Contemporary Coffee

Industrial Design Studio | Fall 2025 | 5 Weeks

design overview

Furniture is often designed around a specific space or lifestyle, making it difficult for a piece to adapt as those needs change. This project explores how a coffee table could be designed to work well in my current apartment while also remaining useful as I move through different spaces and stages of my career.

Furniture Inspiration

Needing a furniture piece to fit into my apartment, I knew I needed a modern look for it. I was inspired by furniture that has softer accents and ones that took with risks with how the joinery supported itself

Sketches

For my initial ideation, my sketches included a lot of simple construction tables. I eventually landed on an asymmetrical one; to push it further, I added softer, rounded elements.

Cad Modeling

Using Fusion 360 I was able to push the joinery elements of my design further. I opted for floating joinery for both levels of the table while mirroring the asymmetrical lip from the previous sketches.

final plan

build process

Used miter saw and planer to bring boards down to size as preparation for more specialized tools

Used the domino joiner to create strong joints within my supports

Using existing dowels I made a custom jig too keep them in place while using the slot mortiser. I cut pockets deep into the dowels to give the piece a lot of structure

First time having all of the supporting structure together

Glue up and testing of the surface tops

Using a drill press, I created an opening in the tops. With that opening it allowed a jigsaw to rough cut around the area of the circle. Finishing it off, I used a handheld router to complete the circle using a template