The effective measures to fight against earthquake continued to improve, and here comes the Earthquake-proof Table, a collaborative work by Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno. Though seems very common, the table actually could successfully protect people from possible injuries during the earthquake, which has been approved by a series of rigorous vertical impact tests. As an additional bonus, the earthquake-proof table also takes into account the financial limitations of people who may need it, and thus it will be produced with cost effective, yet responsible production methods and durable inexpensive materials.

Designer: Arthur Brutter & Ido Bruno

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For small-apartment owners, the space-saving and multifunctional furniture sets are always welcomed, and on their lists there’s Claudio Sibille’s Sensei. The furniture set includes two chairs that could be used separately; but when you flip the chairs on their sides and piece them together, they would then serve as a table.

Designer: Claudio Sibille

Welcome to my personal lawn rightly inside my apartment! Never doubt your own eyes, and I’m not kidding, my lawn is really inside the room rather than outside of it. Why? You need to ask Haiko Cornelissen Architecten, who created the sod-covered aluminum table to bring the outdoorsy experience into city apartments.

It’s extremely funny to have such unique tables to entertain your guests, as they may shout out “wow” the moment they see it. But on the other hand, to take care of the table would cost you much time, to water the grass, to shave the lawn, to provide enough sunshine, and to prevent insects as well… that’s so annoying. Then which will you choose, a Sod-Covered picNYC Table inside room while asks you to do much work, or a picnic in park that costs you merely few time?

Designer: Haiko Cornelissen Architecten

We humans are not consistent with ourselves, as on one hand we try to live in a place different from the nature, while on the other hand we’re pursuing designs that seem natural or made of natural materials. But never mind, because self-contradiction is also a source of inspiration, which may bring us with awesome creations like these Wood Rings Tables. The designer start with sections of trees ranging from 60 to 600 years old, combining them with resin plates so as to keep the beautiful rings in wood and endow them with a stylish aesthetics as well.

Designer: Michael Thomas Host & Tanja Hinder of Mth Woodworking

Use as you read, these Alphabet Furniture sets all come with several individual modules but can combine to create a chair, a lamp and a table as well, just as the words you’ve already seen.  So what do you think? Isn’t it funny to surprise your guests with the Alphabet Furniture?

Designer: DDB Group

Selling Price: $290-$ 800

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The Compact Café Table by Sigurd Larsen is no doubt the best furniture you can ever find if you’re someone concerning both a stylish design and strong functions. Made from recycled paper and resin, the table and benches set is suitable for either interior or exterior use, according to your different needs. When viewing from the front, these four pieces of furniture are rightly displaying their nice thin lines… So cute!

Designer: Sigurd Larsen

This white “tablecloth” is a new piece of furniture launched by German architectural studio Graft Architects. It breaks out the tradition that tables should come with several legs, and instead utilizes a tablecloth to reimage the table. The result turns to be really good, as the new table not only features the sense of beauty, but also solid and stable to ensure a long-term use.

Designer: Graft Architects

Leaf bench and leaf table set, crafted of steel and finished in green, is beautifully designed anti-oxidation furniture for your gardens.

Selling Price: $2370

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Tomm Velthius has successfully blurred the line between furniture and toys. He built many railway lines in a wooden table, let small electric trains run through them and therefore changed tables into toys. Great work!

Designer: Tomm Velthius

Probably one of the happiest things we commonly think of is to find something new everyday- a new friend, a new job, a new design or basically a new piece of furniture for our stylish rooms. Then on my way to find a new surprise, I met this Chain-shaped Coffee Table.

It’s adjustable, and its several smaller parts can form different patterns according to the user’s needs. Thus although you have only one such table, you may feel that you own many tables. Great.

Designer: Nódesign team

A table constructed with huge poker cards… also works as shelves or a dividing wall if with certain rearrangement. It is designed by BBMDS for Seletti and comes with an interesting name of “À la Carte”. Available in red and blue, these big cards may even build you a poker house just as that one appeared in “Alice in Wonderland”. Wow, crazy idea.

Designer: BBMDS

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Quite often we see new tables coming in unique shapes or featuring distinctive functions, but we seldom imagine a table would have the ability to walk, just as we humans do! A walking table does seem amazing. It mimics an innate walking motion when pushed because it is built with mechanical linkages. A walking table is also valuable, as it is crafted from selected materials and available in only 8 pieces.

Designer: Wouter Scheublin

Anything that can change to meet our different needs is undoubtedly always welcome, and right here we’d like to introduce this Rubix Transformer Furniture Set created by Dosunodesign. It consists of three chairs and one table: the chairs can be adjusted to a proper height according to the users’ various needs, and the table would work as a tea table or a dinning table in different situations. So great!

Designer: Dosunodesign

Since almost all kids love to draw pictures on tables, why not just make a table that shall be used exclusively for them to write or draw on? Possibly inspired by that idea, designer Tiang Tiang has come up with such a paper table, something that features a pile of drawing paper as its tabletop so that your kids can conveniently draw on them.

Designer: Tiang Tiang

Here’s an office meeting table from Naoto Fukasawa, and this time the well-known Japan-based designer has built the table with many storage boxes to store your personal items. In that case, the table has achieved maximum simplicity.

Designer: Naoto Fukasawa

Don’t realize how ordinary your table is because you never have a better alternative? Then have a look at the Rubber Table designed by Thomas Schnur. The unique table has a suction cup on each of its five legs, and therefore it can stand in any places-the flat ground, an inclined surface, or even the ceilings. Of course a table is usually not expected to stand on a ceiling, but it is welcomed too if it has that ability.

Designer: Thomas Schnur

RockPaperRobot’s FLOAT was brought to our notice due to its changing shapes. Constructed from 64 magnetically levitating cubes, the FLOAT would change its sizes and shapes when you put some items onto it, but retains equilibrium in common conditions with the help of a system of tensile steel cables.

Designer: RockPaperRobot

Kamkam was seen someday with many fasten buttons and leather buckles lying on the tables, however they were not made for clothes but for a series of furniture themed of “Dressed-up Furniture”. Look, the stools, wardrobes and benches now all have a new look and they seem really perfect for kids and girls.

Designer: Kamkam

Who would ever know what you’ll find between or underneath the sofa cushions? A coin, a remote controller or a book you’ve been looking for? Or maybe more than those, if you’re with the Lost In Sofa chair designed by Daisuke Motogi Architecture. Featuring small cubes to form the seat, the new furniture can hold almost everything you insert into it so that you can conveniently reach for a book, a pen or even a cup of coffee during the leisure time. Fantastic!

Designer: Daisuke Motogi Architecture

Designed for Vanerum, an educational design consultancy, Bram Boo’s Salsa is a creative table set embedded with four iPad interactive systems that allow the users to share information and ideas when sit separately. Therefore you can just communicate via the screens if you do not want a talk in the public places.

Designer: Bram Boo

Just look at the Rotating Squares Table, it’s obviously another piece of furniture meant for the “must-have” of your grocery lists. Constructed from 16 small squares, the table can open up to 1.4 times of its original size when these small squares are moved. Maybe also due to that magic rotating squares method, the table wears a surprising price of more than £2000 though it is simply made from oiled birch plywood. So the price must have made the table “one of the most expensive pieces” in your furniture collection, too.

Designer: Tom Cecil

Inspired by the idea that small changes of individual objects can be a big impact on the whole, Korean designers Seo Jeonghwa and Hanna Chung have collaborated the ‘ripple effect’ tea table that features a water layer on the top to make ripples when the users move cups on it. As a result, both your movements and the cups’ movements will cause a change on the table. Isn’t that interesting?

Designer: Seo Jeonghwa & Hanna Chung

Despite that we cannot dedicate a pretty serious amount of space to large furniture like beds and tables so as to accommodate our guests, we can still create them a comfortable “living room” with the “Somnys” transformer furniture. Designed by Fabien Rolland, the modular coffee table can pack flat for easy storage when not in use while transform into a guest bed when needed. It’s also easy to assemble and collapse, allowing the users to convert it from a table into a bed in quite a short time.

Designer: Fabien Rolland

What would happen if we combine the plates and dinning table together? Having that question in mind, Elad Kashi has spent much time designing an innovative table and finally come up with the Table Set. It is a round table built with several ceramic plates on the top so that the users can directly put the dishes onto them without having to serve extra plates. Those plates are also removable, allowing for easy cleaning and installing.

Designer: Elad Kashi

Winning entry at LG HI-MACS European Design Award, the “Slide Eat” Lunch Table may not be the best furniture for kids, but it indeed looks cool and quite different from common furniture. Firstly, the new table features a curvy design to take the place of regular sharp edges, keeping the kids from getting hurt. Another point you will be interested is the built-in holders for containing plates, glasses and cutlery, and we bet that would help a lot to avoid the spilling of food. And more importantly, the table is also a slide for kids！

Sleek, elegant, multifunctional, the “Slide Eat” is quite ideal for kindergartens and other places like the McDonald’s.

Designer: Studio Klass

Tables are needed furniture but they’re usually also bulky, so you have to dedicate quite a large amount of space to them. And that’s why tables and especially the long tables are often tough to fit in small apartments. Except these tables created by Ochre. The designers solved that problem by folding the tables into the wall when they’re not in use, therefore offering you a spacious room for other activities. When you want a table, just pull them out of the wall and you can use them as a dining table or a work bench.

Designer: Ochre

On a fine afternoon, put the books aside, open the Happy Window and have a pleasant chatting with your buddies when enjoying the beautiful scenery outside—what could be better than that? Just start an easy life with the “Happy Window”.

The funiture set can fit into any environments, so you can either use it as a worktable or change it into a tea table with two seats.

Designer: Yonghee Cho & Saehee Lee

The 2010 summer is wonderful enough to be memorable—we sit under the open sky, breath in the fresh air, and watch the live telecasting of the world cup match with numerous people. And of course we all use the OASIS 2-Person Folding Table and Chairs. Shaped like a small suitcase that measures 23 3/4″ x 15 3/4″ x 4 1/2″ (L x H x D), the furniture actually can be expanded into 31 1/2″ Length x 23 5/8″ Width x 25 9/16″ Height, especially perfect for camping and picnic.

Selling Price: $69.99

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We bet nobody would refuse the Occo, if he/she wants to live a both convenient and comfortable life. Created by Melisa Indra, the Occo features a minimalist design, and therefore won’t occupy too much space. Also, it’s a perfect combination of the modern design and the Asian tradition of sitting on floors. As shown in the pictures, the Occo includes several circular-shaped seats piled together, using a shaft and a table top to form a composite piece. So with the Occo, you’ll still keep a traditional life in the modern society.

Designer: Melisa Indra

Here at I New Idea we know that everyone likes smart but also unique designs. Then the Loftbox 101 Space Creator is just something you’re looking for. Aimed at lofts and other living areas with unpartitioned floors, the Loftbox 101 can fold out from a compact rectangular box and change into a private meeting space when needed. Plus, the cool design also comes with a TFT monitor for visual presentations.

Inspired by the beautiful fireflies sparking in the gardens on summer nights, Vuk Dragovic has come up with an innovative table also named as “Firefly”. It has a built-in lamp, which is powered by solar energy collected during the daytime and emits light in the nights. At the bottom of the lamp, there’s usually text or logo that could be projected onto the ground to boast certain products, movies, and firms.

Designer: Vuk Dragovic

Showcased at Milan Design Week, the Bright Woods’ Collection of Illuminated Chairs and Tables have drawn the visitors’ much attention, with its smart shapes and unique glow.

They’re finished in wood and natural resin strips.

Designer: Giancarlo Zema

Similar to the Easy-packing Table we introduced before, the La Gota Table by Timothy Emmott also aims to help you tidy up your workbench quickly and easily. But the difference is that the La Gota Table is designed to hold used items or more exactly your rubbish, like the waste paper, sharpener waste, etc. The table features a big opening on one corner, which would lead the rubbish down through the hollow leg and fall into the trash barrel. In case that anything useful will fall into the hole, the designer also surrounds the opening with some ripples. As a result, even though you don’t go to the bin to throw the trash away, you can always keep the table neat enough.

Unless you have a system worked out, you no doubt know clearly that you have to keep everything highly organized to keep your table clean and tidy. But what will you do with the electrical wires? Bind them together using a rope? Designer Beatus Kopp wants to save you that trouble with ‘aTable’, which features four hollow legs to store the cords. So simply put the electrical wires through the four holes and hide them in the legs, you can easily make room for more books. Made of glass-reinforced plastic, the table is really lightweight but still highly stable.

Designer: Beatus Kopp

Have you noticed that the limited urban environment has greatly inspired the designers’ creativity, coz they keep sending in images of convertible or multifunctional products? But thanks to them, we feel more and more comfortable though still living in a small apartment. And to make your life much easier, Tom Rossau has come up with a handy coffee table that can be transformed into a dinning table when needed. Plus, made out of bamboo, the convertible table is also lightweight and easy to clean.

Designer: Tom Rossau

Your little boys want a changing table to showcase their Transformers, his cute girls ask for enough drawers for storing their skirts, while her naughty baby needs a crib… Yups, different people need different things, but the Multi-functional Furniture by Adensen Furniture is rightly something every parent has dreamed of. Especially designed for kids up to 10 years old, the smart furniture could be changed into a crib, a table, storage drawers, shelves, and a bigger bed, etc.

Designer: Adensen Furniture

Designed by Benjamin Wojtyna, Compact Kitchen Cart is quite ideal for small departments and other small living areas, where urgently needs small-sized furniture. Several containers are hidden inside and some hangers are built on its side to hold your utensils.

Designer: Benjamin Wojtyna

In my humble opinion, the design seems like a terrible idea, resulting needless complexity since the piano may get wet if you carelessly pour water on the table… Of course, you won’t agree with me, if you’re just in the necessity to place a bulky piano inside your small department. So consider it for a second, the idea of the Piano Table seems quite valuable. So you like it? For $6000, you still like it? OMG!

Designer: Georg Bohle

Selling Price: $6000

Showcased at the Fifth Annual Competition SaloneSatellite WorldWide held in Moscow, the ‘Pavone’ furniture has attracted much attention, because of its smart and transformable design. Finished in a fabric and metal frame, the Pavone could easily switch between a table and an armchair via simple sliding, in order to meet the user’s different needs.

If you think only certain instruments like the guitars and pianos could clearly show us how music is played, then let me correct you because the Noteput Music Table can perform that task as well as the instruments, or even better. It is an interactive musical device, allowing you to see, to hear and to feel the music simultaneously. The musical table employs the camera-based marker tracking, which could identify each note and their positions. So music (or sound) would then be created and heard as you place the musical notes onto the table. The notes could be played by using the sound of different instruments.

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Showcased at the Design Museum London, ‘Harvest’ is an installation of chairs and tables made of Gypsophila plant, which has a natural ability to interlock. All the flowers have been put into moulds and freeze-dried for weeks before they’re used to make up the furniture. It will remain on show in The Tank outside the museum until 15 March.

Designer: Asif Khan

Creative Factor: The ergonomics of the furniture and the stability.

You know those movable chairs, tables and stools that are lying about on the floor make your living room look messy? Well, no more, if you’re to use the ‘Shelf Made’ designed by Lies Van Kerckhove. It is a modular rack that hides 2 chairs, 2 stools and a table, which could be easily taken out of the shelf without affecting its stability.

Made from block hdf leicht stab plate, ‘Shelf Made’ is only available in black color and measures 1890 mm X 2110 mm X 400 mm (H x W x D).

Designer: Lies Van Kerckhove

Do you need a notepad to write down your thoughts and messages, or to communicate with your friends when you’re enjoying the coffee? Here’s one that could not only record your mindless thoughts but convey them to others in quite an interesting way. And the product we’re to argue is the ‘Communicative Coffee Table’ by Di Wu. The table features eight slide boards for adorning the table and a chalkboard for you to write on. One of the slide boards also conceals a duster to clean the chalkboard.

Designer: Di Wu

I cannot think of a rational reason why Koichi Futatsumata has designed the low table that also functions as a cat bed. I mean, any ordinary low tables with a shelf below could all spare certain space for the kitties. But Koichi Futatsumata’s table could make your cats feel more comfortable. It features a rattan shelf for your kitties to lie on and a transparent glass table surface on top to ensure enough light for your closet friends.

Designer: Koichi Futatsumata

This is a multifunctional piece of furniture named as ‘Also Chair’. It is an armchair that could be changed into a desk when you flip the chair for 90 degrees. Apart from that, there’s a bookcase- either behind the backrest or below the table surface- for you to put books. Simple and functional all in one, ‘Also Chair’ is particularly perfect for small houses.

Designer: Akin Bacioglu

A coffee table then and a dinning table now, it’s actually merely one table that functions in two different ways. Just pull up the coffee table’s surface, fix it at a certain height and then you can use it as a dinning table. So easy!

Designer: Steve Spett & Ron Barth

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In-car Video Game, In-car PC, as well as the Swivel Car Tray, seemingly these products are gradually changing cars into a movable house with everything we may need. Designed to hold your food, drinks and other necessities during your driving, the Swivel Car Tray comes with a round plate on top and a backing bar whose height and angle could easily be adjusted.

Selling Price: $10.99

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Almost every kid loves to blow bubbles a lot, e.g. by blowing onto a film of soapy water. We still miss that game a lot when we grow up, and the designer has thought of a new way to play the same game: to blow glass bubbles into a transparent coffee table. It looks really amazing but also fragile. Anyhow, it is the idea rather than the product itself that amuses us. Hopefully you like it, too.

You will need electric outlets everywhere at the workplace, e.g. behind the refrigerator, the stove, and behind the coffee machine. But not everyone could afford to install dedicated electric outlets everywhere you may need, and sometimes we do have to be creative with outlets, and the table with outlets on its leg has provided us with a new choice. Equipping some outlets onto one leg of the table, the designers have successfully solved the problem of messy cords on the floor or the table. Everything is highly organized now!

Designer: Choi Won Seok & Kim Do Yeop

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You must have noticed those five interesting legs of the table, as all of them are shaped like those stunning legs of delicate beauties. But when these modules are combined together, what appears then? It’s a blooming flower, or rather an elegant table with a flower-shaped base. Isn’t that amazing? I love the idea.