Alvar Aalto Alternative

French Art Deco Table available at Jean Marc Fray Antiques on 1st Dibs

The Wolf's Table

Alvar Aalto's Classic Design

There is joy in the hunt, setting out to find the unknown.  It is like a first date when you already know you are going to fall in love with the chap.  I go out and I find things, wonderful, beautiful, unexpected things.  That being said, if I am looking for something in particular, I rarely find it.  I have been looking for the "perfect" kid's table for my one year old for six months.  I had grown weary of watching my one year old perpetrate a smorgasbord of sins on the meals I placed before him. After wiping up the spills from juice glasses filled with noodles, I would climb underneath the table to wipe off the butter soaked toe print abstracts.  Having watched him climb atop the glass table on numerous occasions obviously trying to commit baby suicide, I came to the conclusion it was time to ground the little fellow.  

I kept my eyes open as I scoured estate sales, thrift stores, tag sales and craigslist positive that the perfect table would present itself. It did not. Chairs sure...tables, no way.  I considered breaking into surrounding churches and schools from the fifties. I was feeling tiny vintage challenged and none too excited about going to jail when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a ridiculously fantastic art deco side table hiding right in front of my face. The perfect height, size and shape with a bonus tier for things like paper and crayons. By hiding I mean that in my very focused little brain, the table that had been sitting in my home for months was a project.  I had great plans for it.  I was going to ebonize the top and bottom and keep the fantastic patina on the legs. It was patiently awaiting its next life in limbo with its fellow refinishing projects.  I promised the table that one day it would fulfill its destiny in a magazine photographed by a skilled photographer in perfect light in someone else's home.  I apologized profusely for what abuse it would incur over the next two years and then with enormous relief I sat my sweet Wolfie down with his bowl of noodles ... and watched him climb on top and fall off, noodles in toe.