New Hope-based furniture designer George Nakashima’s Slab I Coffee Table is being spotlighted as a notable piece from the last century, according to a group of experts for The New York Times.  

Three designers, an artist, a museum curator, and a design-savvy actress Julianne Moore collaborated on the list of significant and impactful pieces of furniture.  

The slab coffee table shared a list with the ultrafragola illuminated mirror by Ettore Sottsass, Starck’s Louis Ghost Chair, the Eames side chair, and Bill Stumpf’s Ergon Chair.  

It’s common to find furniture made from a slice of log in modern day, but when Nakashima’s slab I coffee table was ahead of its time. The original slab coffee table dates to 1950.  

Nakashima was a child of Japanese immigrants and survived the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho before resettling in New Hope in 1943.  

He believed that his work gave trees a second life. With the inspiration of Shaker furniture merging with Japanese aesthetic concepts sabi, wabi, and shibui encompassing the values simplicity, rustic unobtrusive beauty, naturalness, and age, the slab table came into inception.  

Read more about New Hope-based George Nakashima and his iconic furniture in The New York Times. 

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