BH | Studio Gordes Fluted Console Table

Reeding, a run of rounded ribs set side by side, is borrowed from the classical column, the kind whose fluted shafts still stand in Provence from Roman times, and it has dressed fine furniture since the Regency, when cabinetmakers used it on table legs and cupboard fronts. It returned strongly in the 1930s, and it still gives plain wood a play of light and shadow.

This console is a slim oval, its pale marble top resting on a body of solid hardwood ribbed all over in close vertical reeds, on curved end supports. Two drawers sit side by side under the top, and each runs out to its full depth on glides, so the back of the drawer is as easy to reach as the front: room for keys, chargers and letters, each opened by a small dark knob. Adjustable levellers underneath settle it on an uneven floor without marking the boards. It is rated to hold 132 lbs and arrives ready to use, with no assembly.

Being so shallow, it slips into an entrance hall or a passage where a deeper table would block the way, holding a lamp, a bowl for keys and the day's mail. Float it behind a sofa and it gives the seating a finished back edge, with a reading lamp and a stoneware jug of branches. It also makes a slim desk for a laptop on a landing. Pale reeded wood and stone look their best against a limewashed wall, a round mirror and a runner in faded blues.