Addicts, I am in the process of putting together a kitchen table and chairs, Eames style. I have two side shells (yellow and orange) and plan for two more in different bright colors, ie red & aqua...Day of the Dead theme! Anyhow, I bought an Eames Herman Miller aluminum contract base table with a white lam 48" top as I like the scuptural curving legs of the base. I paid $200 shipped on ebay for the table, which was more than I wanted to spend but that's how it goes. However, I managed to win another contract base table, the older one with the earlier round flat-topped feet with a 48" walnut top....for $55!! And it's pickup in Chicago so I am coming out ahead on this one. So I am struggling with which table to keep, and which to sell, cuz I don't need both. I am keeping the walnut top obviously, but can't decide which base I like better. Opinions? In light of the chairs? I think the curved legs are more "officy" for what it's worth..
Added some links, the first is the curved base (which they still produce) and the second is the older flat topped style.
I guess the flat top
base is more historical, but remember that Herman Miller and Charles & Ray Eames conceived these tables from the get-go both for office AND home dining, so either one would look beautiful and appropriate.
I have a 48" round table with the light grey lamenate top and the darker grey edging on a flat-top type base and it looks beautiful in my Dining Room with my 4 EC-127 upholstered Eames dining chairs. The plastic back of the chairs match the table perfectly and the seat and back is upholstered in original blue hopsack fabric.
I stumbled on both the chairs (on eBay) and the table (from a friend), but they are ultimate.
So, either way, picking either base will work out beautifully. (One plus about the other base style is it's a bit easier to clean around!)
Congrats
Congrats on the scores. I snagged the second, flat topped contract base a few years ago and did the same thing with my kitchen table - white top, orange,yellow,blue,black, griege chairs.
I've always been preferential to the flat topped foot. The other foot always has feet a little dated and droopy to me. I like the geometry of the flat topped foot - the linear leg being capped off by the round. (I feel the same way about the Vitra base of the Eames 670) So thats my vote. Whatever you do, take a picture!
Coffee table
The shaft on these tables can be easily cut down to make a coffee table. I measured how tall I wanted it, purchased at long bolt at my local hardware store/lumberyard and cut the pipe down. Looked and worked great. The newer base(top photo) has always been my favorite, seems more modern than retro to me.
They are both great
That's why I can't decide...There are alot of copycat designs like the flat-top base, but that is a good point about the 670 ottoman base, I didn't think of that. The curved design is a little more distinctive and less copied though; my friend worked as a designer at Allsteel and they even have a version of the flat topped base, but not the curved. On the other hand a collector friend of mine noted that the flat topped base reminded him of one of Ray's early pattern designs (like in the fabric sample posted below) and to him was more 50's. I already have two armshells with this base though, and it would be cool to have the other version in the house.
Ahhhh...decisions. When it's snowing and -5 degrees every day you have to have distractions!
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