BK-Milan Lamp Table: a 50cm square top on a cross pedestal

The BK-Milan Lamp Table is listed at one size, 50 x 50 x 55cm, with a ceramic top carried on a cross-shaped pedestal made up of four black legs. Small footprint, fairly tall for a side table, and both of those numbers decide where it can go.

Reading the three figures

The listing prints the size unlabelled, as most of this range does. It is worth knowing that the Lewis Lamp Table elsewhere on the same shelf quotes the same trio of numbers and separately states that it stands at 55cm, so on these square-topped tables the last figure is the height and the first two are the top. Confirm that with the shop before you order if your gap is tight, rather than assuming it from this page.

Fifty centimetres square is roughly a sofa arm plus a hand's width. It will sit at the end of a two or three seater without pushing into a walkway, and in a bay or an alcove you need 50cm of clear wall with nothing in the skirting to foul it. A 55cm height is taller than the seat cushion on most sofas and close to the top of a standard arm, which is the height people usually want for a reading lamp: the shade sits above the eyeline of someone sitting upright rather than straight in front of it.

A cross pedestal, not four corner legs

The base is the real difference between this table and the leg-at-each-corner tables nearby. Four legs meeting in a cross put all of the load through one point in the middle of the floor, which means nothing stands in the way of a sofa foot, a rug edge or a vacuum head, and you can push the table over a rug border without one leg riding up. The listing credits that base with the table's stability and the ceramic top with being easy to wipe clean. Both are the supplier's own words rather than a measured figure, so treat them as a description of the design and not a performance rating.

What the listing does not say

There are no specification rows on this product, so four things a buyer often wants are simply not recorded: the weight of the table, how much the top will take, whether it arrives built or needs the base fixing on, and the exact black finish on the legs. The photographs are the best guide to the look, and anything load-bearing is a question for the shop. We would rather tell you the page is silent than put a number on it here.

What it works with

Within Side & Lamp Tables the obvious comparison is the BK-Roma Lamp Table, which is listed at the same 50 x 50 x 55cm but carries its ceramic top on two substantial legs instead of a cross. If you want two surfaces at different heights rather than one, the Milan Nest of 2 Tables gives a 50 x 50 x 45cm table with a 40 x 40 x 40cm one tucked under it. Across the range in Coffee Tables, matching a square 50cm side table to a larger centre piece is usually a question of keeping the top heights sensible rather than matching the shapes.

Ordering it

This is a piece the shop supplies rather than one of our own beds, so ask for current timings when you order. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. Measure the gap, check the height against your sofa arm, and the BK-Milan Lamp Table page carries the full set of photographs, which is where to look at the base and the top.