Elsie Bedside - Shell

The Elsie Bedside in Shell is a stone-topped bedside on timber veneer, 45cm wide, 38cm deep and 50cm high. The case curves softly at the front, so the drawer face reads as part of the form rather than a panel set into it. It suits a bedroom where the bedside has to stay narrow.

At 45cm wide this is the narrow Elsie, and narrow is the whole point. A bedside only has to hold a lamp, a glass and whatever you are reading, and anything wider starts competing with the bed for the wall.

Stone on timber is a pairing that works because the two materials disagree. The stone is cool and closed, the veneer is warm and open-grained, and each stops the other from dominating the corner of the room.

The caveat is the top. Honed stone is porous and it is the surface a water glass sits on every night, so a coaster is doing real work here rather than being decorative.