Product Focus: Dish Table Series
One of the rewards of running a small design business for over a decade is seeing where our work ends up - how people live with and care for the products we've made.
Our Dish Table originally launched in 2013 as we began to pivot into furniture after five years of working on tabletop objects, textiles and jewelry. Our inspiration came from what was right in front of us - the furniture we lived within our Bainbridge Island home.
We were looking at a collection of small stools and bowls made in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s that we inherited from Chelsea’s family. We loved the sculptural forms and saw no way to improve on their individual hand-carved personalities except for the fact that the tops were all split after years of wood movement.
We knew that if we made tops and legs using joinery instead of carving from a solid piece of wood, that we could make similarly striking forms that would be stable enough to last a lifetime as well as allow for the addition of flat surfaces for added function.
The response to our tables was so strong, that we expanded from a coffee and side table to a desk, dining table, bench and countless custom variations. We continue to make these tables to order and love working on custom sizes and shapes for our clients.
We still use CNC technology to rough out the tabletops, but do all the sanding and finishing by hand in our island studio. We use FSC-certified American ash as our standard wood. We do this because it is a fast-growing hardwood - making it a more readily renewable choice - and because we love its color and grain. We finish with a special oil and wax finish that is commercial grade, but safe for everyone.
We’ve loved seeing where our tables have ended up over the years - from hotels to the offices of various startups and co-working spaces - but we get the most pleasure from seeing them in individual residences. These pieces are made with so much care that it is our hope that they become a part of people's lives in the same way the pieces that inspired them have in our home.
You can find our Dish Tables through our Bainbridge Island studio or in New York at the Colony showroom. Please contact us at shop@graindesign.com for more information, custom quotes or to request finish samples.
Photo Credit: Haris Kenjar for Brian Paquette Interiors, Charlie Schuck, Charlie Schuck, Roger Davies for Jamie Bush + Co., Virtually Here Studios for Platform Home and Enclosures Architects and Haris Kenjar for Ore Studios and Deforest Architects.