For something so important, your coffee table goes through a heck of a lot of abuse. Look at yours now. Magazines from six months ago are left forgotten under bills and junk mail. Assorted coins have become permanently glued to its surface because they’ve been resting on the sugary leftovers of soda can rims for so long. Lonely DVDs sit apart from their parent cases. To put it frankly, it’s a mess. You’d benefit from the Mix and Match Table by Brazilian design company Nodesign, an ingenious work of craftsmanship that promises to adapt to the demands you unintentionally put onto this living room centerpiece. It comprises nine wooden panels that can be moved around like an old childhood slide puzzle game minus the image, and some of the panels are specifically designed to function as a CD holder or fruit bowl. Another one comes in a form of a lidded box to hold all the tchotkies — like old casino chips, you know — threatening to wreak havoc on order. When you do finally get rid of all the extra junk on your table, flip all the panels over for a smooth, flat surface. Perfect, at least until the mail comes again. See the table in action in a video here.

If you find yourself anywhere near the San Andreas fault, you probably have the expectation of a little shake and quake every now and then. While the Tectonic Table series by Alain Gilles for Bonaldo may employ a similar principle used by geologists to explain the large scale motions of the Earth’s lithosphere, we hardly think you have to hold on to your orange juice for fear of tremors if you should so happen to be eating brunch on their latest creations. “The Tectonic table series is based on the idea of movement within the construction of its shape but also the ability to create unexpected free form geometry by shifting and juxtaposing several small tables one next to the other,” allowing those who want choices when decorating their space to have the option of playing with both opened and closed spacing by mixing the tables together. The set of tables are made out of metal wires, or with a plain top laser cut out of a 4mm steel sheet and powder coated in a mat textured finish. When viewed from above they clearly display the shape of rose, that while it may not smell as sweet certainly look the part. Hopefully they’ll provide only the most pleasant of aesthetic aftershocks.

At last year's FLIP challenge, participants were asked to compose an original piece of piece of furniture employing two types of wood displaying artistic value. Four students of the Raffles Design Institute got down to work and when all was said and done Chew Kor Han, Try Budi Harso, Leo Saputre and Nicholas Relando had created the Kouzou Coffee table. Their design, a combination of the architectural principles of Blobism and Modernism combined the use of two interlocking woods native to the United States, to form one structure with a strikingly simple and curved look. Not only did that structure garner the students a Merit award from the Flip challenge, but it provided furniture fans a new place to put that occasional cup of java…or their numerous bound volumes of ancient Canadian photography.

Via Culturepush

You know we get all goobery and excited over tables that do stuff, so the thought of the RGBy table gets us pretty excited, too. Using photo sensors and multicolored LEDs, the table changes color according to the objects placed on top of it, and is the product of a pretty badass design collaboration between Ichi Kanaya, designers Makoto Hirahara and Shinya Matsuyama of Japan's Studio Mongoose. The fact that there’s only one in existence just adds to its totally hot factor, if you ask me.

Via [technabob]

Some months ago, somewhere in Las Vegas, a set of very lady-like, yet very intoxicated ladies leaned over a table whose surface responded to their touches. They put they’re fingers on it (pink!), they wrote their names in it (green!), they set their vodka sodas on it (a rainbow explosion!). If they had been allowed to dance on it, the resulting thrills might have been somewhat comparable to 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival, but with more clothing (well, not much; it was Vegas) and less acid. Not many months after pictures of the girls’ neon adventures posted on facebook, pictures of a similar concept were posted on this website. Now, much to everyone’s pleasure, the Las Vegas/Joshspear.com experience has been made commercially available via commercially produced pressure-sensitive panels-turned-tabletops, via Kloss International. With a price tag of 1200 British Pounds, the table may still be restrictive of even the most professionally dainty dance moves, but hope can be found in the following: The same panels used to form the table’s top will soon be available for use as an architectural component — or, in other words, a floor-to-ceiling color-blasting experience. Time for some updates, Sin City!

Via BornRich

I feel a special kinship to the team at Knú, the sustainable modern furniture company who launched this past September, not only because they were amongst the first of my discoveries after I started writing here, but because they are really decent people and don’t take the words “sustainable” and “recyclable” in vain. Case in point, the newest addition to their sleek lineup, the (tentatively named) Knú Aluminum Table #1. We’re the first ones with photos of it; what I can tell you is the following: aesthetically, there is a high-gloss cobalt-blue aluminum disk in the center post that sits flush with the top of the tube and hides the hardware, and while I’ve been assured the table itself is incredibly light, the base is incredibly strong and easily holds the weight of the glass. Environmentally, every last inch of it — the aluminum base, the glass top, the packaging — is 100% recyclable and is assembled and shipped from a carbon-neutral facility….in Michigan, of all places. Maybe Knú could give our nation’s auto manufacturers a tip or two in that realm.

In any case, if you’re itching for one, there’s a dozen available and you can email them directly; if you want to wait, it’ll be on their website soon. A couple more pics after the jump…

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My suburban childhood was marked by the Friday nights my parents would splurge and take us to a certain unnamed pizza chain for pipin’ hot pie. Those short trips out of the house also meant I’d again get to kick my sister’s ass at the tabletop PacMan game they had in the waiting area of the parlor, confirming my status as her superior (hey, I was 7 years old). Good times! All that came flooding back in a Coke wash when I checked out Surface Tension’s slick and super-awesome Arcade Coffee Table, which comes pre-loaded with any of 29 classic games, like Bubble Bobble or Space Invader. And, being that it’s 2007, Surface Tension’s made it multi-functional, installing an AirPort feature for streaming music to your stereo plus adding Internet capability, so when conversations come to a lull with guests, you can power up Firefox and show ‘em your MySpace page or all those pervy shots from last week’s party.

If everyone gets one of these, I don’t think we’ll need coffee table books anymore. Of course, with the price hovering at a pricey $5,000, I might hang onto a couple of my Taschens…

Furniture design’s favorite couple, Form and Function is at it again. The power duo that makes and breaks the barriers of space, has taken on an Umbra face: meet the Magtable coffee table, a sweet little piece that lets you prop up those feet while storing your fashion zines…or any old paper publication, really. This $158 solid wood coffee table is stunning in its simplicity: a slotted surface for spine-up storage of your circulars; its natural coloring makes it all the more unassuming. It’s a table/storage/ottoman thing! Umbra called it exactly what it means. Form and Function agree.

Via Gizmodo

I’ve wondered for a few years why we don’t see more carbon fiber in furniture design — especially since it’s been used to make oddly shaped bicycle frames and body panels for F1 cars for years. It’s not much more difficult to work with than fiberglass, but I guess when it comes down to it, the answer is probably cost. Even that’s turning around these days, and we’re starting to notice this high-tech material creeping into the fringes of the furniture design world.

I mentioned the carbon fiber Eames chairs the other day and now, I’ve stumbled into the Carbon Table by Guy Brown, one of the four masterminds behind Farm Designs. Brown’s table — listed under “tables” on the site — is a study in simplicity; the carbon fiber plane of the table’s surface almost floats on the minimal wire legs. The carbon fiber pattern offers just a hint of texture to the other black tabletop. While I wouldn’t want a room full of carbon fiber furniture, a table or a pair of chairs might prove to be an interesting discussion piece. Of course, if you really want to go overboard, you could always shoot for this carbon fiber toilet seat…no pun intended, of course.

Before we go any further, you need to watch this YouTube clip — which I hope to God is tongue-in-cheek — introducing Timothy Schreiber’s E_Volve_Table. You really can’t use Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra in the post-2001 universe without either being completely oblivious or self-parodying. So I would argue that Timothy Schreiber’s table is not revolutionary (Legs? Check. Table top? Check.), but is the sexiest table we’ve seen in a long, long time.

Schreiber has a way, which you can see in virtually all of the products up on his website, of playing with the eye and producing the unexpected. His A_Chair has all the trappings of a normal folding chair, but it is actually made of one piece of aluminum and is rigid. The Zero_G_Table, on the other hand, with its elegantly curved legs, appears to be another one-piece job but in this case the legs detach. The E_Volve_Table takes the structural ambiguity of those other pieces to the next level; its legs join together to form a completely organic and seamless base, but that base is composed of separate pieces — pieces that fit together like the branches of a tree coalesce at the trunk.

Things I have used, in the past, to fix wonky tables instead of buying new ones:

–bar coasters (the thick Guinness ones work great)
–old credit card invoices (devoid of personal info, obvs)
–roommate’s stray flip-flops (sorry, dude)
–roommate’s copy of Ms. Magazine (see above)
–my toe (ow)
–Jedi Mind Tricks (yeah, not so great at that one)

Sure, you can buy those clear table shims, but lets face it — they’re bo-ring. These silicone High ‘n Low shim substitutes by NYTO Studios are super-fun, super-kitschy and guaranteed to fix your table- and chair-wobble woes.

(via Core77)

I’ll be honest: I absolutely love these nesting stools from Kalon Studios. There is something about the eye-catching design that invokes a feeling of calm and serenity, but the most appealing aspect for me is the versatility. Since I live in an apartment that leaves little room for unnecessary furniture, a stool that moonlights as a side table and footrest is more than ideal. As with all of Kalon’s products, the stools are made entirely from natural materials and are fully sustainable. Available in an oiled bamboo or painted birch finish, a set of three range from $650 for taupe to $1250 for bamboo…but their irresistibility is definitely worth it, as is the rest of their debut line that includes baby furniture and their signature Isometric Chair.
–Stephanie Young

This table, called the Fanta-tisch was made by German manufacturer Draenert. Limited to only 6 pieces there’s no telling if any are available anymore– nor a clue on what the initial price point was. The use of vintage Fanta bottles really blends well with the modern lines of the square glass design– and the illumination from the light box on the bottom really highlights them nicely. Fanta-tisch means fantastic in German, which is exactly what I think of this table!

British Designer Andrew Tye’s “Matrix Table” constructed with birch plywood, walnut face veneer and glass. Lately I’ve been feeling like I want a new coffee table after seeing a rare Mario Bellini white fiberglass one nearby…the quest continues…tye3d.com
Via Land And Living