A simple table?

While most of my work is business to business, in the form of product development or services to other designers, I selectively choose a very limited number of projects that I do directly for homeowners. In a nutshell, they are designed around product that I developed, and the clients have to be willing to take strong direction from me. I do them so that I can field test my own product designs and concepts, and while there is little profit in such jobs for me, I always learn from them and am glad that I do them.

One such project, done in partnership with Premier Custom-Built Cabinetry, Miele appliances, Caesarstone, and Paul Grothouse tables, is nearing its conclusion after more than a year in planning and execution. As a final touch, it includes a one-off custom table that I designed and Paul engineered and built. It looks simple, but the road to the result was anything but that.

The final kitchen configuration required a pedestal style table whose design would be sympathetic to my Glasgow series cabinetry, without mimicking it. Here is one of several ideas I came up with and rejected, this one because it was both too clumsy and too fussy, and the shape changed from elliptical to circular.

concept sketch, © 2012 Scott A. Stultzdigital model, © 2012 Scott A. StultzWhere I finally ended up was using Eero Saarinen's Tulip table as the inspiration for a solid walnut adaptation. Appropriate not only in form, but because Eero was Eliel Saarinen's son, and the creation of the Glasgow series was heavily informed by the elder Saarinen's architecture.

table concept, digital rendering, © 2013 Scott A. StultzPaul Grothouse is an outstanding boutique manufacturer of solid wood tops and more recently tables, who I first worked with several years ago when he asked me to help him with an introductory offering of built to order tables, the concepts for which were mostly already done. Besides being about the best in the industry at what he makes, Paul is a gifted engineer, thinks outside the box, and loves a challenge. He's a nice guy to boot. He liked the design, but told me that it would need to have a solid metal core inside the wooden shaft if the stem was going to be so slender. I thought I'd conceived it with and adequate shaft diameter, but I was wrong. We worked back and forth with a few iterations of full 3D digital models and finally arrived at something that satisfied the structural demands as well as my aesthetic intent.

solid walnut blank, laid up and ready for turning on the lathe.rough turning in progress

The planning was meticulous, and machining very demanding. The core, including a custom fabricated solid aluminum shaft with threaded top and bottom plates, had to be made by another small specialty shop. The fitting had to be perfect. Nothing about this table came easily.

final table, ready to be taken apart, shipped, and re-assembled on siteThe result is deceptively simple in final form, and I hope will be a delight to the client. I thought of waiting for professional photography - the project will be used by Miele, Premier, Caesarstone and Grothouse for PR and advertising and will appear as a feature article in at least one high profile shelter magazine. But when Paul forwarded a couple of pictures from the shop, I couldn't resist.