Except for ultra-minimalist designs, most tables today have some sort of storage feature or another. Even tables for dining have hidden hooks underneath to allow patrons to hang their bags while they eat. This is especially true for coffee tables that serve as a landing place for objects like reading materials, phones, keys, knick-knacks, and the like. The problem, most of the time, is designing such space in a way that is both aesthetic and functional.

Some coffee tables have deep shelves that make reaching for those items a bit more inconvenient, while others simply lay all objects out for everyone to see. The are some that don’t even have this kind of function for owners and guests, forcing them to either only use the tabletop or keep those things away completely. At first glance, this rather unusual table concept seems to be frugal in storage space, but whether it was intentional or not, its most distinctive design could actually serve as an interesting storage expansion system.

Designer:https://teixeiradesignstudio.com/ Joao Teixeira

Ray, as the concept design was christened, almost has a brutalist vibe to it. Although the prototype is made from 3D printed PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol), the table itself could be made from sheet metal welded to unusual-looking legs. The table has only two legs, but both span almost the entire width of the table and are situated on opposite edges, providing the stability needed for a reliable table.

Those legs are actually the main attraction for this concept design, formed by bending sheet material into a U shape and setting them at an incline. The nook produced by this form serves as a place for books and magazines, the usual things you’d associate with coffee tables. That said, those legs don’t have any bottom cover, so your reading materials will be exposed to the bare floor if you don’t have any carpeting.

The legs are also littered with holes, which could be a phobia-inducing nightmare for some people. While these large perforations are mostly decorative, they might remind you of holes on pegboards and similar furniture, holes where you can hang hooks or other items. Likewise, these can become additional ad hoc storage space for the table, and you might even be able to insert longer items through those holes, such as umbrellas, rolls of newspaper, and similar items.

That said, this unintended use of the design could easily become a cluttered and unsightly mess, so it must still be used carefully and with discretion. It’s still interesting to see how a design for a completely different purpose could serve a different use, which is probably a testament to the designer’s ingenuity as well.