Dear Apartment Therapy,
My parents are coming to visit for Thanksgiving, and, like most New Yorkers, due to the small size of my apartment, I don't have a full fledged dining table for all of us to sit at. Do you have any suggestions for stylish tray tables (a/k/a tv tables)?
Pre-Thanksgiving wishes,
Kelly
We have to admit that the prospect of TV tables around a New York City apartment during Thanksgiving is not ideal, but we applaud Kelly for having her family into her home and going for it. Our top pick would be black and plain, and this is the most stylish one we have found (they also come in white):
Some others which aren't bad are:
(Thanks, Kelly!) MGR
Hold Everything has tray tables that are rather simple espresso colored ones. 2 for $95.
An aside-- When I was doing archival research on the Walter Gropius house in Lincoln, Mass a number of years ago I came across a folder of correspondence from the 1950s in which he was enthusiastically trying to procure a set of these from Hammacher Schlemmer in New York. It had never occurred to me that these were once an exciting design innovation, nor that Gropius and television culture chronologically coexisted for a time (happily, it seems...)
If it's a small number of guests, I like the idea of using an adjustable coffee table instead of tray tables.
Adjustable coffee tables were discussed on Apartment Therapy recently. Search for "adjustable coffee" to find the article.
I actually found some pretty good ones at Stacks and Stacks-- they're small and lightweight. www.stacksandstacks.com
There are actually some prety interesting ones that I've seen at www.traytables.com. Can be customised with unique artwork and other images.
Also I came across a website www.nuvacor.com wherethey have a Hi-Lo Table which I believe is contrlled by a remote control mechanism which seems to make a lot of sense for small apartments.