TURNING THE TABLES

Tables : They’re The Tops

The Form, from Normann Copenhagen

Kitchen tables are the unsung heroes of the home. Treat yourself to an upgrade.
The kitchen table is the cornerstone of domestic contentment. During the working week, our kitchen tables often see more service than our sofas. In the holidays, they become the focus of a cooking and entertaining marathon. Forget about a new sofa bed or blinds for the spare room, this is the single item of furniture it’s crucial to get right.
The most surprising trend to emerge in recent years is for owning two kitchen tables (one big, one small). Double-tabling was devised by parents of small children, who discovered the benefits of separating the generations for a family celebration. “When extended groups of family and friends get together for food, it seems to work well that children and parents sit in their own age groups,” says Sam Watts, founder of the Farmhouse Table Company. “They just have more fun that way.”
An early adopter of the practice, Watts noticed that most double-tabling families in his acquaintance were using plastic garden furniture or wobbly old card tables for the children. Not good enough, he decided, so he designed a beautiful wooden kids’ table for his own family. “When it’s outgrown, we’ll hold on to it for our grandchildren,” he says. Last month he launched the Mimi, a baby version of FTC’s Traditional table.
Once the question of how many tables is settled, the most difficult choice is the type of tabletop — the sheer variety of options is enough to put you off your dinner. There’s natural timber, painted wood, marble, steel, zinc, Corian, cement and linoleum.
Sarah Morison, head of product development at Garden Trading, says the brand has long specialised in metal-topped potting benches, but has now transferred robust zinc and steel tops onto indoor furniture with great success. “The mix of materials seems to be constantly evolving,” she says. “I think it is down to a couple of things — the industrial trend and a wider variety of kitchen work surfaces, which has perhaps made us more adventurous.”
She designed the Kingham, a table with spruce legs and a galvanised steel top that hits the sweet spot between rustic and industrial. The next hot top, she predicts, will be cement. “We have had an excellent initial reaction to our Chilson table set, with a cement-fibre top. Despite the word ‘cement’, it has a tactile, warm feeling.” 



 Swoon’s Petra table, in sandblasted and waxed elm, has a 120cm diameter top and seats four. £429; swooneditions.com

 If your tastes are traditional and your family numerous, Oka’s range of tables is worth a look. The Rustic Isabella has a solid oak top and seats 10 in comfort. £1,655; okadirect.com


 Reeve is a petite marble-topped bistro table from West Elm.Designed in mid-centurystyle, it has solid wood legs with brass caps. £579; westelm.co.uk

 Based on potting tables, Garden Trading’s brawny Kingham table (L160cm) has a spruce base and a food-safe galvanised steel top. £700; gardentrading.co.uk

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 A splash of colour from Jennifer Newman’ssteel Trestle. The legs are available in a range of colours; the top comes in birch ply, Formicaor lino, as well as laquered steel. Also shown is the Block End bench (£650). £1,800; jennifernewman.com


 An early arrival from Graham and Green’s spring collection, the Grahamdining table is a slab top resting on trestles, with an “urban carpentry vibe”. It’s made from acacia and comes in two sizes, L180cm x W80cm and L235cm x W90cm. £750-£950; grahamandgreen.co.uk


 Marble isn’t just a sensationally glamorous material, it’s the ideal pastry-making surface. So, if you love pies, a marble-topped kitchen table makes perfect sense. The Atelier seats up to six and has a Carrara marble top matched with a painted wood base. £599; johnlewis.com

 The oak used for Lombok’s new Timah table comes from Second World War battlefields in Germany. The blue-grey marks in the grain have been created by embedded bullets. £2,995; lombok.co.uk

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 Drawn from a midcentury original, the Chiltern table, by Ercol, is a refined, solid-oak design. It’s shown with Chiltern chairs (from £199). £799; johnlewis.com



Contemporary craft for the kitchen: Liam Treanor’s Dessau dining table comes in ash or oak. It’s pictured with Schuster stools (from £250). £1,550-£1,800; liamtreanor.co.uk


 The Form, from Normann Copenhagen, is a contemporary table on a sturdy oak frame, with a 120cm square top in black, white, grey, blue, green or red linoleum. There’s also a rectangular version (W200cm x D95cm; £1,460). £1,120; normann-copenhagen.com



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