When he isn’t busy rebuilding the entire block of Colquitt between Greenbriar and Morningside, Houston architect Scott Ballard puts his mind to work solving difficult domestic problems. F’rinstance: how to enjoy indoor sports in the comfort of your home more . . . oh, unobtrusively? Ballard’s wife “wasn’t thrilled” about the ping-pong table he and his kids parked in the family’s living room a couple years ago, he tells the Chronicle‘s Ken Hoffman. A few sketches, hired guns, and failed prototypes later, and — presto! Ballard came up with the solution: The Ping Pong Coffee Table. And it’s for sale!
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For just $595 (plus $179.50 shipping, or a trip to his Upper Kirby office), you get a 30-by-54-inch laminate-surface coffee table that converts to a full-size ping-pong playing surface constructed from 3/4-inch plywood. Plus, he’s throwing in a dining table — absolutely free! Actually, the dining table is all part of the same contraption, which snaps and unsnaps using Ballard’s patent-pending spline connection system. The table can be converted from one use to another without any tools in less than 5 minutes, the architect claims. You can watch him do just that in this slightly-sped-up-motion video.
- Ping Pong Coffee Table
- A coffee table with multiple purposes [Houston Chronicle]
Photos: Scott Ballard
I’d buy it!
cocktails, dinner, beer pong, sweet!
That is awesome. There is a ping-pong kit you can use to attach to your existing dining room table…
Wow – excellent design and execution!
Kudos!
However, like the wife, I don’t want ping-pong in the living room: too many litle balls bouncing off the environs, too much bending and stooping.
Isn’t that too tall to be a useful coffee table? Seems awkward and in the end you still are playing ping-pong in the living room.
I believe the first is the coffee table, the second photo is the transformation from coffee table to ping-pong table and the third photo is the transformation from coffee table to ping-pong table to dining table. (“Actually, the dining table is all part of the same contraption, which snaps and unsnaps using Ballard’s patent-pending spline connection system”)
Really? Someone would do this?
… someone who is awesomely into details!
Another useful, yet throw back in years is a version of quarters..while leisurely sitting in your living room you can have the sport of faulting the ball into you guests cocktail.
I love it!
Great idea from an inspired friend.