Industrial Designer Krisette Santamaria’s Innovative Coffee-Made Coffee Table

Winner of the 2023 IDS Prototype Award, designer Krisette Santamaria’s Bunn Coffee Table reimagines sustainable design through a creative lens. Santamaria began conceptualizing the piece during her studies as an OCAD University industrial design student in 2014. By 2022, she had built her first prototype of the table made of used coffee grounds sourced from local cafés and offcuts of wood from her day job at a local furniture manufacturer.

Upcycled moulds were used to set the loose coffee grounds with resin. Once set, the Bunn’s coffee-based elements were combined with reworked wood and smoothed out for a refined final look. The design itself is inspired by Santamaria’s love of the ocean, where she spent much of her time growing up in the Philippines. “The curves of the waves and coastline convey strength and elegance,” she says. “That aesthetic inspires my designs.”

With its minimalistic and modern form, the Bunn Coffee Table has inspired a line of coffee-made pieces that Santamaria has already begun producing for clients, including a larger, pill shaped variation of the table and smaller shelf objects intended for everyday use. Like the Bunn Coffee Table, each piece is a testament to Santamaria’s focus on delivering accessible and sustainable design for daily living. KRISETTE.COM