Founded in 1884, Morris of Glasgow built its reputation on carefully made furniture that balanced evolving design with enduring craftsmanship. Today, its mid-century work is receiving renewed attention, as collectors recognise the quiet confidence and material quality.
This coffee table forms part of the firm’s Cumbrae range, a confident example of British mid-century modern design. Clean lines, tapered forms and carefully judged surfaces were designed for everyday domestic interiors rather than theatrical display, a quality that feels increasingly relevant today.
At first glance, the table retains all the hallmarks of the range: tapered legs, a gently formed edge, and a slim, well-judged profile that feels both practical and elegant. It is a design that relies heavily on proportion and surface quality, with the tabletop acting as the visual anchor of the whole piece.
Unfortunately, that surface had suffered significant damage before the table arrived at the workshop. A previous owner had attempted to sand the top back, cutting straight through the original veneer in multiple areas. Once veneer is breached in this way, it cannot be disguised or repaired invisibly; the integrity of the surface is lost, and further sanding only compounds the problem.
In this case, the only responsible option was to re-veneer the tabletop entirely. A new veneer was carefully selected to match the character and grain of the original as closely as possible, before being laid and finished to sit naturally alongside the existing frame. The remainder of the table was then fully refinished, bringing cohesion back to the piece without over-restoring or stripping away its age.
What this project illustrates particularly well is how unforgiving mid-century veneered furniture can be when handled without the right experience. These pieces were never designed to be aggressively sanded; their refinement lies in thin, carefully applied veneers and subtle edge details that are easily destroyed with even a small mistake.
The finished table once again reads as it should, balanced, calm and confident in its design. More importantly, it serves as a reminder that restoration is not about intervention for its own sake, but about understanding where restraint ends and necessary action begins. Done properly, it allows well-designed furniture like this to continue doing what it was made to do, without erasing the evidence of its past.