Elemental Coffee Table completed in 2019
Ask me what my favorite piece of furniture I’ve made and the answer is the last one completed and delivered. One of the things that makes having a favorite project is it’s the project you wouldn’t change anything on. As a designer, you’re always thinking about small changes in the things you make. A different sweep to a curve, thinning a leg a bit. You can’t just turn that designer brain off. I’m constantly redesigning every piece of furniture I come in contact with. This is especially the case with furniture I live with in my home. I have a coffee table I built in 2014 in my living room. I’m looking at it as I write these words. One day, I was looking at it… and started the redesign process once again. However this time I felt like I was at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Suddenly the base seemed to be growing and I realized all the places it was too thick.
It was a moment of clarity that left me with a new view of a previous project. Shortly after my insights, I received a commission for a coffee table and decided to try the ideas I had to make a sleeker, more refined design based on the table I built in 2014.
With the new coffee table, built in 2019, that little voice of redesign was speechless, something that had never happened before. I couldn’t think of anything I would change. It actually felt done. If there was a formula to achieve that every time, I’d bottle it, sell it, retire and just make furniture. If you were to insist I tell you how I got there, I might tell you some nonsense about trusting your gut. Maybe subtracting material until you make things sing. The truth is, it happened by magic.
Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination
It’s there, that I found the answer. And it’s there I try to let myself go as often as possible. As designing, often requires a bit of magic.
