UC163

Oyster shells are made of calcium carbonate and proteins — the same compounds found in marble and other stones we have long considered noble materials. We had simply never thought to use them.

We were designing custom furniture at a three-Michelin-star restaurant when a kitchen assistant walking past with a box of empty shells headed for the bin caught our atenttion and changed that.

Several experimental rounds of crafting with crushed oysters later, this side table pairs a recovered old oak base with a shell surface that turns a kitchen byproduct into something permanently, quietly beautiful.