Carabottino Tavolino

Italian design studio Cara e Davide is known internationally for its well-made tables, chairs and storage cabinets. The brand’s sculptural furnishings, which feature sleek curving forms and architectural columns that are attention-grabbing in any space, owe to ongoing research in regional materials, processes and experimentation with various techniques.

Cara e Davide comes from the names of the studio's founding designers, South African artist Cara Judd and Italian artist Davide Gramatica. They met while they were attending IED Milano, studying product design. 

After graduating in 2011, Judd and Gramatica began their professional design careers separately — they explored various areas that included apprenticeships at ateliers and workshops and working with both small studios as well as large-scale companies. Five years later, the two decided to merge their talents and established the Cara e Davide studio in Milan. That same year, they exhibited their first furniture collection at the Salone del Mobile, garnering acclaim among critics and private clients. The studio unveiled a second collection at the London Design Fair.

Cara e Davide specializes in designing contemporary furniture — they’ve created bold pieces by working with wood-based filament printing technologies, Rosso Levanto marble, aluminum and more. The studio’s offerings are frequently produced in collaboration with artisans from South Africa and Italy. The brand has partnered with a range of manufacturers, art spaces and retailers to create these works, including Rinascente, Medulum, Portego, Uniqka, Aybar Gallery and Galerie Philia. When Judd and Gramatica are not in their studio, they’re teaching product design at IED Milan.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of Cara e Davide tables, seating, case pieces and storage cabinets.

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 — shop Art Deco coffee tables, travertine coffee tables and other antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables today.