Furniture Design One - Coffee Table

Project Two - Coffee Table

You are tasked with designing and fabricating a coffee table using both wood and metal. A coffee table in its most straightforward sense is typically a long, low table that occupies the central focal point of a seating arrangement and facilitates the serving and drinking of coffee. These simple surfaces can support a multitude of functions from entertaining to a game night, or even act as impromptu worksurface.

Design Approach

- Over spring break you should observe/consider the variety of aesthetics, styles, and uses of low tables (market and user analyses) to help guide your design exploration.

- When we return, you will follow the standard design process including research, inspiration, ideation, prototyping, testing, and a proposed design (in our case a full scale prototype made from solid wood and steel).

- Your table design should take full advantage of the skills you have developed and the capability of our shop

- Your final piece will be made of North American hardwood purchased by you. Ideally your wood will have 2 weeks to acclimate to the humidity of the shop before milling. Therefore, fairly early in the timeline you will need to estimate the quantity of wood needed so that you can purchase rough sawn lumber.

- Metal (within reason) will be provided by the shop, but similarly you will need to submit an estimate of material usage a least a week before fabricating your prototype.

- Meanwhile, you should use poplar and/or scraps of other hardwood species and metal cutoffs to test your connections and fabrication strategy.

- All wood and metal parts need to be sanded and finished/painted. You should test finishes thoroughly before applying them to your final piece.

Constraints

Height: 13” – 18”

Width/ Length: 40” max in either dimension. While not strictly prohibited, square tables tend to be less dynamic

Materials
- North American Hardwood (no endangered or exotic woods are permitted)
- Mild Steel (rod, tube, bar, and/or sheet)

This must be a coffee table first and foremost, not a bookshelf, tv stand, or chest for blankets. No dedicated storage elements (such as doors, drawers, boxes with lids etc.) are permitted.

Integration between frames and surfaces (channels, pockets, etc) increases formal unity and is strongly encouraged. However, connections between metal and wood should be carefully considered. Solid wood will expand and contract with humidity, but metal will not.

Deliverables

- Documentation of market and user analyses

- Documentation of all ideation

- Full-scale prototype (finished)

- Dimensioned line drawings (top, front, side)

- High-quality studio (white background) and context photographs

- Process book of all of the above items and a reflection essay.

Coffee table Iron & wood series, Manuel Barrera Madrid, Spain

Student Examples

These tables were produced by students with a different set of constraints, but they are instructive as to craft and documentation expectations for your projects