Last week Vitsoe re-issued Dieter Rams’s 621 side table, which he originally designed in 1962. It’s an incredibly simple plastic table on the face of it – available in two sizes, black or off-white – but as ever with design classics, the intricate design process behind it is what allows for its simplicity.

In his 50-plus year career, Dieter Rams has made a quest out of raising respect for plastic and the new 621 table has a hand-painted finish both to deter dust and static, and make it durable / unchip-able / everlasting. Respect the plastic! See his work for Braun for more info.

The 621 works as a bedside table, a tv table, any sort of occasional table. It can be planted in a row to become one long table, kept in a nest for when needed or turned on its side to slide under a couch, which lets face it is basically for tv dinners. Or as I like to call it, dinner.

Long story short, it’s multi-functional and that’s really the nub of why I think it’s a coveted piece.

A new addition to the reissue is that it also comes with tiny adjustable feet to deal with any uneven floorboard issue you might be having. I once looked at a house where you could roll a marble from one side of the living room floor to the other simply by letting it go, so my feeling is that the 621 would also work a treat in homes with severe subsistence. Good news all round.

There endeth the short lesson.