Did You See This?

A World Inside

This beautiful table is actually packed with secret compartments.

To explain Apple’s lofty design standards, Steve Jobs famously invoked a lesson his carpenter father taught him: A great carpenter will make the hidden parts of a cabinet just as beautiful as the visible ones. Craig Thibodeau, the designer of the furniture in the video above, has taken this idea to a charming extreme with a cool piece that’s all about the hidden spaces.

This beautiful object just never seems to run out of hidden corners. I’m not even sure what you should call it: a table? a cabinet? Thibodeau calls it an “automaton table.” Whatever it is, it’s delightfully ridiculous. The video goes one-by-one through the many secret compartments Thibodeau snuck into the piece, and it’s like an intricate puzzle.

Somewhere, this conversation may have already occurred: “Honey, do you remember where I put my watch?” “In the automaton table.” “Yeah, but where did I put my watch?”