HAPPY COFFEE TABLE

Happy is a round central table with smaller round side tables, all on tapered legs in a matching dark finish. The detail that gives it its name is practical: a raised lip runs around the edge of each top, so things on the table stay on the table.

The raised lip

A small thing that changes how a table is used. A glass on a flat top slides when someone leans on the table or a child runs past; a lip stops it, and it keeps a remote, a phone or a tray from going over the edge. It is also the only decoration on the piece — a thin raised line around a round top, which catches light and draws the circle.

Tapered legs

Narrowing towards the floor, so they touch it at a point rather than a block. That makes a solid dark table look light, and it means the legs are visually out of the way of anyone's feet. A tapered leg has to be cut and fitted precisely, because the angle is visible from every side and there is nothing on the table to distract from it.

Three pieces, used together or apart

The central table in front of a sofa with the small ones drawn in beside it, or one at each end of the seating and the large one in the middle. The uniform dark finish is what lets them be separated without looking like three unrelated tables.

Materials and sizes

Made to order. Finish, leather or wood on the frame, and the diameters and heights are specified per project. Tell us the arm height of the sofa and the chairs the small tables will stand beside.

Where it belongs

A family living room, an apartment, a hotel lounge, a reception area. The dark finish is forgiving and the lip is genuinely useful, which makes this the set to choose for a room that gets used rather than looked at.