Chloe Drink Table

The success of Holly Hunt — both the designer and her eponymous empire of textile and furnishings showrooms — is based on instinct.

The Chicago-based Hunt trusts her own tastes, reflected in her signature lines of elegant, low-key furniture, lighting and fabrics. She also trusts her judgment about the wants of the buying public, and this savvy sensibility has allowed her to cultivate and market the work of a range of contemporary talents, from minimalists like Christian Liaigre to eccentrics like Christian Astuguevieille.

Hunt is a design world impresario — a prominent arbiter for stylish modern interiors and known foremost for fabrics, seating designs and light fixtures. Modern sophistication, attention to detail, and a desire to cultivate talented contemporary designers are at the crux of the company’s success.

Born in central Texas to schoolteacher parents, Hunt was a creative girl who made her own clothes and bickered with her mother about decor. After graduating from Texas Tech, Hunt worked as department-store buyer and costume jewelry designer before marrying and helping her husband build a multimillion dollar transport company. Her hobby was decorating their homes. After the two divorced, Hunt purchased a showroom in the Chicago Merchandise Mart in 1983. Within 10 years, she was winning applause for her understated designs, her lavish showroom parties and her eye for rising design stars. Liaigre was her first discovery. Correctly surmising that his pared-down furniture in dark wood would play well in the United States in the aftermath of the go-go ’80s, Hunt began marketing the French designer’s work in 1994.

Over the subsequent years Hunt has added a half-dozen showrooms and, following her own style barometer, has taken on other fresh talents, including glassmaker Alison Berger, French designer Christophe Pillet and couturier Ralph Rucci, making a foray into home design.

One constant over that time have been the aesthetics of Hunt’s own designs. Her fabrics — the first choice of many dealers when re-upholstering vintage seating — are understated, mixing muted colors and updates of classic patterns. Her furniture is simple and refined. As you will see on 1stDibs, the name Holly Hunt represents a sense of timelessness and sophistication.

Beyond just providing additional tabletop space for your living room, an attractive vintage end table can help you organize as well as display books and decorative objects.

The term “end table” is frequently used interchangeably with “coffee table,” and while these two furnishings have much in common, each offers their own distinctive benefits in your space.

Your end table is likely going to stand as tall as the arms of your sofa, and its depth will match the seating. These attributes allow for tucking the table neatly at the end of your sofa in order to provide an elevated surface between your seating and the wall. End tables are accent pieces — they’re a close cousin to side tables, but side tables, not unlike the show-stealing low-profile coffee table, are intended to be positioned prominently and have more to do with the flow and design of a room than an end table, which does a great job but does it out of the way of everything else.

End tables with a drawer or a shelf can easily stow away books or television remotes. Living-room end tables frequently assist with lighting, specifically as they’re often positioned adjacent to a wall. Their height and compact tabletop render them ideal for table lamps and plants, particularly if parked near a window.

And given their practicality, there is no shortage of simple, streamlined end tables from mid-century modern favorites such as Baker Furniture Company, Dunbar and Knoll that will serve your clutter-clearing minimalist efforts or wide-open loft space well. But over the years, furniture designers have taken to venturesome experimentation, crafting tables from fallen trees, introducing organic shapes and playing with sculptural forms, so much so that your understated end table might eventually become the centerpiece of a room, no matter where you choose to place it. One-of-a-kind contemporary designs prove that there are endless options for what an end table can be, while furniture makers working in the Art Deco style have proven that end tables can be stacked, staggered and nested at will, creating all kinds of variations on this popular home accent.

Find an extraordinary variety of antique, new and vintage end tables on 1stDibs today.