The Dining Table Designer Behind Design & Irony
I believe the only question worth asking about any design decision is - does it produce something extraordinary? Not is it traditional, not is it expected, not is it what everyone else is doing. Just - is it remarkable? That belief runs through all my table designs: materials others ignore, details others overlook, tables nobody else is designing.
Where the Restlessness Started
I've never been able to just accept the normal approach. Even early in my career, in a profession built on process and precision, I only ever used it to make things better - not to tick the boxes it was supposed to be about. Most people who know me will tell you the label never really fitted.
When I wanted a table for my own home, I couldn't find what I wanted. So I made one. That's where this business actually started - not with a business plan, but with the same restlessness that's never really left me. Every time I design a dining table now, it starts with the person it's for: their room, their life, their refusal to settle for ordinary.
Why Design & Irony? Because Usual Is Boring.
Once I started designing tables properly, I noticed something: table design plays it safe. Refined materials. Familiar shapes. The usual. Many of us want more.
I see materials differently. The parts others ignore, the techniques nobody's using, the details everyone else has walked straight past - that's where I look first, not last. Edge Grain ply is the clearest example: others use ply too, but they cover the edge, or let it show only as a trim. I make it the whole surface, because that's where the character is. But it's not the only one - it's just the boldest.
I design the opposite of what "designer" is supposed to mean. And somehow the table still comes out considered, elevated, unmistakably designed. That's the whole idea.
I do this so that every time you walk into your dining room, you feel something - that quiet, unmistakable satisfaction of owning something genuinely unlike anything else.
I'm Tim, dining table designer and founder of Design & Irony. Every table is designed and made in the UK. So much more than an ordinary designer.
If that sounds like the table you're after, I'd love to hear from you.
What I Design
Dining Tables
Start from one of my designs, in birch, poplar or meranti, and make it precisely yours.
Fully Bespoke
Start from a blank sheet. A one-off table for your home, or a centrepiece for a boardroom - designed around exactly what you have in mind.