hangin' with eero

one of my designer clients sent me this eero saarinen table base and asked us to make a wood top for it with a 'chalky' flat finish. she chose quartered white oak and we all thought it was a cool form when it went out the door today ... i'm not sure exactly where she found the base, but they are out there somewhere, and, it appears from this link, they can be purchased at a very reasonable price sometimes. since we fixed some danish modern couches and chairs a while back, i have become 're-interested' in the style, which i find simple, yet practical and elegant in an understated way. i kind of think of those danish and swedish guys as 1960's and 70's shakers, without the religion. use what you need, and as little of it as you need, to get the job done.
simple detailing
simple construction
it was originally going to be a walnut top, but that was too dark ....

below is the danish stuff we redoweled and reglued back in february ... some of it was just loose, but we replaced all the dowels anyway, and one piece came to us in a cardboard box. the owner got it from her parents and had never seen is assembled. it wasn't too hard to figure it out, and the stuff was cool and comfortable when we finished with it ...

we refinished it naturally with dark 'danish oil' from watco ... perfect ...
straightforward joinery and minimalist design. badly repaired several times in the past ... we plugged all the holes and replaced the short 3/8ths dowels with 3" 7/16ths dowels ... should be good for another 50 ... i even bought the book, which i have enjoyed
check it out ... great stuff and some interesting design ideas there ...