GS-Lucy Lamp Table: a silver and gold cross base, sized up

Most side tables pick one metal. The GS-Lucy Lamp Table uses two: a cross base the listing describes as a blend of silver and gold finishes, carrying a natural stone top, in one size at 50 x 50 x 55cm. That base is a deliberate statement, and a statement piece has to agree with the metal already in the room.

Living with two metals

A mixed-metal base is forgiving in one specific way and unforgiving in another. It is forgiving because it does not have to match anything exactly: in a room with chrome lamp stems and warm brass handles, a base that already holds both reads as intentional instead of as a near miss. It is unforgiving because it becomes the thing your eye goes to. Put it beside a second statement piece of metalwork and the two argue. One in a room is usually right.

The listing does not break down which parts are silver and which are gold, and the proportion is the thing that decides whether the table leans cool or warm overall. The photographs settle that better than any description, so look at them against the light in your own room before you decide.

A natural stone top, described but not specified

The top is given as natural stone. That is all the listing says about it, and it is less than you might want. There is no stone named, no thickness, no weight, no note on sealing, no care instruction and no shape given for the top. Natural stone also varies piece to piece by definition, so the veining or mottling in the photographs is a sample rather than a promise of what arrives.

Three questions are worth putting to the shop before you order: what the stone is, what the table weighs, and how the top should be cleaned. The weight question is the practical one if the table is going upstairs or being lifted over a banister.

The footprint and the height

Fifty by fifty centimetres is a tidy side-table footprint: it will sit at the end of a two or three seater without narrowing a walkway, and it fits most alcoves that take a table at all. The cross base keeps the floor contact central, so a rug edge or a sofa foot does not get in the way and the table can be moved without catching a leg.

The three figures are printed without labels. On the tables quoting this trio of numbers the final figure is the height, which the Lewis Lamp Table listing confirms for itself by stating 55cm, but confirm it for this one with the shop if you are matching an exact height. At 55cm the top lands around sofa-arm level, which is the comfortable height for a reading lamp and a mug while you are sitting upright.

What to look at alongside it

For a quieter base at the same size, the BK-Milan Lamp Table is a plain black cross with a ceramic top. For a single warm metal rather than two, the SG-Chelsea Lamp Table is gold-framed on a round pedestal. The rest of the shelf is in Side & Lamp Tables, and if the metal finish is what drew you in, the frames in Mirrors & Accessories are worth seeing in the same room.

Ordering it

This is a piece the shop supplies, so ask for current timings when you order. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. The GS-Lucy Lamp Table page carries the photographs, which are the only place the silver-to-gold balance can be judged.