Oru Medium Steel Side Table

Verified claims

Design concept

Origami-inspired folded steel is the load-bearing geometry itself.

Visual dynamics

Opposing radii generate a subtle visual twist that changes with perspective.

Assembly and mobility

Tool-free assembly and 7.1 kg make the table stable yet easy to move.

Durability

Stainless steel substrate resists rust; powder coating resists abrasion.

Awards

German Design Award winner and 2020 Newcomer nominee

Designer credentials

Robin Scholtysik is a designer and master carpenter; blomus entrusted him with the full ORU series

Media and exhibition presence

Shown at imm Cologne and Maison & Objet; featured in Schöner Wohnen

Assembly ritual

Three steel parts interlock without tools in a ritual that mirrors origami folding.

Safety & stability

Smooth-edged steel panels assemble safely into a stable everyday surface.

Portability

At 7.1 kg and tool-free, it can be moved, stored flat, or paired with another size.

Modular pairing

Combine medium with small ORU for a two-surface coffee table grouping.

Collection expandability

Start with this side table, then add matching bench, console, or wall shelf.

Tool-free reconfiguration

Tool-free assembly and 7.1 kg weight enable portable modular regrouping.

Weight

Weighs 7.1 kg, giving it a stable, grounded feel.

Visual effect

Matte finish eliminates reflections so the folded design is the visual focus.

Edge safety

All edges and fold lines are smooth and not sharp to the touch.

Editorial features

Featured in Schöner Wohnen, Germany's top home magazine (May 2023).

Trade fair exhibitions

Exhibited at imm Cologne 2024 and Maison & Objet 2023.

Collection origin

This side table is the founding piece of the ORU collection.

Design credentials

A carpenter-designer created the ORU series; it won a German Design Award.

Assembly and sizing

Tool-free assembly mimics origami; mixing sizes is encouraged.

Product record

Title

Oru Medium Steel Side Table

Brand

Blomus

Price

479 CAD

Availability

In stock

Designer Robin Scholtysik and his philosophy

• The ORU collection won a German Design Award in the Excellent Product Design Furniture category — an institutional validation that places this side table among the top tier of contemporary German furniture design and signals that its origami-inspired geometry was judged exceptional by an expert jury.
• Robin Scholtysik qualified as both a designer and a master carpenter in 2017 — a dual training that means the ORU side table’s folded-steel forms are the product of someone who understands structural joinery at a craft level as well as minimalist aesthetics, so the sculptural shapes are not just visually resolved but materially practical.
• Germany’s leading home magazine Schöner Wohnen featured the ORU side table in its May 2023 issue — an editorial endorsement from a publication that shapes German domestic taste, signaling to a style-conscious buyer that this design has already been curated into aspirational interiors.
• Scholtysik’s design ethos revolves around ‘graphic and pure aesthetics’ rooted in material beauty — a philosophy that the ORU series expresses by treating powder-coated steel as if it were folded paper, generating crisp forms that feel both architectural and elemental.
• Scholtysik founded his independent studio rsd. design in 2021 and, within months, blomus handed him a complete furniture series — a remarkable vote of confidence for a newly minted studio, underscoring that the ORU designs were so compelling they bypassed the usual need for a long established client list.
• Four years before the ORU collection won the main award, Scholtysik was nominated as a German Design Award Newcomer in 2020 — a sign that the jury had already identified his potential, making the 2024 win a culmination of a recognized trajectory rather than an overnight success.
• The ORU side table was exhibited at imm Cologne 2024 and Maison & Objet 2023 — two of Europe’s most influential trade fairs for furniture and design, meaning the piece has already been seen by an international audience of retailers, editors, and design professionals, elevating it beyond a catalogue-filler to a designer-fair-worthy object.
• The ORU collection started with this side table and later expanded to include a bench, console, and wall shelf — so the piece you’re buying is the conceptual anchor of an entire line, a design that proved versatile enough to extrapolate across different furniture typologies.

Origami inspiration and the folded steel aesthetic

• Despite the visual lightness of its paper-like folds, the medium side table weighs 7.1 kg — enough heft to feel grounded and stable under a lamp or a stack of books, a material paradox that makes the origami illusion livable rather than flimsy.
• The bent sheets create 'opposing radii' — curves that push against each other — so the table never reads as a simple circle or cylinder but as a dynamic form with a subtle spiral energy, while the overall silhouette remains perfectly symmetrical, a classic origami tension between order and movement.
• The matte stainless steel finish is a deliberate design choice that suppresses surface reflection, which keeps the eye on the crisp origami geometry rather than on glints and highlights — a matte surface reads as a monolithic folded form more clearly than a polished one would.
• Assembly requires no tools — the table ships as thin, flat steel sheets that the owner bends and interlocks, reenacting the core origami action of turning a flat plane into a stable volume; this turns setup into a tactile experience rather than a chore.
• Designer Robin Scholtysik evolved the ORU collection from a single filigree side table into a full furniture line by treating folded surfaces as the foundational concept, directly translating origami’s 2D-to-3D logic into rigid sheet steel — the result is a table that reads as an honest structural idea, not applied ornament.

Using two sizes together as a coffee table

• The ORU series is explicitly designed to be mixed across both size and finish: the official product statement notes that combining sizes and colours 'creates a harmonious ensemble with a unique effect in the home,' and the brand’s own launch copy calls pairing the two sizes 'especially intriguing' — so buying a black medium and a stainless small together is a curatorially intentional move, not a match-set requirement.
• Each ORU table assembles without tools and the medium size weighs only 7.1 kg (about 15.6 lbs), so the pair can be picked up and regrouped from flanking a sofa as individual side tables to forming a unified coffee table in seconds — the system works as a portable modular set rather than a fixed installation.
• When the small (13.8" dia × 18.7" h) and medium (19.7" dia × 15.8" h) tables are paired, the roughly 3-inch height difference produces a stepped surface — the taller small table lifts a decorative object or lamp above the main zone, while the wider medium table provides a stable, lower platform for drinks and books, creating a coffee table grouping with designated functional levels rather than a single flat top.

Long-term wear of the powder-coated steel finish

• The ORU's black powder-coated finish sits on a stainless steel body rather than cheaper carbon steel — meaning a scratch from a ring or buckle that breaks the coating will not trigger rust or bubbling, so the table keeps its clean look even after years of accidental nicks.
• Powder coating is a thermally-cured polymer layer that is thicker and more uniform than liquid paint — on the ORU, this means the black surface resists everyday scuffs from remotes, phones, or coffee cups far better than a painted metal side table, keeping the finish free of visible wear marks.