A stone outdoor coffee table and the stone to pick

Minotti furniture for the terrace uses stone the way the company's indoor tables do: as the top that people touch, set on a base of wood or metal. Four Italian stones appear across the outdoor coffee tables, and each one changes the color and the weight of a lounge group. Picking the stone is the first decision, and the collection follows from it.

The four stones

Pietra del Cardoso is a dense stone that stands up well to weather. Minotti gives it a brushed finish on the Florida and Fynn coffee tables and uses it on the top of Block.

Basaltina is a fine-grained stone with a brushed surface on Lido Cord and Patio. On the Bellagio dining tables the catalog calls it Basaltine and polishes it smooth, with a stain-resistant treatment.

Ceppo di Gré is a natural stone typical of Lombard buildings. On the Daylight side tables Minotti selects it without visible grain, so its neutral shade stays calm.

Silver Beola tops the round Tape Cord coffee table, with Corian EC as the other option.

All four share two traits that matter outdoors. Stone shrugs off sun and rain, and a heavy top stays put when a gust crosses the terrace.

Block: stone on a mass of teak

Minotti Block is a single coffee table that does one job. Rodolfo Dordoni drew it in 2020 from Brutalist architecture: the base is a solid mass of natural teak, shaped as an L or an upside-down T when you look at it from the end. The rectangular top has edges rounded like a river pebble and comes in Pietra del Cardoso or in a white glossy lacquered HPL. Two heights let you set a pair side by side at different levels.

Block works as the one heavy object in a group of lighter seats. Place it before a sofa with an open cord back and the contrast of solid wood and stone against woven fiber carries the whole composition. See the Block collection.

Lido Cord: stone on an X base

Minotti Lido Cord by GamFratesi takes its look from the 1950s. The seats have curved backs of stainless steel painted bronze and wound with polypropylene cord. The coffee tables borrow the X-shaped base of the semi-curved lounge sofa, in bronze-finished aluminum, and carry a brushed top of fine-grain Basaltina, round or square.

They come in four sizes and two heights, so a low one can sit beside the sofa and a taller one next to an armchair. Two or three of them grouped together make a stepped surface for drinks, books and a plant. See the Lido Cord collection.

Size and placement

Plan the table from the sofa. Aim for a table roughly two thirds as long as the sofa, placed 14 to 18 inches out from the cushions, close enough to reach a glass. Keep a path of about three feet on the far side. On a small terrace, two small tables can replace one large one and leave a gap to walk through.

Height follows the seat. A low sofa takes a low table; a deeper lounge chair takes a taller one beside it. Block and Lido Cord both come in two heights for this reason.

Care for stone tops

Wipe spills soon, above all olive oil, red wine and citrus, which can mark a porous stone. Clean with mild soapy water and a soft cloth, then rinse and dry. Skip acid cleaners and vinegar. A brushed finish hides small marks better than a polished one, and a stone left outdoors takes on a light patina over the years.

In winter, a stone top can stay out on its base in most climates. In a place with hard frost, ask us about storage for the collection you choose, and keep water from pooling on the top under a cover.

Tops that look like stone

Some Minotti tables give you a stone look or a color with less weight. Terrace, the table that goes with Sunray, has a stone-effect ceramic top in stone brown or marble gray on tapered cast aluminum legs, in three sizes. Sunray Meg sets HPL tops in glossy white, rust or khaki green on a thin Bronze frame. Andrée by Hannes Peer covers each face in glazed ceramic tile. All of them wipe clean, and none needs oil.

Pairing a stone with the rest of the terrace

Match the stone to something already there: the paving, a wall, the coping of a pool. Ask for samples and lay them on the paving in daylight before you choose. Ceppo di Gré, picked without visible grain, gives the calmest surface. Next to teak that has turned silver, a gray stone keeps the palette quiet. Next to oiled teak, the contrast grows.

Tell us in the form below which sofa you own or plan to buy, and add a photo of the paving. We suggest the stones and bases that go with it and price each table in writing. The table is cut and finished for your order, and the quote states the weeks.