Round stainless table, 500–800 mm

Four diameters, one material

500 mm for two at a wall, 800 mm for four in the middle of a room, and the two sizes between them for everything else. Keeping one material across all four means a floor can mix sizes without the tables looking like they came from different suppliers, which is what happens when a plan grows in phases.

The material also settles the argument about replacements. Stainless does not need colour matching, so a table bought three years later still matches the first order.

What it does badly

Stainless rings. Glass put down hard is audible across a quiet room, and the top is cold to the forearm in an unheated space. On a floor with music and a crowd, neither matters; in a quiet lounge, both do.

It also shows smears under direct light, so the cloth has to be clean and the grain has to run one way. Brushed rather than polished is the difference between a table that can be wiped and one that has to be polished.

The frame is the weak point

Stainless tops are often put on painted frames, and the paint is what fails first in a room that gets mopped with chemicals. Where the floor is washed rather than wiped, the frame should be stainless as well, all the way to the foot.