By Ikea

Designed by Niels Gammelgaard

The MOMENT table was created as a cousin to the popular MOMENT sofa and GUIDE shelving unit. They were all based on a brand new technique, with furniture being made from industrial steel mesh and flat iron bars.

Designer Niels Gammelgaard talked about how the table came about: “After the success with the MOMENT sofa, I needed to come up with a table in the same design. I pictured an 80×200 centimetre glass table top in tempered, frosted glass six millimetres thick, hovering 72 centimetres above the floor, on a metal frame similar to the seat or back on the sofa. It was basically that simple. Since the glass top is frosted, you can’t see what’s going on under the table. The metal frame holding the glass top also protected it during handling and transport. The glass top is tempered, and metal is a strong material, so there was no risk of transport damage.”

Later on Niels Gammelgaard won an Excellent Swedish Design award for the table. Italian opinion leaders in design were also positive. Design magazine DOMUS described it as ‘un tavolo importante’ – a table of importance.

MOMENT was sold as both a dining table and a desk. Initially found at the more trend-conscious IKEA Tomorrow departments in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, it was launched more broadly in the 1987 IKEA catalogue.