We have some especially brilliant Piet Hein Eek tables in stock. You might not be thinking about spending money on furniture (or anything else) this season, but a good table is a necessity. Tables are perhaps the most important pieces of furniture we own. We spend a lot of time being truly ourselves at our tables - talking, eating, working, being. They play host to define our humanity and our civility in many ways. And we all need to be reminded of importance of humanity given the uncertainty and chaos that surrounds us this year.
The dictionary definition of a table - “a slab-like top supported on one or more legs” - is accurate, I guess, but a bit reductive. Tables are more than slabs. They are where we meet, make eye contact, and engage socially. They inform the space around them, and they color and encourage conversations. They are the original social networking hubs (OK, if you don’t count fire) - there is good evidence that they significantly pre-date Facebook. Tables reflect our communal nature both at home and in public. They give shape to our humanity.
The Holidays are approaching (quickly) - a time for food and family. Our tables - with their one or more legs - support us, instinctively drawing us closer to the ones we love (while simultaneously putting a little distance between us and certain other people present).
Scale Matters. Bigger is Better.
Piet Hein makes a wide range of tables, each with distinct characteristics. Common among most is their generosity of scale. Most are three meters (about ten feet) - half again longer than the typical dining table. They function well in large spaces and are often used as meeting tables in boardrooms and lobbies, dining tables in restaurants, display in retail stores. They are formidable more than portable. They ask us to take them seriously, and they deserve to be. Judge a table by the friends it keeps and ideas it fosters.
Very few tables are complete statements in form and materials, and few designers tackle them. Try to identify a well known designer table. After Saarinen and Noguchi it is hard to come up with an iconic table. Tables are often slaves to their own functionality. Surfaces get covered with stuff, and the tops are usually slick veneers (often concealing some kind of composite underneath). They have to be strong, so the legs usually support the top from the four corners and look like secondary design considerations. Piet's tables are altogether different, as much form as function.
Piet Hein’s interior tables have surfaces that are unique compositions made up of parts, strips of oak slightly rough sawn, steel scraps or lacquered pieces of scrapwood. They are designed to function, but they also have a rich character. The legs receive similar respect and consideration in form and surface. And the dual pedestal conventions allow you to see the form in a manner that traditional four corner configurations do not.
Best,
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