Hotel Tables

The new trend in furniture fashion is all about bringing the garden indoors. Customers like natural looking furniture with leafy or floral motifs. Bright colors contrast nicely with the neutral browns, beiges and greens found in nature. And during the cold winter months, anything that reminds us of springtime is especially welcome.

Luca Nichetto and Massimo Gardone have made it even easier to bring the garden indoors, without all the dirt and bugs and stuff. Check out their “Around-the-Roses” tables. They were inspired by flowers, but with a most modern twist. Made from resilient Alicrite plastic, these tables have high resistance to chemical substances such as acids, alkali, oils and benzines.

And the design just looks fabulous. I like floral prints, but tend to shun anything that’s too girly. That doesn’t often leave me with a lot of florals that I actually enjoy. But the darker colors and semi-abstract nature of the flowers on these tables makes them just subdued enough to be attractive without being too feminine. This unique look was produced by using dye-sublimation printed and embedded fabric. The process sounds a little complicated to me, so I’ll just say that they turned out great, and leave it at that.

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I live in one of the warmest states in the U.S. It is now mid-December, traditionally a cooler time of year. Just a few days ago, we enjoyed 80 degree weather. That was before the temperature plunged into the 30’s and 40’s. Winter is here at last, and I’m already looking forward to summer.

What’s this got to do with furniture? Furniture can be summery and refreshing. In fact, the Copacabana tables from Eero Aarnio remind me of a refreshing slice of citrus on a warm, summery day. The only down side is that I can’t really read the name without hearing Barry Manilow’s voice in my head. But if you can live with that drawback, I recommend these tables for any home or business that wants a modern, playful, summertime motif.

Even cooler, the Copacabana tables can be used as stools. Furniture that can serve more than one function is always welcome in places with small spaces, or in businesses that cater to children – because trust me, children will find alternative uses for furniture, even if those uses weren’t intended by the designer.

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I like tables and chairs with playful designs. That’s probably because I have kids, and anything that looks weird or whimsical will automatically be more fun for a kid to sit on. Some tables just look like they were made with children in mind, so perfect would they be for tea parties and art class.

The BM Sofi 1301 by Maurizio Fiori was definitely designed by someone young at heart who might have spent a lot of time with finger paints and modeling clay as a child. It’s even distributed by Imagina Design, which sounds pretty darn imaginative to me. Still, the table’s lines confound me a bit. The Sofi looks like it can’t decide whether it wants to be a cool, modern Slinky, or some kind of three-sided monochrome rainbow. I see where you can stick your feet underneath the table, but where are you supposed to put your knees?

Still, impractical designs have never stopped a child from enjoying a piece of furniture, so I’d say the Sofi would make a great addition to any play room. I’m not entirely sure how effective these would be as bistro tables, but greater minds than mine could probably come up with a workable scheme. The Sofi is scratch resistant, UV resistant, and stackable for convenient storage. They’d be fine indoors or out.

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I’ve seen a lot of odd furniture in my time, furniture that aspired to imitate a falling orange peel, a saddle, and even a four-legged psycho spider. (No, I didn’t dream it. It really exists.) But the most crazily fun modern furniture designs are usually reserved for chairs, because it’s no fun to design something brilliantly complex if nobody is going to stand around looking confused and trying to figure out where to sit on it.

So, imagine my delight when I came across a plastic table with a very unique shape. The GM Tam Tam TV300 makes me smile, at least on the inside. I mean, what was the designer thinking? It looks like something your salsa or guacamole would arrive in at a Tex Mex restaurant. Or maybe part of a giant mortar and pestle, in which a circle of witch doctors would grind up a mystical concoction whilst chanting, “Tam Tam! Tam Tam!”. (No, I don’t know what it means, but trust me – never question a witch doctor with a giant mortar and pestle.)

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A good table should be able to go with more than one setting, unless you’ve got a specialty antique piece that has earned its own corner in your home or business. Then it’s okay to over-specialize. Because, you know. It’s an antique. But for most business owners, it is better to have versatile tables and chairs that can easily change with the decor, the owner’s whim, and the space arrangement. That way, you don’t have to replace them so frequently.

The very serviceable GM Air Table by Jasper Morrison is one such table. It’s not fancy, to be sure, but it looks clean and classy. It would look at home at a wedding reception, or paired with simple bistro chairs on a restaurant patio. As you can see from the picture, all it would take is a little creativity, and maybe some flowers, to dress up these tables nicely. They would also go well in busy settings where you want your walls and other furnishings to be noticed; these tables wouldn’t compete for attention.

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Commercial hotel furniture gets a bad rap. I know this, because I’m often the one giving it the bad rap. But seriously, when you’ve sat on enough cracked, vinyl, faded cushions, you learn to appreciate hotel managers who think outside the mauve.

That’s why I like the AP Plastic/T by Marco Maran. It’s different! When I first saw it, I thought that it would be great as modern wine bar furniture. I mean, the table itself is shaped like a giant carafe.

The sleek white color is clean and contemporary looking, but this table and its corresponding stools are available in many other hues as well. A mixture of several colors would look great in a kids’ play area, ice cream parlor, or any other playful setting. It looks like the stools can sit upright whichever way you turn them, which is something else that will appeal to kids who like to upturn the furniture.

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Are you looking for some unusual bar furniture to make your lounge more interesting? Perhaps you’ve got an outdoor area that needs livening up, but you want something sturdy and substantial for the job.

The GM Piedras MT154 is definitely different. It reminds me of some kind of geometric rock, or maybe a stone altar. If Fred Flintstone ran a hotel, he might have these tables in his lounge. The Piedras MT154 is actually made from moulded polyethylene, so it would be fine for indoor or outdoor use. Because of the rough, natural look of the surface, this low table would be great in a garden setting or outdoor smoker’s area.

The GM Piedras MT154 is 25cm tall, 62 cm wide, and 60cm deep. It looks like a tough little table that could take a beating and survive, which is always a good quality to have in bar furniture. For a complete stony-geometric look, matching Piedras loveseats and easy chairs are available.

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This modern poseur high table designed by Stefano Giovannoni is part of a recent range of commercial furniture called the ‘Bombo’ range. They are all similar in style and all come in a range of vibrant colours that are sure to lighten up and hotel lobby, restaurant or bar.

The table is adjustable in height using a gas piston so that is can be used is a whole host of situations and will also fit nicely with almost any chair height. That shiny metal base is made from chromed steel and the top section is made from ABS. There is also a version of this table available with a fixed height, and another version with a metallic silver base.

The top comes in the following colours; Ivory, Orange, Green, Brown, Grey Anthracite, Blue, Lilac, Blue Ultramarine, White, Gold, Copper.