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Dining tables often sit in open-plan settings, so it makes perfect sense that supporting dining pieces are also suitable for multi-purpose living spaces. However, we ask much of these pieces: they must be transitional, effortlessly bridging the gap between the kitchen and the living-dining area, and they must be able to serve multiple uses. Oh, and they must be stylish too.

Gallery, a cabinet by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti for Porro, ticks all these boxes. Its doors open to reveal a series of shelves, drawers and cubby holes: it’s the perfect storage space for everything from silverware to glasses and prized whisky. Gallery looks good too, and is available in two different sizes and a wide range of finishes.

Transitional furniture by its very nature can’t conform to a one-size-fits-all model. Each room brings its own set of challenges, and dining furniture must be able to adapt.

With its huge range of possible combinations, Kin Long is the most versatile of Zeitraum’s new range of cupboards. Whether used as a standalone piece, stacked one on top of the other or placed in a row, Kin Long adapts to suit pretty much every situation, growing with you and your changing needs.

Gallery and Kin Long both offer a lesson in understated design, but this isn’t always the case when it comes to on-trend dining furniture. An extreme example is Giuseppe Viganò’s Doppler sideboard for Bonaldo, which looks as though it is made up of overlapping surfaces in brightly coloured graphic patterns. In fact, it’s a single surface.