Lucca 1.1m Round Extending Table: reading the dimensions

The listing for the Lucca 1.1m Round Extending Dining Table is one line of figures: 110/150x110x78cm. That is unusually bare, so rather than dress it up, this post does the two useful things we can honestly do. It reads the figures, and it tells you what to ask us before you order.

What the dimension string means

So it is a 110cm circle that opens out to 150cm in one direction, which gives an oval rather than a bigger circle. The listing does not label the figures, so ask us to confirm the reading before you order if a centimetre matters.

78cm high, which is not the usual 75cm

This is the one figure worth stopping on. Most dining tables here are 75cm high; this one is listed at 78cm. Three centimetres sounds like nothing, but it is the difference between comfortable and high if your chairs are already on the low side. With a chair seat at 45cm you get about 33cm of knee clearance under a 78cm top, which is fine. With a seat at 42cm you are reaching up to the table.

If you have chairs already, measure from the floor to the top of the seat cushion before you order. If you are buying chairs at the same time, tell us the table height so we can check the pair together.

What it seats, closed and open

A 110cm circle has about 345cm of edge, which on roughly 60cm per place setting is four comfortably. Extended to a 150 x 110cm oval you gain a run of straight edge along each long side, which takes six.

For clearance, allow about 100cm beyond the table edge on every side you will seat somebody: around 75cm to pull a chair back, plus space to pass behind. That is a clear area of about 310cm across closed, and about 350 x 310cm extended. Tape the extended footprint out on the floor and walk round it before you commit, and check which way it grows: an extension that opens towards a doorway blocks the room the moment you use it.

What the listing does not say, and should be asked

Almost everything. The dimension string is the entire description, so we will not tell you what the top is made of or what colour it is.

• No top material, colour or finish. The photograph on the product page is the only guide, and we can confirm what the current piece looks like.
• No base or leg description, so nothing on where the support sits or how it affects chair placement.
• Nothing on the extension mechanism: how it opens, whether a leaf has to be stored elsewhere, or whether one person can manage it. Worth asking, because stored leaves are a real problem in a small flat.
• No weight and nothing on assembly or delivery packaging.

None of that makes it a bad table. It makes it a table you should ring us about rather than buy on the strength of a figure string.

What it sits with

The Lucca 1.2m Extending Dining Table is the rectangular piece in the same range, and the range runs to a Lucca cross-back chair. For a round extending top of the same closed diameter, compare the Torino 1.1m Round Extending Dining Table, which is described in similarly plain terms. Everything else, with fuller descriptions in many cases, is in Dining Tables.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. The Lucca 1.1m Round Extending Dining Table page carries the photograph and the order form, and we will answer any of the questions above before you buy.