LaMel Table
We needed a conference table, not that we did not have one, but we desperately needed an upgrade from the 4x8 sheet of plywood loosely attached with screws. We set out to design and build a conference table that could call our office home.
Our goals for the table design were based on certain constraints. First, it had to be made of a readily available material. Second, it had to be constructed in the studio by us. Quickly, the material presented itself in the form of dozens and dozens of cardboard boxes being broken down and discarded by two furniture showrooms on a daily basis. Observing this through one window in our studio, we began the concept of the design.
The table consists of a cardboard base and a half inch thick glass top. The cardboard base has a “N” profile that provides support of the table along with providing an area to hold a few things commonly needed in meets at our office (scales, trace paper, etc.). The base was constructed with a lamellar-like structure by gluing sheets of cardboard together to create 2 to 3 inch thick panels. After the glue dried the panels were cut to the specific profile. The profiles were glued and clamped together with 4 layers of plywood sandwiched in with the cardboard. The 2 finished faces were treated differently with one simply painted a monolithic green that reinforced the mass of the base and the other is clad in a collage of different graphics from the cardboard we collected.
Three months and 10 gallons of glue later, we retired the "plywood makeshift" and enjoyed a coke sitting around our newest furniture creation.