To be successful, a piece of furniture must have form and function.  Not only must it look good, but it should also be utterly practical.

Archana Pai’s table meets both of those criteria, being a beautifully designed and constructed coffee table but which also lifts and folds out to reveal storage compartments below the table’s top.

That multi-functionality is becoming more important as family homes become smaller, with a consequent need for furniture that fulfils more than one task.

Archana has created a treasure of a table that she intends to take back home to Bangalore in India with her.  She has a new house back home which needs a lot of new furniture, including a coffee table for her living room (done) and a new kitchen (not done!)

A former Internal auditor and chartered accountant, Archana hopes to set up her own business in Bangalore, making her probably one of the first female fine furniture woodworkers in India.

Her table, which she’s named L7, is made from beech and spalted beech, and has sweet chestnut legs.

The main challenge was in designing the wooden mechanism that lifts and opens the top of the table, with each of the elements having to be perfectly measured and aligned.

The table is made entirely with hand-made joints that make it easy to dismantle, transport and reassemble.

The legs and the base are held together by mortise and tenon joints, and the interwoven strips in the inlay are made of sycamore and have loose tongue joints.