BH | Studio Arendal 60-Inch Round Dining Table

In the late 1950s, a Finnish-born designer working in America set out to clear the clutter of legs from under the dining table, and his answer was a single slender stem rising from a broad, flared foot. It carried the Nordic instinct for calm, uncluttered rooms that Norway shares with its neighbours, and it changed how freely chairs and knees could move around a meal.

The top is a broad round of engineered wood, lacquered to a deep, glassy White or finished in Blonde, its edge bevelled, cut back at an angle underneath so it looks slimmer than it is. One tapered metal stem, in White, Jet or Brass in a finish made to shrug off chips, carries it all on a weighted foot. With no corner legs, chairs draw up from any angle, and a felt pad keeps the floor unmarked.

A round this generous is the natural centre for a dinner party or a long Sunday lunch, and it is just as easy for weekday breakfasts, with the family coming and going. In all White, it almost vanishes in a bright room and lets the chairs and the food carry the colour. Picture it under a big paper lantern in a dining room with pale floors, ringed with black spindle-back chairs, a stoneware jug of peonies at the centre