Baring Furniture have been shortlisted for Table Award in The International Design & Architecture Awards 2020.
Jonathan Baring was asked by a long-standing private client to design and make an extending dining table for a family of five with the capacity to accommodate a party of ten. Having established a trusting relationship with the client over the years, Baring Furniture were given complete creative freedom for this project.
The team created a design that worked aesthetically in both states. In terms of functionality, they developed a robust extension mechanism inspired by the extending ladder mechanism used on fire engines.
Baring Furniture wanted to create something sculptural, to sit amongst the client’s collection of modern art, so ensured the free-form composition of the base was influenced by Barbara Hepworth’s work in stone sculpture.
The tables base presented Baring Furniture with the biggest challenge in relation to the overall design, with the team wanting to maintain a sense of balance and proportion in both forms of the design. It was the Baring team’s dedication that lead to the table’s base being the projects standout feature, due to its fluid structure and lavish material which make it particularly alluring.
The tabletop is veneered in quilted walnut and finished in a luxurious gloss lacquer. The brass trim unifies the tabletop and base. The main artisan techniques used were patination, welding, veneering and lacquering – all executed to an extremely high standard by skilled craftsmen at our Oxfordshire workshop.
The resulting table is a manifestation of Baring Furniture’s philosophy and an attempt to demonstrate the best of British craftsmanship. The meticulously arranged sculptural base, comprised of several interlocking ring elements in brushed brass, gives the table a sense of balance. Ensuring that the arrangement of the brass ring elements created a collective sense of balance. Baring Furniture used MDF mock-ups of the ring elements to establish the arrangement.