The Bean Coffee Table is produced by LI-AN-LO Studio from solid spruce trees sourced in Bodafors, Småland, where the studio is based. The material is specific: oversized trees that sawmills cannot process through standard equipment, and which would typically be reduced to wood chips for the heating industry. LI-AN-LO was founded around the premise that these trees are the most interesting material available, and the Bean Coffee Table is built from that position.
The table is handcrafted in Bodafors. Its solid spruce base carries the visual and tactile character of the tree: wide grain, natural variation, the organic irregularity that comes from working with timber that was never selected for its conformity. The glass top rests on the base and can be flipped to offer different orientations, allowing adjustments to how the piece sits in a given room. The form is soft and rounded, shaped as much by what the material suggested as by a predetermined design intention.
The Bean was presented at Stockholm Creative Edition as part of IN BETWEEN, a newly launched initiative comprising Lisa Lindh, Lina Rex, Emma Hjortenklev Wassberg, and Anna Harström. The group formed around the idea that designers working in different materials and from different backgrounds produce something stronger in combination than each would alone.
