Hawiian Dancer

In the case of Paul Ayoob, you need only to look at the backside of the cabinet he's building. The backside that no one will ever see once the piece is installed. Go ahead. Crawl under one of his tables. Turn one of his chairs upside down. ''There aren't many people who can show the backs of their furniture,'' Ayoob says with justifiable pride. But the pieces Ayoob crafts are so seamlessly constructed and so much a product of the woodworker's attention to detail that the backs and undersides and insides indeed look just as good as the parts his clients will see every day. ''He's not just Type A,'' says his wife, Teresa Biagini. ''He's a Type AAA. But that's what makes him so good at woodwork. He's detail-oriented. He has such a high standard for himself.'' For the past quarter-century, Ayoob has put his attention to detail to use in police work. At 48, he's three years from retirement as a San Jose police officer. Police work is a daily dance with life's seamy underside, a grueling, dangerous business that can wring the energy and hope out of a person. So how has Ayoob coped? By finding a pursuit that demands exacting precision and focus, of course. ''This is my calling,'' he says of woodworking and making furniture. ''It is a peaceful interlude to my daily life. It is not just an escape. I think about it all the time. I have opted now for the peaceful side of life.'' In just a few short years, Ayoob has developed such a following, simply through referrals, that he says he has enough orders to keep him busy for two years. Though he tries, he hastens to add, to fit people into his schedule. His pieces range in price from about $2,000 to the high five figures, and his style has evolved to one he calls ''a refined but acceptable elegance.'' Of his pieces, he says, ''Their style will not wither away as the years go by.'' Ayoob, meticulous in trim jeans, a black polo shirt and boots, explains how he got his start as he shows a guest through the equally meticulous design studio he constructed behind his South Bay home. (He builds his pieces in a rented space in San Mateo County.) He pulls out life-size blueprints of a table he'll build; he works from life-size prints on each piece of furniture. Gains knowledge He sold his first commissioned piece, an entry table, in 1998. When he first tried his hand at woodworking, about seven years ago, he said, ''I didn't even know how to hammer in a nail. The first thing I built was a little rolling cabinet out of plywood. I was hammering nails through the other side, and everyone was laughing.'' Ayoob has learned much, he says, from two mentors, Jim Allen of Saratoga and David Weeks of Scotts Valley. Al Gipson, the owner of a San Jose personnel staffing agency, bought the ebony and curly maple entrance table. ''Paul was trained by old-world craftsmen. And customer care and quality was part of the package he inherited from them,'' says Gipson, who plans to commission Ayoob to make some cabinetry for a home he is building. ''I think, more than anything, it is the quality of workmanship, the detailing. He is so meticulous. He won't let you see glue seams or screws sticking out. ''He'd drive me crazy if we were roommates.'' Spousal support Allowing Ayoob, his passion has taken some forbearance on the part of his wife. The couple filled in a swimming pool so he could construct his design studio. But Biagini is proud of how her husband has blossomed. ''I love to see him develop that artistic side, that creative side in himself,'' says Biagini, a San Jose attorney. ''It's kind of exciting to see that take seed and grow in a person.'' And the Ayoob-Biagini home benefits as well, right? Well, not exactly. When Ayoob started woodworking, he made a series of coffee tables. Customers snapped them up at a yard sale. The one that cracked just a bit? That landed in the couple's home, as do the prototypes and objects that don't meet his exacting standards. ''You know that old story about the cobbler's children having no shoes?'' says Biagini. What she can track, looking at her husband's work over the last few years, is a change in his approach. In the beginning, she says, ''everything had carvings and hinges.'' ''As he has gone along, I think he's discovered the beauty of simplicity,'' she says. These days, Ayoob talks passionately about the beauty of the wood. The Honduran rosewood. The cocobolo. Ebony accents. Curly maple. And he talks about pleasing his clients, saying, ''I'm one of very few woodworkers who will design and make just what people want.'' He'll also try to work within a person's budget, constructing pieces that cost less than $2,000 if it's reasonable to do so. He spends from 40 to 250 hours on each piece and works on one piece or for one client at a time. Among the more intriguing pieces, he has constructed an oversize arts-and-crafts-style chair and ottoman that sold for five figures. Ayoob signs and dates each piece he makes. But he puts a little more into the cabinets, tables and the like as well. ''A piece of my heart leaves with every darn piece I make,'' he says.

Inspired by the Arts & Crafts style in England, which rebelled against the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution with a proud emphasis on handcrafted design, American Craftsman style similarly pushed against the lavishness of the Victorian era. Coined by Wisconsin-born Gustav Stickley, a furniture designer and publisher of The Craftsman magazine, American Craftsman furniture would influence homegrown styles that followed, such as Mission and the Prairie School.

Like the popular early 20th-century Craftsman houses — which feature meticulous woodwork on everything from built-in bookcases in the living room and cabinetry in the kitchen to earth-toned exteriors with exposed rafters — American Craftsman furniture was all about handmade storage cabinets, bedroom furniture, chairs and other pieces built with organic materials. “Simplicity and straightforwardness of construction has always been the leading characteristic of Craftsman furniture,” Stickley stated. And while he is often credited with most of the designs at the Craftsman Workshops in Eastwood, New York, others such as Harvey Ellis were influential in shaping the straight-backed chairs, beds with vertical slats and tables with exposed joinery that came to define the style.

Highly utilitarian with no unnecessary flair, American Craftsman furniture was designed to emphasize the essence of its modest construction and promote the natural beauty of the wood. Solid oak, cherry, walnut and mahogany were all favored by the movement’s principal figures. Another attribute commonly associated with the style is the integration of subtle details like tooled leather, inlaid metal and hammered iron handles.

Owing to the outbreak of World War I, the popularity of American Craftsman style waned as consumer spending dropped and furniture companies shifted to the production of wartime materials and goods specified in government contracts. Yet, by the 1960s, there was a renewed appreciation for this foundational modern American style, with Stickley and his contemporaries in demand for the clean, simple lines and sturdy construction of American Craftsman furniture.

Find a collection of antique American Craftsman chests, nightstands, seating, decorative objects and more furniture on 1stDibs.

As a practical focal point in your living area, antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables are an invaluable addition to any interior.

Low tables that were initially used as tea tables or coffee tables have been around since at least the mid- to late-1800s. Early coffee tables surfaced in Victorian-era England, likely influenced by the use of tea tables in Japanese tea gardens. In the United States, furniture makers worked to introduce low, long tables into their offerings as the popularity of coffee and “coffee breaks” took hold during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

It didn’t take long for coffee tables and cocktail tables to become a design staple and for consumers to recognize their role in entertaining no matter what beverages were being served. Originally, these tables were as simple as they are practical — as high as your sofa and made primarily of wood. In recent years, however, metal, glass and plastics have become popular in coffee tables and cocktail tables, and design hasn’t been restricted to the conventional low profile, either.

Visionary craftspeople such as Paul Evans introduced bold, geometric designs that challenge the traditional idea of what a coffee table can be. The elongated rectangles and wide boxy forms of Evans’s desirable Cityscape coffee table, for example, will meet your needs but undoubtedly prove imposing in your living space.

If you’re shopping for an older coffee table to bring into your home — be it an antique Georgian-style coffee table made of mahogany or walnut with decorative inlays or a classic square mid-century modern piece comprised of rosewood designed by the likes of Ettore Sottsass — there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Both the table itself and what you put on it should align with the overall design of the room, not just by what you think looks fashionable in isolation. According to interior designer Tamara Eaton, the material of your vintage coffee table is something you need to consider. “With a glass coffee table, you also have to think about the surface underneath, like the rug or floor,” she says. “With wood and stone tables, you think about what’s on top.”

Find the perfect centerpiece for any room, no matter what your personal furniture style on 1stDibs. Browse a vast selection of antique, new and vintage coffee table and cocktail tables today.