Vitra - Eames Coffee Table square - walnut - natural ash

Eames Coffee Table square walnut - natural ash

In 1949, Charles and Ray Eames designed the Eames Coffee Table as a unique fixture for their own home, the legendary Eames House in Pacific Palisades, near Los Angeles.

The rectangular table top in the original version was covered with gold leaf. The base with pinned legs is a variation on the wooden base of the well-known Eames Plastic Chairs. In the years that followed, Charles and Ray Eames produced two more of these tables, but with a marble tabletop.

The reissue of the Eames Coffee Table, developed by Vitra in collaboration with the Eames Office, evokes the resemblance to the earlier pieces: this high-quality coffee table is made of exquisite materials and is both a beautiful object and a utensil. The square or rectangular table tops are made of white marble or solid American walnut. The base, which combines black wooden legs with metal crossbars, provides a stable base and emphasizes the understated elegance of the Eames Coffee Table.

Tabletop Carrara marble, brushed and waxed, or solid American walnut with oiled finish

Substrate MDF board

Foot natural or black solid ash, steel bar crossbeams

Dimensions 76 x 76 x H39 cm or 114 x 76 x H39 cm / made to order.

About the designers:

Born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles Eames studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis and opened his own office in 1930 with Charles M. Gray. In 1935, he co-founded another architectural firm with Robert T. Walsh.

After receiving a scholarship from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1938, he moved to Michigan and took a teaching position in the design department the following year. In 1940, he and Eero Saarinen won first prize for their joint entry in the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition organized by the New York Museum of Modern Art. In the same year, Eames became head of the industrial design department at Cranbrook.

Born Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, Ray Eames was born in Sacramento, California in 1912. She attended the May Friend Bennet School in Millbrook, New York, and continued her painting under Hans Hofmann until 1937. During this year she exhibited her work in the first exhibition of the American Abstract Artists group at the Riverside Museum in New York. She graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1940.

Charles and Ray Eames married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles, where they began experimenting together with techniques for three-dimensional molding of plywood. The goal was to create comfortable chairs that were affordable.

However, the war interrupted their work and Charles and Ray instead focused on the design and development of plywood leg splints, which were manufactured in large quantities for the United States Navy. In 1946 they exhibited their experimental furniture designs at the MoMA.

The Herman Miller Company in Zeeland, Michigan, then began manufacturing Eames furniture. Charles and Ray entered the 1948 "Low-Cost Furniture" competition at MoMA and built the Eames House in 1949 as their own private residence. In addition to their work in furniture design and architecture, they also regularly focused on graphic design, photography, film and exhibition design.