As a child, I loved compartmentalized plates—you know, the ones that look like miniature trays divided into rectangles of various sizes. If I’m being completely honest, I’ll admit I still love these little culinary tributes to obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is something of this organizational bent in Ant Table by Oliver Nikolic.

Ant Table. Designed by Oliver Nikolic.

Bi-Level Coffee Table

The wood encases the glass like a little wall of China (also like the lip that separates the geometry of the plate); and the table itself is separated into two sections, each at a different height, with an additional middle area serving as a bridge. The outline of Ant Table mimics the sloping body of the insect, as well as its reticulated form (split into three distinct parts). The middle of the Ant Table corresponds to the ant’s slender waist (AKA petiole, for E. O. Wilson fans)—and in the table, this section forms a slanted nook for holding books and magazines. The two heights of Nikolic’s table offer distinct surfaces—ideal for a party of two and better still for a party of two who regularly argues over space. Ant Table gives one the opportunity to officially split possession (in the same way that feuding siblings might draw a line across the back seat of a car—imaginary or based on a convenient upholstery seam).

The silhouette is a throwback to mid-century modern and puts me in mind of the set design for the Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man. Designer Oliver Nikolic must want that association, because he’s pictured Ant Table in a room that also holds an old-school radio (capped by antennae—how fitting)!

Via Yanko.