David Roentgen's transforming gaming table is the most amazing piece of furniture I've ever seen. It's also from the 18th Century. But here in the 21st, a company called Geek Chic is making modern-day gaming tables. Their stuff is beautiful, and as the company's name suggests, the products are aimed at the Dungeons-and-Dragons roleplaying game crowd.

Their top-of-the-line model is called the Sultan, and no, it ain't a table for eating on. The center surface is what the company calls the Game Vault, where the Gamemaster lays out the unspoilt fantasyland devoid of your landlord, boss, spouse and parents.

The sides feature integrated flip-out trays and drawers within, as well as little pull-out shelves to hold your dice and/or a cup of magic potion.

What I love about Geek Chic's stuff is that the company aren't just geeks for games, they're geeks about woodworking. "We reserve particularly beautiful pieces of wood for the Sultan's rounded corners—figured wood to show off the stature and elegance of this piece," they write. The built-to-order tables come in your choice of maple, walnut or cherry, and you can choose pewter or antiqued bronze for the handle hardware.

For those of you thinking of setting up your own furniture business, you ought take a good look at how Geek Chic has their system set up; they've clearly got their S together. First off, the Sultan clocks in at a $12,950 base price that can rise to 16 large with options, and it's in such demand that the wait time is over a year.

Secondly, the GC team has carefully considered every step of the process from a customer ordering the table and putting down a deposit, figuring out the options with the assistance of a "Valet," being contacted by a Shop Liaison prior to your table ascending the "Manufacturing Queue," and finally delivering the finished piece to, and installing it within, your home. It's not common to see this kind of forethought and clarity so neatly spelled out on the website, and I imagine it goes a long way towards providing peace-of-mind for a customer ready to plunk down that kind of bread. More furniture guys ought follow their example.

Via Neatorama