We recently told you about a Bauhaus-inspired desk made by Giuseppe Merlino from the north of Italy.

He’s now completed another project, a sensuous floating-top coffee table in American oak.

The light and simple structure of the table is held together with a combination of bridle and mortice and tenon joints.

The table top has been veneered in triangles using different rosewood types.

The inside of each triangle is veneered with heartwood – a darker colour hewn from wood where sap doesn’t flow.

The lighter shade of rosewood making up the triangles has been cut from sapwood – the part of the tree where sap does flow.

It’s a design that, like his desk, artfully combines form and function, with a top that seems to float from the rest of the structure.

The rosewood most popular in the West is best known as Brazilian rosewood.

It has a strong, sweet smell which can last for many years, and which explains the name rosewood.

Giuseppe’s coffee table has simple honesty, but combines that with beautifully-crafted design touches.

Before he came to us, Giuseppe was working in Sandi Arabia researching environmental microbes.

It was there he took up woodworking as a hobby.