DESIGN & BUILD

It’s easy to throw around generic terms like build quality and craftsmanship, but without knowing some of the details that go into the creation of an Abacus Table, those terms don’t really mean anything.

So, we wanted to give you a behind the curtain look that offers a real insight into our business and processes, sharing more details than ever before.

Watch our video below for more of an insight.

When you have something custom-built, it’s essential to know everything you can about what you’re investing in to be sure it will meet your expectations. The details of how something is designed, how it’s built, and how the materials are sourced are very important because these are the things that result in a really special piece of furniture—one of those few things that you use and enjoy for the rest of your life.

THE DESIGN

From a design perspective, we put a huge amount of emphasis on making sure that the table base is perfectly in proportion to the tabletop because the smallest angle or spacing change makes a huge difference to the overall look of the table. Every leg option has been 3D modelled with every tabletop size, so you know you’ll get a combination specifically designed to fit together and be perfectly balanced.

Taking our Helix base design as an example, the curvature and the size of the base change according to the size of the tabletop. John oversees the design and build of all of our tables. Partly due to his nature and partly due to his background as a naval architect, he pays a lot of attention not just to the look of the tables but also to the practicality and the stability of all of our base designs. Not only are they designed to look as good as possible, but they’re also specifically designed to function as well as possible.

THE BUILD

The design of our tables is important, but it’s practically meaningless unless everything is built in a specific way. We’ve designed different processes specific to each material. For example, we have a very specific process for our premium French Oak, which is one of our best-selling products. French Oak is widely regarded as the best Oak in the world, but even the best timbers in the world need additional measures to make sure that the result is consistent and that we can be confident that every single piece of furniture we build is going to last.

We go to France to inspect every single tree and hand-pick the best. We’ve also designed our own drying process, having found that conventional kiln drying isn’t sufficient when you’re working with timber of this size (it still leaves some moisture, so there’s scope for excessive twisting and cracking). As such, our own process is specially designed to remove all excess moisture.

There’s also a lot more that goes into the build. Examples include our movable joint systems, the steel stiffeners we use to reinforce our tabletops, and the different designs depending on the top material and thickness. All this is done to allow the materials to expand and contract as they take in and release moisture from the atmosphere.

The same level of detail goes into every top material we offer. For example, our stone tops all have fibreglass reinforcement ribs embedded on the underside to give them extra strength and rigidity. Essentially, every part of the process for each top material and table acts as insurance that the table will outlast us. That’s why we’re so confident that when you buy one of our tables, it is something you can enjoy and use for the rest of your life.

THE SERVICE

It’s not just the product that we spent so many years refining. We want the whole experience of buying and owning an abacus table to be really special too. As such, we have specifically designed warranties for every top material and base. The purpose of these warranties is to ensure anything that could go wrong is completely covered. For example, all our timber tables come with our wood movement warranty.

It doesn’t matter how far you go to avoid wood movement. You simply cannot completely eliminate the risk. But if you do experience any excessive wood movement, we will service the table around 12 months after it’s installed (any movement likely to happen will generally happen in the first 12 months). The purpose of all our warranties is to make sure that if you buy something from us, it’s not just going to last you forever, but it’s going to be something that stays looking good forever.

We make our furniture how we would want it made if it were for us. So that when you look at it, you just can’t see any traces of compromise. So, if you want to know that you’ve invested in the best possible piece of furniture, we’re confident that an Abacus Table would be a great fit and that you will get a huge amount of pleasure and enjoyment out of it for the rest of your life.