This coffee table was inspired by a cross-country road trip. The leaf springs that serve as it's base spent 30 years underneath my Toyota Land Cruiser selflessly carrying the loads that I, and previous owners, saddled them with. Most of those years were spent in upstate New York enduring the notoriously destructive coupling of snow and salt that invariably accelerate the degradation of metal in the region.
These leaf springs, combined with a large steel rectangular tube salvaged from a scrap yard in Van Nuys, CA complete the base.
The table top is aggressively aged wood (rescued from the back corner of an abandoned appliance store in Santa Monica, CA) framed by double layered sheet metal (removed from a warehouse in North Hollywood, CA) and finally there are two metal strip inlays running down the length (originating from a driveway gate removed from a home in Woodland Hills, CA).
Because there were only a small handful of screws used in the top (all of which were reused from past projects) this is one of those rare occasions when I can truthfully assert that every component in this table is reclaimed and that is something worth celebrating.
The focal point of this piece is the porcelain enamel vintage industrial lamp shade of unknown but undoubtedly long history. The lamp shade has been combined with a handcrafted steel arch and concrete base for stability.
The lofty design goal here was to conceal the wires feeding electricity to the lamp. In order to achieve this without sacrificing the minimalist style the arch, which appears to be one steel bar is actually comprised of four lengths of steel formed, welded, and ground smooth to give the illusion of solidity while still allowing the wires to pass through their center. This was a timeconsuming but wholly worthwhile feat and is indicative of our insistence on design without sacrifice.
