Tag Archives: Deniz Aktay

NjommNjomm Is Exactly What It Sounds Like (It Eats Books)

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Say the name out loud. NjommNjomm. Go ahead. It sounds exactly like what you think it sounds like. Nom nom. Like something chewing. Like something very happily eating. And once you see what this coffee table concept actually does, you’ll understand that the name is entirely intentional and absolutely perfect.

Stuttgart-based designer Deniz Aktay, who goes by dezinobjects online, studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Stuttgart before turning his focus to furniture and object design. He has built a quiet but devoted following with pieces that feel more like riddles than furniture. His previous work includes tables named “Bookpet” and “Nessie,” and an award-winning piece called “Overlap.” The man clearly has a sense of humor, and with NjommNjomm, he’s leaning all the way into it.

Designer: Deniz Aktay (dezinobjects)

The concept is deceptively simple. NjommNjomm is a cuboid coffee table made from sustainable plastics. It has a clean, minimal silhouette, and nothing about it screams “look at me” from across the room. But tucked inside is a bevelled storage compartment, and when you slide a book of just the right size into it, something kind of surreal happens. The book appears to disappear into the table. The table appears to have swallowed it. Nom nom, indeed.

It’s the kind of visual trick that makes you do a double-take, and then immediately want to show everyone who walks into your living room. That impulse is actually one of the more underrated qualities a piece of furniture can have. Most objects just sit there. NjommNjomm performs.

The optical illusion comes from the bevelled cut of the internal compartment, which creates a striking contrast against the clean outer form. The book doesn’t just sit inside the table. It looks consumed, tucked away by the table itself. There’s a small theatrical quality to it that elevates it well beyond a storage solution and into something closer to a stage prop, except it lives in your living room and holds your coffee.

I’ll admit, my very practical brain did pause for a moment to wonder about the mechanics of it all. How exactly do you get the book in? Do you slide it through the opening? Is there a specific angle? And when you want to actually read it, does retrieving it break the illusion entirely? I genuinely don’t know, and I find myself hoping the answer is something elegantly simple, because the last thing this design needs is a frustrating extraction process every time you want to pick up where you left off.

Beyond the trick, the design is genuinely practical in other ways. The cuboid shape means it can be positioned horizontally as a traditional coffee table or flipped vertically to change its function entirely, making it more adaptable than most single-use furniture. For smaller spaces especially, that kind of flexibility matters. Being made from sustainable plastics also puts it in line with where furniture design is heading broadly, with more and more designers prioritizing materials that don’t cost the planet what they cost the consumer.

Aktay’s body of work says a lot about what he values as a designer. His pieces consistently sit at the intersection of wit and function, which is a harder balance to achieve than it looks. It’s easy to make something clever. It’s harder to make something clever that also works as real furniture in a real home. NjommNjomm feels like it manages both.

What makes the concept particularly compelling right now is the timing. The conversation around coffee tables in 2026 has largely been about sculptural forms and pieces that feel more like objects of art than pieces of furniture. NjommNjomm fits into that moment without trying too hard to belong to it. It’s minimal, almost to the point of invisibility, and then it does its little trick, and you realize it was never trying to be quiet at all.

For those of us who stack books on every available surface, there’s something poetic about a table that embraces the book as part of its identity rather than treating it as clutter. NjommNjomm doesn’t just hide the book. It celebrates it by making it look like the table chose to eat it.

It’s currently a concept, and Aktay shares his work on Instagram where designs like this tend to get picked up quickly by communities who recognize a good idea when they see one. Whether it eventually moves into production or stays in concept territory, it’s already done what great design is supposed to do. It made me stop scrolling. It made me think. And it made me want one.

The post NjommNjomm Is Exactly What It Sounds Like (It Eats Books) first appeared on Yanko Design.

Deniz Aktay Just Built a Side Table from a Single Tube Bent Twice

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Side tables have a bit of an identity problem in furniture design. Most treat them as purely functional afterthoughts, giving you a flat surface at the right height and not much else. The ones that do try to stand out tend to overcorrect, piling on decorative legs, unusual proportions, or materials that compete with everything else in the room. Very few ask whether the structure itself could be the point.

That’s the question Stuttgart-based designer Deniz Aktay explores with the Whisk table, a side table built around a single continuous tube that does all the heavy lifting. Aktay’s work consistently gravitates toward pure lines and the expressive potential of a single well-chosen material. The Whisk is one of his cleaner expressions of that thinking.

Designer: Deniz Aktay

The tube bends into two rounded loops stacked at different heights, forming an S-curve when viewed from the side. One loop reaches the height of a standard side table and cradles the tabletop. The other sweeps back to the floor, forming the base. The whole thing reads as one fluid gesture rather than a frame assembled from parts, which is very much the point.

Where it gets interesting structurally is at the center, where the tube crosses itself. That crossing point isn’t decorative; it’s what keeps the table stable. The two loops work against each other in a way that resists rocking or shifting, so you get a table that looks almost impossibly light while still holding its ground next to a sofa or armchair without wobbling every time you set something down.

The tabletop is designed to stay in the background. It fits within the upper loop and matches its rounded profile, so the two read as a single shape rather than two components joined together. The surface adds just enough contrast to define the functional plane without competing for attention. The tube does the work; the top is simply where you put your coffee, your book, or a small lamp.

As a side table, the Whisk works in less space than you’d expect. Its footprint is compact enough for tight spots beside a lounge chair or at the end of a bed, and the open structure doesn’t crowd the room the way solid-legged tables often do. It comes in a polished silver finish and a warm red option, giving it a bit more personality for spaces that can take it.

The Whisk explores what a single material or fabrication method can do without adding more than it needs to. It’s a single tube, bent twice, crossed once. It’s the kind of idea that sounds almost too simple to work, until you’re actually using it and realize that nothing about it needed to be more complicated.

The post Deniz Aktay Just Built a Side Table from a Single Tube Bent Twice first appeared on Yanko Design.

Deniz Aktay Just Built a Side Table from a Single Tube Bent Twice

Posted on by

Side tables have a bit of an identity problem in furniture design. Most treat them as purely functional afterthoughts, giving you a flat surface at the right height and not much else. The ones that do try to stand out tend to overcorrect, piling on decorative legs, unusual proportions, or materials that compete with everything else in the room. Very few ask whether the structure itself could be the point.

That’s the question Stuttgart-based designer Deniz Aktay explores with the Whisk table, a side table built around a single continuous tube that does all the heavy lifting. Aktay’s work consistently gravitates toward pure lines and the expressive potential of a single well-chosen material. The Whisk is one of his cleaner expressions of that thinking.

Designer: Deniz Aktay

The tube bends into two rounded loops stacked at different heights, forming an S-curve when viewed from the side. One loop reaches the height of a standard side table and cradles the tabletop. The other sweeps back to the floor, forming the base. The whole thing reads as one fluid gesture rather than a frame assembled from parts, which is very much the point.

Where it gets interesting structurally is at the center, where the tube crosses itself. That crossing point isn’t decorative; it’s what keeps the table stable. The two loops work against each other in a way that resists rocking or shifting, so you get a table that looks almost impossibly light while still holding its ground next to a sofa or armchair without wobbling every time you set something down.

The tabletop is designed to stay in the background. It fits within the upper loop and matches its rounded profile, so the two read as a single shape rather than two components joined together. The surface adds just enough contrast to define the functional plane without competing for attention. The tube does the work; the top is simply where you put your coffee, your book, or a small lamp.

As a side table, the Whisk works in less space than you’d expect. Its footprint is compact enough for tight spots beside a lounge chair or at the end of a bed, and the open structure doesn’t crowd the room the way solid-legged tables often do. It comes in a polished silver finish and a warm red option, giving it a bit more personality for spaces that can take it.

The Whisk explores what a single material or fabrication method can do without adding more than it needs to. It’s a single tube, bent twice, crossed once. It’s the kind of idea that sounds almost too simple to work, until you’re actually using it and realize that nothing about it needed to be more complicated.

The post Deniz Aktay Just Built a Side Table from a Single Tube Bent Twice first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Side Table Tricks You Into Thinking Books Are Holding It Up

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Side tables have always been one of the harder pieces of furniture to make genuinely interesting. They’re functional by nature, meant to hold a drink, a remote, or that ever-growing stack of books. Most designs take the easy route: a flat surface, four legs, and nothing more. A few try to add storage or visual flair, but the table and whatever sits on it rarely share anything deeper than proximity.

Deniz Aktay’s Delusion Table turns that relationship on its head. The Stuttgart-based designer has crafted a side table concept where books aren’t just accessories resting on the surface; they become part of the table itself, or at least appear to. The idea is simple but arresting: a purpose-built metal framework connects the tabletop to the base, and once books are loaded onto it, the metal structure all but disappears.

Designer: Deniz Aktay (dezinobjects)

The trick borrows from a principle already used in certain bookmarks and floating wall shelves, where a thin metal channel slides between a book’s pages and disappears behind the covers. Aktay applies the same logic vertically: the table’s central stem has integrated clips that hold books upright against the structure. Slot a few thick art or design volumes in, and the metal seems to dissolve quietly into the spines.

What results is a table that looks as if a small stack of books has somehow defied physics to hold an entire surface aloft. It’s a visual gag, but an elegant one. The books aren’t floating or leaning on something concealed behind them. They’re gripping the structure, pages pressed against the clips, covers facing outward, spines reading clearly, creating something that looks accidental but is actually very deliberate.

That deliberateness extends to the books themselves. The volumes you choose to insert don’t just support the illusion; they become part of the design statement. A stack of oversized architecture monographs communicates something entirely different from a row of photography books or a handful of paperbacks. The table changes with whoever assembles it, which is a quiet but genuinely meaningful layer of personalization built right into the concept.

It’s also worth considering where a table like this fits most naturally. A reading nook, a home office corner, or a bedside setup for someone who always has a few books in rotation: in any of these settings, the Delusion Table doesn’t need anything extra to feel complete. The books it needs to function are probably already nearby, waiting to serve a purpose they weren’t originally designed for.

Aktay has made a habit of designing furniture that asks questions as much as it answers them, and the Delusion Table is no exception. It’s a concept that works on two levels: as a functional object that holds books and a tabletop, and as something that quietly unsettles your perception. You look at it, pause a moment, and find yourself genuinely unsure of what’s doing what. That’s exactly the point.

The post This Side Table Tricks You Into Thinking Books Are Holding It Up first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Side Table Has No Legs: Its Two Storage Units Are the Structure

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Side tables rarely demand much attention. They hold a drink, a lamp, or a book, and that’s essentially all anyone expects from them. The more ambitious ones add a drawer or a second tier, but the core formula stays the same. It’s one of those furniture categories where function has long settled into convention, quietly waiting for someone to rethink the structure itself.

Designer Deniz Aktay has been doing exactly that kind of rethinking through his designs. His latest concept, the Torque High Side Table, takes the structural question seriously, proposing a pedestal that isn’t really a pedestal at all. The table’s support comes entirely from two metal storage units that carry the weight of the design, both literally and visually, stacked and rotated against each other.

Designer: Deniz Aktay

The idea of torque, that mechanical tension created by rotation, becomes the organizing principle here. Each storage unit opens in a different direction, offset against the other to create the visual friction the name implies. It makes the structure feel active, as if the table is caught mid-turn. The two-tone blue colorway reinforces that, with a dark navy upper section against a brighter blue lower.

That rotation also creates something practically useful. Where the two units meet, a small shelf platform projects outward between them, adding a third storage level beyond the two main compartments. It reinforces the visual logic of the twist while giving you somewhere to set smaller objects. Three storage spots from a single structural idea is a tidy outcome for a table of this size.

Books sit naturally in each compartment, held upright in the curved enclosures without needing brackets or dividers. Each section holds a small collection without effort, turning what might otherwise be a purely decorative object into something you’d interact with daily. That balance between use and visual statement is where this kind of furniture concept tends to either land well or feel entirely theoretical.

The storage-as-structure approach means the Torque table looks interesting from every angle. There are no legs, no base panel, and no conventional framing hardware. The two open-faced volumes do all the work, with a circular disc on top forming the table surface and a matching flat disc at the bottom serving as the foot. Everything between them is either storing something or making a structural point.

Aktay has built a body of work around this kind of thinking, concepts that start with a formal problem and arrive somewhere genuinely practical. The Torque High Side Table fits that approach well. It doesn’t need to announce its cleverness because the structure speaks on its own, and anyone who tucks a book into one of the compartments and sets a cup on top will feel the logic in it.

The post This Side Table Has No Legs: Its Two Storage Units Are the Structure first appeared on Yanko Design.

Artistic unibody chair concept is simple, stackable, and stunning

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All chairs have a common, standard purpose, but there is no hard rule to follow when it comes to their design. As long as they offer a stable seating surface, and in most cases, some form of back support, they qualify as an acceptable piece of furniture, even if the actual experience can be a bit uncomfortable at times. It’s only by convention, for example, that most chairs have four legs or are made of different pieces, and some designs try to push the boundaries of what’s physically possible when it comes to the composition and form of chairs. This concept, for example, does away with the standard makeup of this kind of furniture and instead embraces a single flowing form that, surprisingly enough, works just as well in terms of practical use.

Designer: Deniz Aktay

Bending a single sheet of material, be it metal or plastic, into a less trivial form isn’t exactly easy, especially when you have to make sure that it is stable enough to sit on. You need not only balance but structural integrity as well since it will be something that humans expect to be safe to use. Some designs tend to overcomplicate things to meet those goals, but this chair concept goes in the completely opposite direction with its extreme simplicity.

Named after the last Greek alphabet, the Omega design concept simply takes a single folded sheet of material and bends it at the sides and back to create the two wide legs and backrest of the chair. There are no sharp angles in this design, giving the seamless form a smoother and more organic appearance. While it is aesthetically pleasing, it isn’t just an art piece, and at least based on the concept, it is just as functional as your stereotypical four-legged plastic chair.

In particular, the design of the Omega chair allows it to be stacked together, rather unexpected given its nontrivial shape. It doesn’t even take up more space than most stackable chairs, which makes the design practical for widespread production and use. It definitely offers an interesting alternative to common mass-produced designs as it offers both a compact shape as well as an attractive appearance.

On the surface, the Omega design also looks sturdy, with the legs angled inward to cover a bigger surface area than a normal straight edge. There might, however, be some concerns with the comfort of the seat itself, as the curved sides could make some slide off too easily. The backrest might also be too short for comfort, with the top edge digging into people’s backs when they lean backward. Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful and simple design that could be improved on for an even more comfortable and ergonomic experience.

The post Artistic unibody chair concept is simple, stackable, and stunning first appeared on Yanko Design.