Polish design studio 5mm has created a collection of tables with heavy solid-oak tops balanced on slim powder-coated steel bases (+ slideshow).

The collection comprises a coffee table and two dining tables. Each features a heavy oak tabletop. The side table sits on top of a four-sided cube, while one dining table has slender trestle-style legs and the other has slim legs with an X-shaped profile.

In choosing these shapes, the designers were looking for simple geometric forms that would provide the required stability without determining a specific seating scheme around the table.

"The thin, steel legs give a clear, simple geometrical form and ensure lightness and elegance," said architects Kuba Kowalczyk and Mateusz Wełmiński, who founded their Krakow-based design studio in 2012. "This synthesis with the solid tabletop gives an exclusive, modern look."

The tabletops are made from wooden boards glued together edge to edge and treated with three layers of natural hard-wax oil, giving the surface a natural matte finish.

"Each of our products is unique," Kowalczyk told Dezeen. "The tabletops have some discolourations and wood grains, but we have not attempted to cover it up. This is a fully natural product."

The bases are made from thin-walled powder-coated steel. To give them enough strength to support the large oak tops, the sections are welded together into shapes that will carry the loads efficiently.

"We want our furniture to have an element of timeless modernity, so it can be used for decades – that's why we used materials like solid wood and steel," said the designers.