacturer Corelam. The ply edge is only 3.5 mm. And because of its corrugated structure, the table is reported to have strength equal to solid wood.

Beyond industrial design marvel, the table is gorgeous. It will be available for sale soon. We’ll report to you when we have pricing info.

Via Architizer

January 10, 2013September 23, 2013

Comfortably Seat Ten in Your Micro Apartment

In the coming months, we will be highlighting products and services we use in the LifeEdited apartment. Today, we’re looking at the Resource Furniture Goliath Table.

Of all the pieces of furniture in the LifeEdited apartment, none get more oohs and ahs than the Goliath Table. The table, made in Italy by Ozzio and distributed in the US by Resource Furniture, transforms from a 17″ deep console without leafs to 115″ dining room table with.

Depending on how many of the five leafs you add, you can make the table appropriate for seating two, four, etc. In the cozy 420 LifeEdited space, it’s a critical piece of furniture, allowing us to easily host dinner parties for ten plus people.

When not in use, we store the table under a breakfast bar made especially for the Goliath.

The table is available in a number of durable finishes. Visit Resource Furniture’s website for full details. While the starting price of $3950 might strike many as a lot of money, consider that this table can effectively turn any room into a real dining room. Think about the cost of eliminating 50-100 sq ft from your home. How much would that save?

Perhaps you’d use it to turn your dining room into something you might use more like a home office. Likewise, the table’s high quality construction make it something you can keep for many years. Looked at this way, we think the Goliath a great investment (it’s sure to impress your dinner guests too).

October 2, 2012June 10, 2013

Transforming Tables Handle Coffee and Dinner with Ease

If you live in a small space–or just don’t want to clutter up your big one–you might find yourself choosing between a coffee or dining table. Having both just takes up too much room. In an effort to sidestep this either/or situation, Resource Furniture and Duffy London offer tables that are as competent at hosting dinner parties as they are having afternoon tea service–or, the US equivalent, eating in front of the TV.

Duffy London’s Transforming Coffee Table MK1 (pictured below) has legs that fold underneath its base for a very simple conversion. When the legs are in the elevated position, built-in leafs, which double as legs when in coffee table mode, add additional length to the dining room table surface.

The table is offered in a variety of finishes and three sizes–Mini, Large and X-Large. All three are 13″ high in coffee table mode and 30″ in dining. The two smaller versions are 29″ wide in coffee mode and 50″ and 57″ when extended; the X-large goes from 39″ to 67″ wide. Duffy’s website lists the prices at £395/$638, £445/$718 and £595/$961 respectively. Unlike a lot of cool Euro furniture we’ve found, they offer US shipping at £175/$282.

Resource Furniture has a full line of tables that have both coffee and dining table functionality. Here are a couple.

The Passo goes from a 10.5″ high coffee table to 30.75″ dining table. It’s 30″ deep and width goes from 48″ closed to 78″ when its built-in leafs are folded out from under the tabletop.

Resource-furniture-passo — Resource Furniture Passo Table

The Box table (pictured at top of post) is similar to the Passo, though the leafs project from the ends of the table versus folding out from underneath. Fully extended, the Box is 87″ wide–sufficiently large for dinner parties for 8-10 people. Like the Passo, you can extend one, both or neither leaf, giving a ton of flexibility for its usage. For example, you could have a long coffee table or short dining table.

We’ve had a chance to use both of Resource’s tables and they work great. They are high quality, easy to raise, transform and moving around the house. Both are available in a variety of finishes and start around $3500.

These tables are great investments for many, combing great design, materials and saving space functionality. That said, we understand they are out of many people’s price brackets. If you know of high quality, lower price alternatives, let us know.

Via Dwell and Mimi

September 4, 2012December 11, 2014

Awesome Space-Saving Furniture Made of Planks and Broom Handles

Oregon-based Studio Gorm made this simple, elegant design for transforming, adaptable furniture. There’s not much to the studio’s Peg line: some planks of hardwood with threaded recesses; several threaded legs that can be configured as benches, tables, stools, etc., depending on their lengths; and a hanging rack for storage that makes the assembly look like an objet d’art.

The studio’s site indicates that the collection is available in several types of woods and finishes, leading us to believe that it might be for sale (we are trying to confirm that now).

We have some question about how stable the units are, especially with the longer-legs, but suspect that the wider diameter legs can handle a decent load.

What’s lovely about the design is its mechanical and aesthetic simplicity. There are few moving parts, no hardware, everything is repairable or replaceable and infinitely configurable depending on your needs. It demonstrates that transforming furniture need not have a complicated hardware or a particular aesthetic.

all images by Studio Gorm

via Core 77