Wood and modern design are too rarely found together when it comes to interior and furniture design, the classic material judged to clash with clean modern lines. These all-wood modernist rectangular and round extending tables, however, transform and expand with technological ease but have the natural visual variety associated with powerfully grained hardwoods. They extend extra dining space with hi-tech grace but traditional beauty, expanding to accommodate additional visitors.
If anything, the marbled appearance of the wood grain (wrapping around all flat surfaces of the table tops and sides) supports and reinforces the rigid modernity of the rectilinear forms – doubtless an intentional move by Schulte. Only when transformed or transforming are the metal elements revealed that make smooth mechanical motions possible. The table shapes themselves are, at least broadly, simply circular and rectangular – though, in extension, the tables ultimately take on more complex and less traditional forms.
With stainless steel support elements and dramatic olive, cherry and other durable, exotic and high-contrast hardwoods, these dining room extension tables make bold statements as the solid centerpieces of a dining room interior design. Further, whether round or rectangle, they are a visually appealing marriage of traditional natural materials and modern technology and hardware responsible for extending and retracting the core form.