I personally think a good coffee table can really light up a room. It instantly draws attention and sets the theme for the entire living room. Once a stunning coffee table has been set, you can start building the rest of the space around it – a comfy sofa, cute side tables, exquisite lighting, elegant decorative pieces, they are all brought together by the right coffee table. And even coffee tables are getting more innovative and unique by the day! From a coffee table with a hidden miniature garden to one that doubles up as a foldable chair, we have a whole range of interesting and exciting coffee table designs for you! These are sure to bind your whole living room together, creating a coherent and aesthetic space.
SOLE, a home gardening system, poses first as a small coffee table only to reveal a hidden, self-maintained, miniature garden for city dwellers who want to fill their homes up with some natural greens, but not the fuss that typically comes with them. Thankfully, SOLE’s coffee table was designed to take up as little space as possible in order to fit into even the smallest of studios. Indoor urban gardening is usually practiced by using grow box containers that require a lot of window ledge space and natural sunlight – both of which can be hard to come by in city apartment searches. In order to make home gardening possible in any city-living space, SOLE maintains the perfect climate, temperature, and nutrients for you and your chosen plants so long as they fit inside the coffee table’s extensive body.
The ARC coffee table by designers Ditte Vad & Julie Begtrup is your perfect centerpiece. It’s elegant and minimal but adds the functionality of storage. The hidden storage unit within the coffee table provides extra space for your magazines, books, and other knick-knacks. You can place your decorative pieces on the main platform of the coffee table. It’s a beautiful table that manages to hide your daily mess! We like it for being modern and practical.
Reminiscent of a ribbon unfurling in the air, the curvaceous and wave-like form of the Whorl Table has an instant calming effect. The coffee table is better suited as a stunning centerpiece. Lightly skim coated with a smooth polish, the pigmented cement mortar of the table surface resonates Japanese-like minimalism. The secret to this table’s fluidity is Concrete Canvas, which is basically “concrete cloth on a roll”. Flexible, thin, waterproof, and durable, it is an eccentric mixture of fabric and concrete.
Named after the Japanese word for furniture, the Kagu is a clever, versatile, foldable chair that folds down into a low, coffee table or a floor-sitting table. Designed by India-based Viswak Raja, the Kagu solves multiple purposes in a single, simplistic design. Made broadly from two wooden units hinged together at a single point, the Kagu folds up to either become a sturdy chair or collapses downward to turn into a table that sits just a little over a foot off the floor. Raja’s hinge placement allows the angled seating surface and backrest to become collinear, becoming a broad table with a split surface and a gap in between that’s wide enough to route your laptop and smartphone charging cables through!
Heavily inspired by the 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery, this steampunk’ish coffee table by Minnesota-based Machine Age Lamps is dope! The coffee table has a rare, 100 years old Barnwood “salvaged from a Minessota USA barn” acting as the base section. On top, there is the half-inch thick glass top which gives an eye-popping look inside the steam pressure gauges and valves that urge you to own it right away. For the idealistic ambiance in the evenings or even while throwing a Halloween-themed party, you just have to turn up the nixie tubes underneath. There are six of them with dimmer switches hidden under the wood lip.
An homage to retro gaming machines and furniture enthusiasts, this coffee table is one of its kind. Swedish designer Love Hulten has created a slim slide-out console with 2-player arcade joysticks & push-button gaming controls. It is inspired by the old-school gaming arcades and includes the big buttons as well as a joystick that is also a knob for the coffee table. The custom-crafted table features a wireless gaming system that connects with your smart TV for modern yet classic home gaming. With a classic American walnut and brass aesthetic, the table’s form will appeal to most and allow it to blend in any interior style.
One grilled L-Section is all it takes to make furniture. Sounds like one of those fancy designer quotes, but no, that’s pretty much what this project is about. Vasyl Maletych’s Grate Module can be used in a variety of ways, but at its heart, it is still one single L-shaped product. The way the Grate works, you can have anything from a fancy magazine rack to a rather elaborate coffee table that can easily expand in size. All you need to do is add more grates… plus when you introduce colors, it moires beautifully to form the most complexly psychedelic pieces of art!
The Four Quarters are a set of four armchairs that are designed to nest within each other when placed horizontally, forming a pretty nifty wooden coffee table. Built from solid wood and upholstered with leather to give the seat its comfortable nature, Four Quarters is a shape-shifting furniture concept that lets you have a coffee table in your house, but also surreptitiously hides four extra chairs in your home for when you have guests coming over. The chairs rest on their sides, coming together to form a coffee table, but just lift the individual chair units out and set them upright and you’ve got four extra chairs that were hiding in plain sight!
Inspired by the campfire, this thoughtfully designed furniture piece aims to bring loved ones together in the living room. Dubbed Ignis (Latin for campfire), this coffee table features a built-in radiator in a circular shape. In colder months, it becomes a gathering place for friends and family who can warm up just as they would around a fire. Set low to the ground, it aims to recreate this age-old experience in the safety of the urban apartment or home. In the summer months, the ceramic coating stays cool to the touch, making it appropriate for year-round use.
The Melt table is playful yet functional! The neck extending from the base arcs at the top before coming to an abrupt end where a circular metal surface is suspended. Here, users can rest objects ranging from glassware to decor. A sculptural accent to any space, it encourages the viewer to ponder its story and how it ended up with a case of the bends!
