BH | Studio Arendal 60-Inch Oval Dining Table

The oval table has been a favourite of Scandinavian dining rooms for generations, its rounded ends softening a room and leaving space for one more guest without the hard corners of a rectangle. In the 1950s modern designers set it on a single slim pedestal, and the pale, uncluttered rooms favoured in Norway and its neighbours, made to catch the light of short winter days, took to the look readily.

Six sit round this oval, its top engineered wood in White, Hazel or Cocoa with a bevelled edge, cut back at an angle underneath so the rim reads slim. A tapered metal pedestal in White, Jet or Brass, in a finish that stands up to chips, carries it from the centre on a round foot, so chairs can go at the ends as well as the sides. A felt pad underneath protects the floor.

It is a family dining table for birthday cakes, homework spread across one end and a roast on Sunday. In a pale scheme it looks clean and fresh, and it is lovely against pale blue walls with a striped rug, white painted chairs and a long tray of potted herbs down the middle. With no legs at the corners, a seventh chair squeezes in for an unexpected guest without anyone straddling a table leg.