BH | Studio Whitby Rattan Oval Coffee Table

Rattan, the supple stem of a climbing palm, reached Western homes through nineteenth-century trade with Southeast Asia. By the late Victorian years woven rattan furniture had settled onto porches and into sunrooms across America and Britain, and it came back in force in the relaxed rooms of the 1960s and 1970s.

This one is a long, soft oval, its top woven in rattan and finished with a deep rolled rim, so there is no hard corner to catch a shin as you pass. Two pedestals carry it, each shaped like a four-leaf clover and wrapped in the same close weave, and the top reaches well past them on every side, so a cup is within reach of every seat. It is long enough to serve a full-size sofa as well as a loveseat, and light enough that a single person can shift it to vacuum the rug. It holds up to 44 lbs and arrives ready to use.

Put it in front of a linen sofa in a family room for board games, takeout suppers and feet up on a Friday night. In Mink, a warm, slightly rosy brown, the rattan reads almost like polished wood, and in Flax it is light and natural; either sits happily on dark floors with a cream wool rug, leather armchairs and lamps in aged brass. Style the top with art books, a wide stoneware bowl and a candle or two. It looks as right in a lake house or a sunroom as in a city apartment.