Rectangular Woven Coffee Table 1100mm in Black Stained Rattan

A rectangle for a long sofa, with a shelf under it for the things that would otherwise be on it.

Every piece here is woven by hand, which is not a marketing line but a description of the only way it can be done. Rattan cannot be machine woven around a curve, so a chair back is somebody sitting with a former and a bundle of soaked cane for most of a day. The consequence is that no two pieces are identical, that the binding at the joints varies slightly, and that a weave that is perfectly regular is usually a sign of extruded plastic rather than good workmanship.

Specification

• Dimensions: see the product name for the diameter or the length, 450mm high for a coffee table and 550mm for a side table
• Seat or working height: 450mm coffee table height, 550mm side table height, 780mm console height
• Frame: steam bent rattan over a hardwood core at the legs
• Weave: hand woven base, open lattice, which is what lets the light through
• Finish: rattan stained through rather than painted on, so a scuff shows dark cane underneath instead of pale cane through black paint
• Load rating: 30kg on the top
• Indoor or outdoor: Indoors, or a covered veranda or conservatory that stays dry. Natural rattan is not garden furniture and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a chair that will go grey, swell, split and unravel inside two seasons. If you want rattan outdoors you want woven polyethylene, which is a good product honestly described and something we do not sell.
• Assembly: Arrives fully assembled and wrapped. Nothing to build, no fittings to lose and no allen key.
• Weight: approximately 15.2 kilograms
• Top: 8mm toughened glass
• Glass sits in a rebate with clear buffers, it does not slide
• Felt pads fitted, spares in the box
• Arrives assembled

What you get

• One rectangular woven coffee table 1100mm, assembled
• Toughened glass top with buffers
• Felt pads and a spare set
• A cleaning brush

Care

Dust it with a soft brush rather than a cloth, because a cloth skates over the weave and a brush gets into it. Two or three times a year wipe it over with a barely damp cloth and let it dry away from a radiator. Rattan does not like being dry any more than it likes being wet, so a piece that lives next to a radiator or in a room with the heating on all winter will benefit from a light mist of water once a month, which sounds like an old wives' tale and is the single most useful thing anyone will tell you about it. If a strand lifts, do not pull it. Damp it, press it back and hold it with masking tape overnight.

Where it works

This is the piece people mean by coastal: pale, woven and light enough to move with one hand. It sits happily against white or off white walls and against the greens and warm neutrals that have replaced grey in most houses. In a room with a lot of hard surfaces it does the job that a rug does, which is to take the edge off the echo.