I walk past the Michigan Avenue Crate & Barrel all the time, and usually I do just that—walk past. But a couple of days ago I saw these gnarly (literally) driftwood end tables and went in to inspect. They are made of three or four hunks of unfinished wood from Java, stand about 25 inches high, and are topped with a circle of glass. I would have liked a thicker top—a designer once told me to go half-inch or go home, and that advice is stuck in my head—but these are nice accent tables nonetheless. They’re $399, and if you want one (or two?) I recommend that you go in and pick them out, don’t order by phone or cyberspace because they are all very different snowflakes. Some have a nice solid heft, like the one above, but some look like they were cobbled together by a clock-watching factory worker anxious to get home to see who got booted from Indonesia’s Next Top Model.
—BRADLEY LINCOLN