Modular table pivots to turn from work desk to dining table to social space

The past years’ new work-from-home arrangements made people realize how limited their options are when it comes to setting up a dedicated working space. This problem, however, isn’t new to those occupying smaller places, like just renting a room or living in single-person households. More often than not, the same table they use for eating is one they’d use for doing other kinds of work or vice versa. It’s terribly easy to make that happen by keeping the table’s surface clean, but it doesn’t leave much room for flexibility, much less for aesthetics. This table design concept turns this multi-purpose setup into something like a puzzle game, where pieces fit into different places, depending on what you want to use the furniture for.

Designer: Hyun Ju Ko

Modular desks and expanding tables are nothing new, but they have become even more popular as people try to rethink their use of one of the most common pieces of furniture in homes. Ideally, you would have different places for work and eating, but that’s a luxury not everyone can afford when floor space is at a premium. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t have distinct modes using the same table, and the FTP design concept does exactly that by making you turn just one part to go from working to eating or maybe both.

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Short for “Finding Turn Point,” the FTP table looks like a regular rectangular piece of furniture, except for a half-circle that seems embedded in its top. That orange circle isn’t just visually distinct from the rest of the black table, it is actually a separate part that can be moved around and away from the rest of the table. Moving this shape around and changing its position becomes both a symbol and a ritual that can help your mind shift to a different kind of activity, whichever one you decide to associate with its position.

For example, you can use the table either as a desk or a dining table when the half-circle is flushed perfectly because you might want to have access to a whole and unbroken surface. Turn it to the left or right, and you can have something like an equivalent of a corner desk, where you can place different, unrelated materials on different sides. You can also pull out that part of the table and put it against any edge, extending the table’s reach for another person to join you at work or for meals.

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Of course, you aren’t exactly getting more table space, just moving things around to accommodate different activities and tools, from laptops to tableware. In the absence of separate tables for different purposes, the modular and shape-changing design can be a good cue to help your mind changes modes as well, setting up invisible yet palpable boundaries between work and personal life without losing precious floor space to another piece of furniture.

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This collection of sustainable tables was built from a sea plant and named after mythological Greek sea nymphs

Tables are often underestimated when in reality they can add a whole depth of personality and character to your living space – whether it’s a great coffee table, a nifty side table, or a console that will hold your favorite souvenirs. But finding the right table can be a task. Luckily we came across a cool collection of tables called Oceanides. Designed by Alexia Mintsouli for UK studio Alexa Mint, Oceanides is a collection of tables made from sea plants and marble.

Designer: Alexia Mintsouli for Alexa Mint 

The innovative collection includes a square coffee table and two round side tables. One of the side tables features four legs, while the other features a solid base. Peloponnesian Tortora marble was used to craft the base and legs of the table, while the brown-colored tabletops were built using a sea plant that imparts the table with a natural pattern variation.”The top of the tables are from the sea plant Posidonia Oceanica, one of the oldest living organisms on Earth,” said Alex Mint. Until recently, the sea plant was disposed of as waste, but now it has a newfound purpose.

“In order to make living spaces greener, we are exploring the potential of natural materials in the creation of eco-friendly, modern furniture. We try to follow the ecological guidelines by using eco-friendly, local materials and collaborating with Greek craftsmen to eliminate the energy consumption that goes into transportation,” continued the brand. The Oceanides tables are heavily inspired by the sea breeze, and they were all designed with an aim to promote sustainability and earth preservation.

The eco-friendly tables are designed to be not only sustainable but luxurious as well, and they are driven by the brand’s love for all things sustainable. The local Greek craftsmen were involved in the process, hence giving the local economy a boost as well. The story behind the name ‘Oceanides’ is quite interesting as well. The name was inspired by the sea plant that was used to build the tables – Posidonia Oceanica. And according to Greek mythology, the Oceanides were mythological sea nymphs, daughters of the Titan Oceanus, the great primordial world-encircling river, and Tethys, a sea goddess.

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Coffee table concept adds a revolving handle to hold your glass or lamp

Table space is often very precious, especially for smaller furniture that’s often a bit more decorative than functional. Coffee tables, for example, don’t have much space for a lot of stuff, limiting their use when it comes to work. You can place a laptop, maybe a notebook or two, and then suddenly find yourself out of a safe space for that coffee from which the table gets its name. It’s even worse when the table is a circle because there’s less surface area compared to a square tabletop. Of course, you should probably work at a desk or a larger table, but some public spaces prefer these round and more attractive designs. It doesn’t have to be an either-or situation, and this table design concept tries to make room for all the essentials without forgetting the most important thing of all: coffee.

Designer: Liza Chernova

Coffee tables are a bit of an amusing misnomer since their earliest known ancestors were made to hold tea cups rather than coffee. Today, the typical coffee tables are large and low pieces of furniture that occupy a central place in living rooms, and they’re meant to hold not only beverages of any kind but also books, remote controls, and even knickknacks. There are some coffee tables, however, that are literally what they’re called, tables with regular heights used for holding your favorite blend and maybe even working for a bit.

Things can get cramped easily with you have both drinks and work competing over a small area. It might even become precarious, as evidenced by so many anecdotes of spilled beverages over papers or, worse, laptops. This table design idea solves that problem by giving beverages a more special place that sort of puts them on a pedestal while also keeping your work safe.

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Named after Russian rotary dials, Vertushka puts a similar mechanism at the service of your coffee. An arm protrudes out of and over the table, creating a safe location to place a drink away from whatever else is on the table. Plus, it also frees up space for more of your stuff instead of forcing yourself to clear out an unobstructed space around your cup. That said, that’s not the only thing that this coffee table is able to do. That “handle” can revolve around the edge, giving you more freedom where to place your beverage.

That revolving handle is actually more than just a drink holder, though. The design also includes a multi-angle lamp to shed more light on what you’re working on without taking up precious table space. In theory, this could be expanded to support a modular system for anything you need to be at arm’s reach but doesn’t need to actually be on the table. Vertushka offers that flexibility without changing the coffee table’s minimalist design substantially, letting you keep your work safe while sipping your favorite beverage.

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This multipurpose + customizable table is the self-sufficient meeting island that modern offices need post-pandemic

Since the transition from home offices to actual corporate offices has begun, it’s important to ensure that employees feel comfortable, safe, and motivated in their workplace. And adding the right furniture designs can greatly contribute to creating an office that is conducive to motivation and productivity. When it comes to picking the right office furniture, we’re usually focused on a great workdesk and an ergonomic chair. However, have you ever really paid attention to an excellent meeting or conference table? Well, Narbutas did and designed the Nova Wood Multipurpose table.

Designer: Narbutas

Narbutas has a preexisting collection of office furniture called the Nova Wood collection, and they recently added the Nova Wood Multipurpose table to it. The new multipurpose table has been specially designed for collaborations and informal meetings. In the words of Narbutas, the table is a “self-sufficient meeting island”, that creates a harmonious and comfortable space for casual and quick workplace interactions or meetings. The table has been equipped with a variety of accessories, that you can use to customize it.

The accessories include – power outlets, and attachments for display screens, writing boards, shelves, hooks, and even plant pots if you want to add a bit of green! The wide range of accessories allows the users to create a space that meets their requirements and works best for them. The meeting island is crafted by using the same solid wood ash, that was utilized to build the 2019’s Red Dot Award-winning Nova Wood meeting table. However, it has been additionally equipped with an A-frame and optional castor wheels for mobility.

“The answer is in our nature – for communication and socialization. The Nova Wood Multipurpose table promotes both informal meetings with a cup of coffee and creative meetings for discussing various projects,” said Simonas Savickas, workplace design specialist at Narbutas. The multipurpose table is an excellent platform for employees to engage and interact with their peers and seniors. Narbutas believes it is the perfect design for these times when people are questioning and wondering whether they should even return back to office post-pandemic. In such an age, this multipurpose meeting island serves as a versatile and customizable piece of furniture that fosters meaningful collaborations and interactions.

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This side and coffee tables have sustainability and simplicity ingrained in their DNA

Once upon a time, buying a table involved troublesome and inconvenient shipping arrangements because the furniture either comes pre-assembled or didn’t have any way to disassemble it anyway. These days, however, it has become trendy to buy flat-packed furniture, especially if they come with minimalist designs. These are easier to transport, sometimes by the buyers themselves, and are possible to take apart store away when they’re no longer needed. The trade-off, however, is often the complexity and difficulty of assembling the things on your own. Fortunately, more creative furniture designers have come up with new ways to simplify that process, and these wooden tables demonstrate how an easier process doesn’t exactly make the furniture less stable.

Designer: Ivan Nuño

Thanks to the prevalence of minimalist designs and the popularity of stores like IKEA, it isn’t uncommon these days for many people to prefer tables and chairs that arrive at their doorsteps in pieces. Logistics like transportation and storage can be cheaper, and it’s also not that much work for those already used to putting things together themselves by hand. The latter, however, doesn’t cover the majority of buyers that need simpler steps to follow. Unfortunately, simplicity can sometimes also mean fragility, and some might find their tables loosening in critical areas.

To correct that problem, Studio Nuño designed a new type of joinery that it says reduces the assembly time down to just a few minutes while still maintaining structural strength to bear the weight of everyday use. You simply insert the legs into the slots beneath the tabletop, slide in a supporting piece, and screw that piece down with an Allen wrench. The legs come in three or four distinct pieces for the side table and coffee table, respectively, so there are no confusing angles or combinations to worry about.

Although not an inherent property of flat-pack design, many products that come in this form often have a pinch of sustainable design as well. Studio Nuño, however, takes it to a whole new level by making sure both the product and its packaging are environment-friendly. The wood for the tables, for example, is made from Baltic birch plywood coated with high-pressure laminate made from recycled materials, while the joinery uses recycled steel. The packaging is devoid of single-use plastic, using 100% recycled and biodegradable materials. It even uses eco-friendly tape to keep things together.

Studio Nuño’s tables don’t skimp on the aesthetics either, fully embracing a minimalist design that blends well with any theme you might have running in your home. Simple and sustainable, this coffee and side table pair offers a fresh look at how furniture doesn’t have to be complicated to be beautiful or sturdy. At the same time, its simple assembly also proves that you don’t have to sweat too much to have a sturdy and reliable table for your use, whatever that may be.

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This outdoor furniture collection is made from recycled plastic but feels and looks like wood

I wholeheartedly believe that stools deserve to be given way more credit than they get. Stools are often overlooked, maybe because they occupy minimum space, and aren’t really overbearing. But these traits are what make stools so great in my opinion! And a stool and table collection that recently grabbed my attention is Nardi’s Stack stool and Combo table. Designed by Raffaello Galiotto, Italian furniture brand Nardi launched a stool and table collection that features a linear design complemented by strips of wood.

Designer: Nardi

Crafted from 100 per cent recyclable regenerated polypropylene, the furniture collection has been designed to look like traditional timber furniture. Lightweight and sturdy, both the stool and table can be easily lifted, handled, and transported from one location to another. And the fact that it has the appearance of wooden furniture only adds to its list of pros! The furniture pieces are also completely weatherproof, making them excellent for outdoor use.

The stool comes in two variants – Mini and Maxi. Both of them are stackable, and occupy minimal space once they have been set aside and stored. The stools feature a unique spiral form, which allows them to interlock with one another, creating a rather minimum and compact footprint. “The spiral design is not a mere aesthetic whim, but the search for a shape that perfectly meets the need for rotational stacking, going beyond the classic design of the outer strip,” said Raffaello Galiotto.

The table is called Combo, and it features a sturdy round top supported by four narrow legs. You can opt for a taller table, which is called the Combo High. The Combo High has been equipped with an extension component, which allows it to be extended. It can be positioned on top of the legs. The tabletop has been crafted by Nardi in such a manner, that it maintains a perfect rigidness, that is unaffected by the passage of time, and exposure to elements such as wind and water.

“With a linear design and thick sections inspired by strips of wood, the Stack stool, and Combo table stand out for their sturdiness, safety, and ergonomics,” said Nardi.

The furniture pieces are available in the ‘Terra’ finish. The name has been coined due to the earthy brown and matte texture of the finish. Terra has a rather vintage-like effect to it, further defined by tonal streaks marked through the plastic. Unlike conventional stools and tables which have a rather smooth finish, the Nardi collection features a rough texture much like wood.

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This distinctive coffee table blends contrasting elements to give it a unique character

Coffee tables today do more than just hold your coffee or your coffee table books. They have become both literal and figurative centers of a room, providing visual impact through their eye-catching appearances. Some coffee tables grab your attention with their exquisite shapes, while others prefer to do it through remarkable materials. This unique coffee table does both, creating a piece of furniture that could almost be described as sculptural art. What’s more noteworthy, however, is that it uses what seems to be opposing or contrasting materials, giving it a distinct personality that’s like a Yin and Yang of furniture design.

Designer: Donatas Žukauskas

There are some materials, both natural and man-made, that seem to be associated with certain emotions and concepts. Water, for example, can be calming and cleansing, while plastic is soft and pliable. Wood is warm and cozy, while stone, in its many forms, is cold and impersonal. These latter two might seem to stand on opposite ends, but they come together in a harmonious and even artistic way in this sculptural coffee table made of natural wood and a new concrete-like material.

The very shape of the table itself seems to convey this character of combining contrasting elements. The wide, irregularly-shaped wooden top is held up by three conical legs that end in very thin feet that seem to test fate. Its form has elements of both stability and irregularity as if challenging the mind to decide whether the table is steady or is ready to collapse on one end.

What makes this table even more interesting is that its concrete legs aren’t exactly made from actual concrete. Instead, it is a solid yet elastic mass that is actually closer to wood but was designed to look like concrete. It is made from paper mass, which is again the opposite of the rigidity of concrete, but mixed with various other materials to give it the desired texture, water resistance, and rigidity. Fusing this wet mass, which is poured into a mold, with the wood top proved to be a tricky task, but the result was well worth the trouble.

This sculptural coffee table of opposites is definitely a sight to behold in a room, and of course, it’s quite functional, too. So yes, you can place your favorite mug and books on top without fear of breaking down. Its special character, however, doesn’t stop at its aesthetics. Recycled materials were utilized in creating this table, making it a sustainable piece of furniture and sculptural art as well.

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This simple table has an equally simple solution for hanging your bags

Everyone has a bag these days, whether it’s a backpack, a messenger bag, a handbag, or one of the more fashionable descendants of the fanny pack. Despite varying designs and sizes, almost all bags have two things in common, they have handles or straps, and you wouldn’t want to leave them lying on the floor in offices and coffee shops. Some tables in these public spaces now offer hidden bag hooks under the table, but these seemingly ingenious solutions come with their own drawbacks. A proper solution doesn’t have to be overly complicated or sophisticated, and sometimes, the simplest one wins. That’s the kind of thinking that may have gone into these ultra-minimalist tables that hide their bag hooks in plain sight.

Designer: Hajime Kumazawa

The need for bag hooks has been a rather recent phenomenon as more people flocked to coffee shops and communal spaces, including those in offices. There was even a phase when bag hook accessories became trendy because very few tables had such hooks built into them. Such tables are more common these days but still not standard, so you might find people awkwardly groping under a table just to check if there are any hooks for their bags.

Therein lies the fundamental design problem of bag hooks. Intended to hide bags from view, they sacrificed practicality and ease of use on the altar of keeping up appearances. Ironically, these tables are places where things can get a bit messy, either from food or from work. Hanging the bags beneath the surface doesn’t even help in getting them out of your way because they often result in uncomfortable leg positions to avoid hitting the bags in the first place.

The DTN Table design fixes this problem by being simple and honest about its purpose. It doesn’t pretend to be some stylish piece of artistic furniture by hiding bags from sight. Instead, it makes it super simple to hang bags on the four legs of the table, allowing for easy access and really getting out of the way of your legs. This might invite some messy arrangements, and it does limit how many people can hang their bags at the corners, but the purpose of the table is more for transient activity, like meals, meetings, and similar.

The table itself is unabashedly utilitarian in design, practically just a slab of melamine on top of four steel legs with aluminum die-casting. It is as minimal as it can be, with few options for different colors of the tabletop or the legs. It also comes in either rectangular or square sizes, and you can easily put them side by side if you need more space or more bag hooks. That’s not to say there’s nothing else to this table. By default, it comes with two casters and two glides to make it possible to move the table around just as easily.

Admittedly, the DTN Table might seem plain and unexciting on its own, with its singular visual quirk being the top of the legs that serve as bag hooks. Almost ironically, having those bags hang on the outside for everyone to see does add some flavor to these plain tables, making them feel like living places where people interact with each other, which is exactly what such tables are designed for in the first place.

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This mind-blowing coffee table was painstakingly handmade with dozens of wooden strips

Many design ideas inspired by nature often take cues from natural materials, forms, sensations, or even animals and plants themselves. All of these exist on our planet, often accessible to our senses. There is also beauty outside of our planet, of course, sometimes on a much grander scale. It’s more difficult to observe these sources of inspiration with the naked eye, though, especially when they may not even exist. That said, human creativity and imagination have sometimes given form to these abstract concepts and theories, and one woodworker made the rather long and arduous journey to give one such idea a more physical form, resulting in a rather stunning piece of furniture that looks just as grand as the scientific concept behind it.

Designer: Olivier Gomis

A wormhole, sometimes called by its more technical name, “Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” is a hypothetical structure that no one has been able to confirm exists. That hasn’t stopped scientists, mathematicians, and especially writers from giving it some serious thought. Wormholes that can hypothetically connect two disparate points in spacetime via a tunnel have been one of the favorite narrative devices in science fiction. Despite its hypothetical existence, wormholes have also been given a hypothetical form, one that this wooden coffee table tries to create in reality.

The shape of a table is already quite eye-catching on its own. It’s almost like a wooden plank that has been bent so that the two ends are on top of each other and then joined together by a double cone. It may have been possible to create such a form with simple means, including wood bending and carving, but this table’s creator didn’t take the easy way out. In order to create the grid of lines that covers the entire surface of the table, dozens of air-dried walnut strips had to be cut and made. These are then glued together with sheets of maple veneer in between, which give the appearance of those faint light lines that form the grid.

With almost the same mathematical precision as the wormhole’s foundations, these strips of wood are cut and joined together, sometimes at angles to form a curved shape. A lot of machining was involved as well in order to carve the blocky sides down to smooth curves. Suffice it to say, there was a great deal of patience involved in a process that had very little wiggle room for errors.

To really bring that sci-fi atmosphere to life, a lamp was installed in the center of the hole, giving the table an eerie appearance in the dark. The result is a beautiful homage to something that might not even exist, though you’ll probably want to keep things away from the part of the table that curves downward. Fortunately, things that do fall into that hole won’t disappear and reappear somewhere else, though you do risk damaging that glass-covered lamp if you manage to spill something inside it.

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This DIY transparent computer and table is the geeky, Iron Man-esque device of your dreams

If you’ve ever dreamed of having a computer set up like what you see in the movies where the users are extremely rich and also scientifically brilliant (think Tony Stark in the Marvel movies), your dream can actually come true. Well, that is, if you are also brilliant enough and rich enough to afford a custom-built gaming PC that looks like both a museum piece and also right at home in your man or woman cave.

Designer: Kumag 1989

This thing that the Reddit user has built is not just a computer but is actually an entire desk to complete the stunning setup that is every gaming geek’s dream. There is a custom-made glass table to house the entire thing that is also lit to give it an even more of expensive look. There is also enough room to ventilate the thing since you need to protect the high-end parts that make up the entire thing. You can also add an artificial plant and other stuff to decorate it, in case you’re not yet satisfied with how it looks.

Specs-wise, it is of course dripping with the latest in high-end parts. It is powered by an Intel 1190K CPU with a Z590 Aorus Pro AX motherboard and an Asus Rog Thor 850W. It has the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 which is one of the most high-performing graphics card out there. It also doesn’t skimp over the audio as it has both the Logitech G560 gaming speakers and the Devialet Phantom I 108db speakers.

The glass desk is transparent so you can show off the speakers and other components as well as the other decorations inside. The one who custom built this is obviously an Iron Man fan not just because of how the entire thing looks but since there is a light-up Iron Man helmet added.

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