Contemporary Coffee

Industrial Design Studio | Fall 2025 | 5 Weeks

Project intent

For this project, I intended to design a furniture piece that would fit into my apartment and support me wherever I go in my career.

Mood Board

To begin the project, I explored various contemporary accent coffee table furniture pieces. I was drawn to pieces with rounder and softer accents.

ideation

When sketching, I explored various ways of layering table tops. When I found a form I liked a started integrating the rounded elements I was inspired by.

Fusion

I brought my final sketch design into Fusion 360 altering the placements of the lower layers and experimenting with floating joinery. In a second model, I adjusted the proportions, making everything symmetrical. This was to make the build process easier.

Full scale drawing

I designed an orthographic layout for my model, considering all the dimensions I would need to build it. I would use this to plan my full-scale construction of the final model.

Building the structure

Using the planer
using the miter saw
Sanding down tennon
preparing for domino joiner
using domino joiner
cut and prepared dowels
stops added for slot mortiser
using the slot mortiser
dowels post slot mortiser
testing the supports
supports all together for the first time

Building the Table tops | Final glue ups

glue up of table tops post joiner and planer
table top post table saw being tested with the support structure
rough drill pressed whole put into table tops to prepare for jigsaw
jigsaw used to cut the rough area of the holes to prepare for the hand held dremmel
hand held router used with template to create precise holes
router table used to add a soft fillet around the edges
all the parts laid out pre glue up
glue up with lower table in
pocket screw jig
using a 90 degree screwdriver bit to get in a tricky area
table post glue up
table drying after adding finish