Summer Trends: Breaking the surface

There’s been a furniture design breakthrough. Quite literally. It’s the table legs – they’ve rebelled. Sick of being resigned to the shadowy underside of the table, many pieces are seeing the leg tops push through the table surface so they can really be involved in dinner and conversation. Along with adding an unusual kind of decoration, and often bringing a different type of material more into the eye line, it makes for a great game of furniture peek-a-boo.

It feels fun. Mischievous. Like it’s breaking some kind of this-belongs-here, this-belongs- here kind of rule, and honestly, we’re in the mood for some more boundary breaking. The look is raw and playful, a wry smirk at convention while also delivering a moment of surprise at the dinner table, and makes the space all the more alive.

The two stately, slab-like legs of Bonaldo’s Flatiron table audaciously intersect its top section, adding a pair of linear lozenge shapes for visual interest as well as a sculptural feel. The asymmetrical tubular legs of Porada’s Osmose and Oswood tables protrude onto the table tops, mixing marble and wood and adding a minimal pattern to dinnertime.

Angelo Mangiarotti’s Castore Dining Table for Karakter also joins the show, with its marble pillar support mirrored on its glass top by a stone piece which also acts as a useful bowl, while the oversized cross-shaped legs of Giorgetti’s Bigwig by Roberto Lazzeroni are echoed on its top, dividing the tabletop into portions as well as adding embellishment.