Thirty years is a long time. Left unexamined, the decades begin to collapse into a beautiful blur. In Tom’s case, there’s a whole lot of milestones to mark the path, and many of them are best represented by particular collections which not only came as a product of their time, but helped to light the way forward. Tom’s selected his three favourites in the interest of painting a nuanced picture of how the brand has grown over each third of its history. Without further ado, we bring you a trio of decade-defining designs…
Capricorn oval dining table
Capricorn was Tom’s first truly contemporary design. It represents the point at which he stepped into his own cohesive style. Since its 1996 inception, it’s been an enduring icon of the TF brand. In the days before Capricorn, however, Tom had been working entirely with tubular or square rods of metal. In order to produce this curvaceous new form, he had to turn to sheet metal, which proved to be a revelation.
Tom with the ingredients to Capricorn
Capricorn table lamp in progress (left) + Capricorn oval dining table detail (right)
Thirty years later and TF are specialists in sheet metal, with a command over the material which allows the team to sculpt otherwise unreachable forms. We owe our very own Nigel a great deal of thanks in this. He’s been with the company since the beginning, working without computers in those early days to produce pieces which, even with all the engineering tools of 2026, remain most challenging to emulate.
Capricorn colour studies (left) + Capricorn console detail (right)
The Capricorn has a grounded, earthy quality. It’s named for the horns of the goat, tying its form to the corresponding astrological symbol. Tom is closely engaged with the naming process of his collections, dedicating a great deal of thought to both the design’s generative story as well as what makes it special within the larger context of TF furniture. In the case of Capricorn, as well as his other two favourites from the last thirty years, the names came easily, shaping the identity of the brand one by one.
Capricorn round dining table
AVA round dining table
Moving into the second decade, we arrive at 2015. This is the year that the AVA collection took shape, marking new strides in the TF team’s command over complex metal geometry. The visual effect boldly departs from that of Capricorn, finding form in crisp, rectilinear faces. Its format is echoed in the three triangular letters of its name, AVA – succinct, precise, and exceedingly angular.
AVA in progress (left) + Tom in studio (right)
What Tom loves about AVA is that “it’s simple yet complex”. “The more you look at it, the more intriguing it is.” In effect, the shape comes together as two triangles, stacked one atop the other. In actual fact, it’s formed of just three sheets of metal – and stare as you might, it’s difficult to work out how they fit together. The magic of AVA comes in the form of a blade which extends off one sheet, allowing the whole base to interlock as a stable sum of its parts. This creates the illusion of a twist in the metal, which only adds to the visual trickery of AVA. The key to understanding its form is noticing the small hole at the neck of the base. This is where it all comes together as one.
AVA candlesticks (left) + AVA in progress (right)
AVA round dining table detail
AVA has a mutable quality about it as it’s considered from different angles. From one side, you’d swear it’s all symmetrical. From another, you’ll notice a clear asymmetry as the top triangle projects outward from the base below. The whole effect comes alive when forged in bronze, with the edges polished to articulate each component of its interlocking body. This amplifies the slender quality of the neck, which finds the strength to support even the weightiest of marble tabletops. All considered, it’s a design which represents a move towards engaging with complex geometry to produce forms of supreme simplicity.
AVA round dining table
Papillon oval dining table
In 2019 Papillon emerged as the next major collection following AVA. It’s easy to spot the differences here, with slender, flowing lines intersecting to create a light and open form. In Tom’s words, “After doing a series of very geometric designs like AVA, Balzac, and Echo, I wanted to do something very organic and different…Papillon, I love because it was inspired by nature.”
The rock that started it all
The idea began with a rockface in Joshua Tree, California, which inspired Papillon’s first chapter under the name, Boulder. Its initial iteration came in the form of a console table, which Tom made himself from wire and plaster. He wanted to create something “very not metal”. It just so happened he’d recently been to an Yves Klein exhibition and was inspired to apply the eponymous blue hue to his newest design. This was a major shift away from the metallic tones which presided in past collections, opening up new aesthetic possibilities.
Boulder console in its original Yves Klein blue
Papillon screen in development
After the console had found its footing, Tom moved onto designing a room divider. Each panel of the prototype opened up to conjure the effect of a butterfly unfurling its wings. And so the collection found its permanent name, Papillon. This informed the bold, mercurial colourways which came with it, all named for British butterflies. Tom reflects, “the icing on the cake was to put dichroic film under the glass”, which reproduced the opalescent effect of a butterfly’s wings.
Papillon screen
Papillon side tables in progress (left) + Papillon round cocktail trolley detail (right)
From the chrysalis, the boulder transformed into a butterfly. This fuelled something of a full-circle revolution back to Tom’s first creative endeavours in furniture. He started out by applying colourful stencils of interlocking patterns on tabletops. This seed, left over twenty-five years, germinated into the full forms of consoles, room dividers, dining tables, cocktail trolleys, and beyond. He’d found his metier and honed it into a diverse yet unified body of work which sits together in a harmonious mélange.
Papillon console
Curving faces, straight lines, and meandering frameworks are what, step by step and then all at once, define the past thirty years of Tom Faulkner furniture designs. As we celebrate the past and step into the future, these are the beacons that inform what’s to come. They carry kernels of ideas which hold the keys to new creations. We invite you to explore them within the collection as a whole, finding harmony in their differences and hints of what’s still to come.
Text by Annabel Colterjohn
