Shoparound: If it's stylish tables and unusual storage solutions you're looking for, check out the designs of Galway-based furniture maker Ben Gabriel of Gabriel Furniture Designs.

Gabriel's inventive contemporary designs have been picking up a number of awards since he moved from London to Loughrea, Co Galway nine years ago.

He scooped an award at the RDS arts and craft competition earlier this summer with his solid oak and glass Lyne Table (€1,500). This piece will be on display in the Glór centre in Ennis, Co Clare next month.

Citing the arts and craft movement as an influence, Gabriel is clearly a man fond of his geometric and angular lines.

Last year he scooped the Edmund Chesneau award for his smart MDF table called The Red One (€800).

The table is an optical illusion, which makes the table look like it's sloping downward from whatever angle you look at it.

A popular design is Gabriel's elaborate walnut Zig Zag table with toughened glass top, a handsome modern design which looks good in modern homes (from €800).

His imaginative Herring Bone Table made from alder and cherrywood with a glass centrepiece is a fun, but stylish, coffee table (€1,500).

Gabriel Furniture also produces more traditional dining tables and chairs as well as storage solutions.

His eye-catching ETA elm and ash storage unit is a real wow piece (€2,500), and his smart diamond-shaped CD holder (€900) holds up to 500 CDs.

Gabriel Furniture will be exhibiting at the Create 2005 Exhibition, the biannual exhibition of contemporary Irish furniture, which takes place in Fota House, Cork, between Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 16th this year.

Gabriel Furniture, Derrykeel, Loughrea, Co Galway, Ireland (091-632997) www.bengabriel.com