Everyone needs and loves a really good table. With one, you have a place to work, dine, caffeinate, throw your keys and all other manner of unsorted stuff; without one, everything (if you are me) is relegated to the floor. I’ve just discovered the wonderful functionality of a large dining table, a simple (albeit beat up) drop leaf piece in white that was gifted to me by a friend (who inherited it from his grandmother) and one that he returned the art of dining at home to my life in New York City. So a toast, to my table and to the 3rings “Best Of” this week.

Manta Collection table. Designed by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance for Ceccotti.

1. A lot of emerging names in the design world are boasting the brand “recession friendly”, but Velichco Velikov’s Cubba Bubba actually means it with a table-cum-chair that will no doubt buoy us through this year’s tenuous economic climate and well into the future.

Cubba Bubba table and chairs. Designed by Velichco Velikov.

2. There are some styles of which we’ll never tire and that include the simple, functional and Scandinavian forms in wood. Jonas Lyndby Jensen does right again with his Nordic Dining collection, a series of tables and chairs that will make you think twice about outfitting the kitchen in IKEA.

Nordic Dining Collection. Designed by Jonas Lyndby Jensen.

3. 1 fold, 2 fold, 3 fold, 4. George Rice expands upon his earlier 3-legged metal table for Formtank with a new lasercut table boasting now four legs.

4Fold Table. Designed by George Rice for Formtank.

4. Every once and while you encounter a designer and company that hits the nail on the head. Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s Art Nouveau-inspired Manta collection of chairs, sideboards and desks does just that with this limited set designed for Italian house of cool Ceccotti.

Manta Collection. Designed by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance for Ceccotti.

5. No doubt, Alexandra von Furstenberg’s series of lucite tables read mega-glam. We love this clear one though for its power to pack as much glitz into a table as much as it can also fade into the background.

Limited edition lucite desk. Designed by Alexandra von Furstenberg.

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