Why a wall-hanging table?
In January 2016, I stopped playing ping pong.
It’s Algy here, founder of the Art of Ping Pong, and that’s my confession, but that’s not really this story.
This story is all about the ArtTable.
And it began with stopping playing ping pong.
In 2016, my friend Mark and I chose to close our design agency, Fivefootsix.
We had clients like UEFA, BBC, Nokia, and Ben & Jerry’s, and we’d run it successfully together since 2005.
But after 11 great years, we both craved for something new.
We’d often held regular ping pong tournaments in our studio space in the evenings. The early days of AoPP...
But without a studio, I was left with nowhere to play.
So I bought a small table for the garage, and for a while, I held a few mini-tournaments int here.
But the garage was soon taken over by buggies, cots, hi-chairs, bikes – family stuff. I looked at buying a mini folding ping pong table for our home. But they’re ugly old things. And you still need plenty of space to hide them when folded away. Despite how much we all love the game, a ping pong table isn’t played on for most of its life.
So, to have one in our home, I decided to create a table that was as joyful to look at as it was to play with.
So, giving the table this secondary purpose became my primary consideration.
If it’s hanging proudly on your wall in broad daylight and not hidden under the stairs, you’re also more likely to get it out to play.
And so the ArtTable – a wall-mountable artwork that doubles up as a mini ping pong table – was born.
It is as much a piece of art as it is a ping pong table, and the same amount of love that went into its creation goes into its production.
For the most part, Caroline and I design the artwork. Along our journey, we’ve also been fortunate enough to collaborate with some of the world’s most exciting artists and emerging talents to create limited-edition collections.
As we’ve grown, all our ArtTables are now handmade in small quantities in Europe before arriving with us ready to have their artwork applied.
We’re a small company, so once we receive orders, I still personally deliver them to our print partner in East London.
The artwork is carefully printed and checked.
Then our courier (er, that’ll be me again) brings them back to our own little workshop where Caroline lovingly sands and varnishes them before each one is carefully packed, ready for shipping to its new home.
We officially launched them at the London Design Fair in 2019.
We’re super proud to say that The Evening Standard picked them for their list of top ten products from the London and Paris design fairs. Since then, we have made unique collections for Selfridges, Mr Porter, The Conran Shop, Le Bon Marche and Harvey Nichols.
And one day, we hope to make one for you, too...
Why a wall-hanging table?
In January 2016, I stopped playing ping pong.
It’s Algy here, founder of the Art of Ping Pong, and that’s my confession, but that’s not really this story.
This story is all about the ArtTable.
And it began with stopping playing ping pong.
In 2016, my friend Mark and I chose to close our design agency, Fivefootsix.
We had clients like UEFA, BBC, Nokia, and Ben & Jerry’s, and we’d run it successfully together since 2005.
But after 11 great years, we both craved for something new.
We’d often held regular ping pong tournaments in our studio space in the evenings. The early days of AoPP...
But without a studio, I was left with nowhere to play.
So I bought a small table for the garage, and for a while, I held a few mini-tournaments int here.
But the garage was soon taken over by buggies, cots, hi-chairs, bikes – family stuff. I looked at buying a mini folding ping pong table for our home. But they’re ugly old things. And you still need plenty of space to hide them when folded away. Despite how much we all love the game, a ping pong table isn’t played on for most of its life.
So, to have one in our home, I decided to create a table that was as joyful to look at as it was to play with.
So, giving the table this secondary purpose became my primary consideration.
If it’s hanging proudly on your wall in broad daylight and not hidden under the stairs, you’re also more likely to get it out to play.
And so the ArtTable – a wall-mountable artwork that doubles up as a mini ping pong table – was born.
It is as much a piece of art as it is a ping pong table, and the same amount of love that went into its creation goes into its production.
For the most part, Caroline and I design the artwork. Along our journey, we’ve also been fortunate enough to collaborate with some of the world’s most exciting artists and emerging talents to create limited-edition collections.
As we’ve grown, all our ArtTables are now handmade in small quantities in Europe before arriving with us ready to have their artwork applied.
We’re a small company, so once we receive orders, I still personally deliver them to our print partner in East London.
The artwork is carefully printed and checked.
Then our courier (er, that’ll be me again) brings them back to our own little workshop where Caroline lovingly sands and varnishes them before each one is carefully packed, ready for shipping to its new home.
We officially launched them at the London Design Fair in 2019.
We’re super proud to say that The Evening Standard picked them for their list of top ten products from the London and Paris design fairs. Since then, we have made unique collections for Selfridges, Mr Porter, The Conran Shop, Le Bon Marche and Harvey Nichols.
And one day, we hope to make one for you, too...
