In Greek mythology Atlas, along with other Titans, was defeated in a war against the Olympian gods. As punishment he was sentenced to carry the heavens (NOT the earth, as the popular misconception goes) on his shoulders for all time, to prevent the sky and the ground from coming into contact with each other. While the Atlas coffee table may not be suitable for carrying such a burden, at least it can bear the weight of the food and drinks ordered by guests who come to your café or restaurant.

Designed by Nencini & Brothers, the Atlas coffee table has a steel base that is varnished in anthracite, silver, white or black. The table top is made of clear glass. As you can see from the picture, it is set extremely low – close to the floor. The perfect height for a coffee table to be paired with sofas or other commercial café furniture on which your guests can lean back or lounge as they sip their mocha lattes or espressos.

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Contemporary café chairs that become wobbly, dining tables that suffer scarring due to cigarette burns or scratches or water stains, these are only some of the problems that owners of restaurants or other similar dining establishments encounter with their furniture. Sometimes the turnover rate for their furniture is too high, so it’s understandable that many of these proprietors go with inexpensive items that can be replaced at a moment’s notice.

If I owned a restaurant though, I wonder if I could pass up on owning something like the coffee table designed by Isamu Noguchi. It just looks so classy. Sure, I’d probably worry about the damage it might sustain in a commercial application where traffic is heavy. Still, maybe it would be worth the investment because of the glamour it would bring. Customers like being surrounded by lovely furniture while they eat, and I think this coffee table would be a delight for them to see and use.

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I remember going to a certain art exhibit a long, long time ago, where one of the pieces that made an impression on me was a sculpture made entirely of glass shards of various colors. It was positioned in such a way that whenever sunlight hit it, it would seem like it was emitting beams of all colors of the rainbow. The Brasilia table designed by Fernando and Humberto Campana reminded me of this memory that I thought I’d forgotten.

I came across this table over at Plushpod, and I totally agree with their observation that it looks more like a piece of modern sculpture than just furniture. But it’s really great that it’s actually both. The unconventional shape of the table and the pieces of glass adorning the surface do not take away from the fact that it’s a fully functional item of furniture that fulfills its intended function – and manages to look very attractive as well. The only concern I could possibly have is whether the table’s uneven surface could inadvertently cause accidents like a drink spilling because of my glass tipping over. And that isn’t a quality I’d like my local wine bar furniture to have.

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I remember in movies about life during medieval times, they would show scenes where commoners were having celebrations or parties of a sort in their villages. It seemed they always used these huge, thick slabs of wood as dining tables. They didn’t seem to be anything fancy at all, just heavy, solid pieces that were able to support all the food that they always had at those events.

They came to mind when I saw the wooden tables being showcased by a New York company called Hudson Furniture Inc. As you can see from the images below (just click on them to enlarge) their tables look like the wood from which they are made was taken from huge, old trees that had been felled just recently. They look so natural, so organic.

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If there a word that I would not associate with Elvis Presley, it would be subtlety. After all, when he was younger, wasn’t the King of Rock and Roll shown only from the waist up whenever he performed on television? It seemed his hips’ gyrations were considered a bit too much during those days. And even later, in the seventies, the big hair, the sequined costumes, the ostentatious jewelry – all these weren’t very subtle as fashion accessories.

I am not at all certain whether the Elvis Drive dining table designed by Alberto Donese was in fact inspired by The King, but he was the person that came to mind when I saw this over at Cattelan Italia. I tried to think of other famous Elvises, but the only other ones I could come up with were another singer (Elvis Costello) and a football player (Elvis Grbac). So no help from those either.

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Carrots. That’s the first word that came to my mind when I saw the Oskar Table by Isao Hosoe. Not very sophisticated of me, I know, especially after reading up on it a bit more. But I can’t help it, the legs just look like carrots to me. Not that I don’t think it’s an attractive table, because I do.

It was designed by Hosoe in 1991 and is manufactured by Cassina. The materials used are metal, polyurethane, leather, nylon, and glass. The legs are made of metal and polyurethane and upholstered in leather, while the supports attaching the legs to the table are of black painted molten metal. The crystal table top comes in several sizes and shapes: rectangular, square, round, and scalene triangle shape.

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Well shake it up, baby now! Those were the first words that came to mind when I saw the Twist Table over at Bonluxat. They are, if you didn’t know, the opening lyrics of the song Twist and Shout by the Beatles. The Fab Four changed the world of rock and roll during their time, with their crazy antics and their creative music.

The Twist Table, created by a group called For Use, certainly looks like it is a product that resulted from great imagination and creativity. It would be a funky piece of furniture to have at home, but I think it could be used as bistro area furniture too. The design is eye-catching, and if there’s one thing that doesn’t a hurt a restaurant or bistro, it’s the attention it gets from the public – whether for its food or its appearance.

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A table normally has four legs doesn’t it? Sure, sometimes it has just one thick leg in the form of a base or column, or sometimes very large tables have more than just four. But to be structurally sound, it normally has four legs, doesn’t it? Well, not according to Ferruccio Laviani, an Italian designer who came up with something he calls the Three Table.

You can rightly infer from the table’s name that it has only three legs. What Laviani had in mind was to focus on the legs’ connection to the tabletop. Two thin legs on one side of the table are connected to a wider leg on the opposite side of the table via a connecting rod that is made of satined aluminum, same as the legs. All three legs and their connection have the same finish. It seems that this arrangement provides the necessary stability that all tables need.

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A coffee table I saw at Design Within Reach recently immediately reminded me of Chinese figurines that my mother had around the house when I was growing up. It isn’t that the table, designed by Eva Zeisel, looks remotely anything Chinese-inspired. Still, the table’s base brings back to mind miniature versions of a similar kind. Only instead of holding up a table top, they cradled Oriental carvings.

Zeisel’s coffee table has an ornate aura, yet looks modern enough to be suitable for today’s restaurants and cafes. It doesn’t come across as minimalist, yet it isn’t ostentatiously, outrageously in your face either. The smooth, flowing lines and the graceful curves of the base and table top come together nicely to make an effective visual impact. The only thing left for a café or restaurant owner is to make sure it is paired with suitable café chairs.

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Monochromatic furniture can be so much more attractive in their own way than multicolored ones. For one thing, they contribute much less to so-called visual pollution. For another thing, it’s much easier to pair them with other pieces of furniture. I’m not saying that a chair or table that has different colored parts is bad, but for some establishments like hotels and restaurants, a single-colored piece of furniture works just as well.

The Colors Table collection by Bruno Fattorini is a good example of fine-looking monochromatic furniture. The tables would fit in practically anywhere, from modern reception seating areas in hotels to restaurant dining rooms. The frame and legs are made from 100 percent gloss lacquered aluminum; finishings are available in orange, red, black, white, light grey, green, and yellow.

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