Xiangsheng Side Table 3

French architect Virginie Moriette and Chinese designer Xu Ming of Studio MVW draw on their distinct backgrounds and cultures for collaborative pieces that elegantly reimagine expected forms of furniture. The duo uses eclectic materials and sculptural forms for creative pieces as well as in their designs for interiors and architecture.

Moriette and Ming are especially inspired by nature as something that links both Western and Chinese design. Ming studied at Penninghen Graphic Arts and Interior Architecture High School in Paris as well as with designers including Didier Gomez, Eric Raffy and Paul Andreu before returning to China in 2004. Moriette studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette and likewise worked with Andreu, meeting Ming while working on a project in Shanghai. Their first furniture designs came out of the pieces they were creating for their own home, such as wooden bookshelves that evoked the shapes of tree trunks. Together they cofounded Studio MVW in Shanghai in 2006.

Moriette and Ming now work on smaller scale projects like limited-edition objects and individual furniture pieces as well as entire interiors, regularly harmonizing disparate materials such as bronze, jade, marble and lacquer. Their Jinye series, for instance, features tables made from Patagonian quartzite while their JinShi console involves discs made of pink jade that are illuminated from within. Their architecture and interior designs include the Aoyama Lab Dessert Bar in Beijing, which juxtaposes glass and mesh with wood and stone, and the Shanghai showroom for Pierre Cardin where circular portals frame the housewares.

As they told Design Anthology: “Whatever the object or project, we draw inspiration from its context, the client’s needs and personality and always from nature, with the objective of giving all projects a special identity with a hint of poetry.” Studio MVW’s work has included designs for Giorgetti, Roche Bobois and Richemont Group.

Find authentic Studio MVW tables, case pieces and storage cabinets 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.