Sintra Table: FRAMA's Marble Slab on a Marble Base

FRAMA's Sintra Table, Marble Edition, is built from exactly two pieces: a smooth marble top and a rounded, matching marble base, both cut from the same Portuguese stone. There is no cork, no metal frame and no joinery to disguise — the whole design argument is that two shaped blocks of marble are enough. Danish designer Nicholai Wiig-Hansen drew it for FRAMA in 2011, and Objena carries it at AUD 4,480.

One material, cut twice

Most side tables solve the problem of "top plus support" by mixing materials — stone on steel, timber on cast iron. The Sintra Marble Edition doesn't. FRAMA cuts the top and the rounded base from the same block family, in either a black stone called Ruivina or a white one called Estremoz, both quarried in Portugal. Set the two pieces together and the table reads less like furniture assembled from parts and more like a single volume that happens to have a waist. FRAMA describes the finished piece as "a sculptural furniture piece with expressive attributes and functionality" that works equally as a coffee table or a side table — a description that undersells how much restraint it takes to make two blocks of stone look inevitable together rather than merely stacked.

It is worth being precise about which Sintra this is, because FRAMA sells more than one. The Marble Edition — solid stone top and base — is a different table from the Sintra range that pairs a marble or limestone top with a rounded cork base instead. Both share a name and a family resemblance, but the cork version trades some of the weight and cost of solid stone for a warmer, lighter object; the Marble Edition is the one that commits fully to a single material.

Nicholai Wiig-Hansen, working from himself outward

Wiig-Hansen opened his own studio at 26 — self-taught, working across furniture, lighting and ceramics ever since. His own account of his process is unusually plain: proportions and colours are considered carefully, and a detail is added only when it does functional or aesthetic work, nothing more. Stylepark's profile of him notes that he designs by using himself as the target group first — working out whether an object earns its place in his own rooms before deciding it belongs in anyone else's. He has since become co-founder and Artistic Director of the Danish brand raawii, but the Sintra Table remains one of the pieces that shows his method most clearly: a design with exactly two components, and nothing added past the second one.

Living with solid marble

Marble is porous, which is the trade-off for the veining that makes each Sintra Table slightly different from the next. FRAMA's care guidance is straightforward: a soft cloth wrung out in clean water for daily wiping, and no ammonia-based or harsh abrasive cleaners, which dull the polish and can etch the surface over time. For tables that see heavier daily use, FRAMA notes that wax, oil and soap-flake treatments are available to build up a more resistant finish. The practical habit that matters most is simple — wipe up wine, oil or citrus before it sits, rather than after. None of this is unusual for natural stone; it's the same discipline a marble kitchen bench asks for, just at side-table scale.

Objena carries the Sintra Table, Marble Edition at AUD 4,480. It sits inside the wider FRAMA house — a Copenhagen studio built around the same instinct the Sintra Table demonstrates: choose one material, trust it, and stop before you're tempted to add another.

Three questions

What is the FRAMA Sintra Table made of? The Marble Edition is built from two pieces of solid marble — a smooth, polished top set on a rounded, matching marble base. FRAMA sources the stone from Portugal, in either a black variety (Ruivina) or a white one (Estremoz); no cork, timber or metal enters the construction. A separate Sintra line pairs the same marble top with a cork base instead — a different table, not a variant of this one.

Who designed the Sintra Table? Danish designer Nicholai Wiig-Hansen, in 2011, for FRAMA. He opened his own studio at 26 and has worked across furniture, lighting and ceramics since, with a stated approach of adding a detail only when it earns its place functionally or visually. He is now co-founder and Artistic Director of the Danish brand raawii.

How do you care for a solid marble table? FRAMA recommends a soft cloth wrung out in clean water for daily cleaning, and advises against ammonia-based or harsh abrasive chemical cleaners, which dull the polish and can etch the stone. Wax, oil and soap-flake treatments are available for a table that sees heavier use. Marble is porous, so spills — wine, oil, citrus — are worth wiping promptly rather than left to sit.