You might be wondering why we are blogging about it. Because it’s not just any table, that’s why.

Where to start? We have recently moved offices and we needed a new table. A table for us to meet at. A boardroom type table. We looked in the catalogues, and the options were…terrible. Or at least, terribly uninspiring.

Hugely overpriced steel and glass things, or chipboard with thin veneer on. Even the secondhand options were bad – proving the poor quality of most office furniture.

So, we thought we’d start from first principles:

• We wanted something remarkable.
• We needed something affordable.
• We wanted something crafted.
• We wanted something sustainable, local and with a low carbon footprint.
• We wanted something that shouted BrainPOP UK

Quite a brief, eh?

Phil Pritchard , a local “permaculture designer” and expert on sustainability, works with kids who are out of the school system, to develop skills like carpentry and permaculture. Frontiers is a very cool charity that does very important work. So we got in touch and pitched him the project.

Phil said we could use reclaimed wood, local materials, and bring the kids into the process of creating a table. How could we refuse?

Can you tell what it is yet?

Phil found some lovely mahogany beams, and some oak from the side of a pub bar (the pieces came from ‘Ocean & Collins’, a drinking bar in Oxford which is now Kukui, a Tiki bar/club), and began work.

He was slightly hampered by some terrible weather, and quite a difficult design to create, with a very specific orange colour scheme.

The kids in the project were initially less than interested in making a table, but as it began to take shape and they saw it was a GIANT ROBOT FACE they started to get involved.

Painting the Moby table

Then, today, all the pieces arrived, and Phil put them together.

So, at last, we can finally introduce you to our new BrainPOP UK meeting table!

Please feast your eyes on this table made of reclaimed local materials by a local craftsman and kids learning new skills, that is both remarkable and truly the most BrainPOPpy piece of furniture in the universe!