Other places to visit


Blog

Order Form

Mental Blocks

The World of Illusion Knitting


©Woolly Thoughts 2020

 Contact Us   

Site Map

PENROSE TABLE

From this ..

.. to this

When we refurbished our kitchen, in June 2016, the existing glass table seemed out of place. We searched for something more appropriate but without success. In the cellar we had a very old formica-topped table with two pull-out leaves. It suddenly seemed a good idea to have something that could be changed in size so we thought about adapting it so that it would have a large square centre and two smaller rectangular leaves. We wanted to apply one of our own designs to it but couldn’t think of anything that would work in its three possible arrangements. Then we stumbled across an old circular table in a local second-hand furniture shop.

It measures 115 cm across the diameter of the circle with a 41 cm centre leaf to make it into an oval.

Our favourite circular design is Penrose so  it seemed the obvious choice. It needed an extra section for the central inset. The visualisation and calculations were tricky to make sure the extra piece fitted exactly and to make the design match with, and without, the centre.


We sanded the table and painted it grey for the background. We then printed the design at full-size to check that the calculations were correct and it really would fit.

It is easy to get confused with a design like this so we marked it out with chalk. The grid shows the placement for some of the ‘straight’ squares and some of the ‘pointed’ squares. The squares are all the same size but the vital measurement of the pointed squares is root 2 times the side of the straight square,

We used post-it notes to mark the positions of the easiest squares.

The shapes were block printed with acrylic paints using shapes cut from a garden kneeler. This gave a textured look to the prints rather than a solid colour.

When the squares were all in place it was relatively easy to position the first set of rhombuses between them.

The second set of rhombuses filled the remaining spaces.

Many coats of matt varnish were applied to protect the  surface.

Note: This tiling was discovered by Robert Ammann. Our design got its name because it was sent to us by Sir Roger Penrose