San Francisco–based industrial-design and engineering firm One & Co often makes small, useful products with buttons, LED displays, and power cords. The Periodic Table for California manufacturer Council, on the other hand, is neither small nor particularly useful: It’s a hefty, 12x44-inch slab of reclaimed Douglas fir, plated—yes, plated—in silver, and needless to say, it’s more expensive than the firm’s most expensive electronic gadget by an order or two of magnitude. The table debuted this spring at the Milan Furniture Fair.
As One & Co’s take on Council’s theme for the collection “Optimism,” Periodic Table’s development involved good-old American ingenuity, innovation, and, in terms of the price, pluck. According to Jonah Becker, who
heads One & Co with Scott Croyle and Claude Zellweger, the team wanted to push the boundaries of the traditional together-but-separate relationship wood and metal usually have in furniture (i.e., a wooden tabletop with metal legs) by plating wood. “It’s about seeing beauty in the irregularities and finding some sort of serendipity in the process,” Becker says.
Serendipity led One & Co to bypass the many platers who work on classic-car bumpers and motorcycle parts to find one who gilded bras for Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. After testing various types of wood and finishes— including hot-pink metallic—the designers went with simple silver and chose Douglas fir for its rich grain. The laborious process of prepping and plating the wood takes several weeks
and entails cutting, planing, wet-sanding (to maintain subtle surface texture), priming with a layer of paint (so the silver will adhere), plating, and sealing. In the end, the metal’s natural oxidization process accentuates the grains and knots in the wood.
Becker notes that the cost of the materials and processes for the piece is five to ten times what most people pay for a coffee table. (By comparison, One & Co’s simple metal-and-leather Chrysalis stool for Council retails for only $650.) But he remains sanguine about the potential sticker shock. “I’d rather get a few people hot and bothered,” Becker says. “If you get neutral, lukewarm responses, you’re not having enough fun”; $42,000. — SARAH VERDONE
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