Dining Tables are often the focal point of a home. Whether it is used for everyday dining, or for special occasions, it brings families and friends together.
We were recently commissioned to design and make a dining table that, first and foremost, could withstand everyday use, but will also be a statement piece for their dining room. After going through some initial designs in different styles, such as Scandinavian and shaker, we decided that the combination of traditional detailing, with a modern silhouette was perfect for this piece.
We decided to use African wenge, which has a warm, striking, and elegant look to it. The wenge was sourced from our high quality, sustainable timber supplier based in Essex. To make this table even more bespoke, we wanted the central motif to be meaningful to our client. They had spent decades living and working around the world, therefore we proposed the idea of having a globe in the middle to symbolise and celebrate their time spent away from Kent. Another design element is the inlaid trim, wrapping around the table top and legs. We combined maple, fumed eucalyptus and lime for this. We used a hard-wearing finish, which has the dual benefit of highlighting the beautiful grain while also being easy to clean. Considering this table was to be used everyday, it was important the finish is robust enough to allow for spills while not staining the piece.
Further considerations for this project were the influence of light in the room and the existing furniture. Both these factors influenced the design, and on the practical side of things, the house had narrow corridors and doorways and therefore we had to make the legs removable to get the piece in situ, however, this did not compromise on sturdiness and strength. As we delivered the piece ourselves, we assembled it in the room while demonstrating to our clients how to remove the legs in the future, if they were to move house or move the piece into another room.
We discussed adding an extendable leaf to the table, to accommodate those situations when more people than usual are dining. However, our client decided this would not be necessary.
We thoroughly enjoyed making this table and our client was delighted with it. We regularly get sent through pictures of the table set up before dinner parties, and this puts a big smile on our faces!
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