Trefoil Round Table Ø90: Form & Refine's Four-Legged Take on a Three-Leaf Name

Form & Refine's Trefoil Round Table Ø90 is a solid European oak dining table built around a centred column of four legs, designed by Jonas Herman for the house's Herman Studio. Objena has catalogued it at an indicative AUD 1,940, ahead of release — and the table's name, borrowed from a three-leaf shape, doesn't quite match the four legs holding it up, which turns out to be the most interesting fact about it.

A name that describes a family, not a single table

"Trefoil" is a botanical term for a three-lobed leaf — clover, most commonly — and Herman Studio built an entire table collection around that shape: a round table at two diameters, a square table, and a wall-mounted folding table, all sharing the same construction idea of identical solid-oak legs converging at a dense, shadowed centre point. The smaller Ø75 cm round table in the collection genuinely has three legs, which is where the name comes from most directly. The Ø90 cm table — wider, and the one Objena has catalogued — has four. The collection kept its name; the individual table's leg count changed with its size, because four legs suit a 90 cm tabletop better than three do. It's an unusual case of a product name outliving the detail that inspired it, and Form & Refine hasn't tried to quietly rename the larger version to cover the gap.

What the legs are actually doing

Herman Studio's own description of the design is specific about intent rather than apology: "the aim with Trefoil was to create an interesting shadow effect where four identical table legs meet each other." Each leg is a distinct solid oak element, not a single turned pedestal — the four pieces stand close together without touching cleanly, so the gaps between them catch light and cast the shadow the quote refers to. That construction does two things at once. Visually, it reads as lighter than a single thick post would, because the eye sees negative space between the timber sections rather than one dense mass. Practically, the centred column keeps all the structural weight in the middle of the table rather than at the rim, which is why Form & Refine markets the design on legroom: nobody sitting around a 90 cm circle has to negotiate a leg planted where their knees want to go.

Oak, oil, and the numbers that matter before delivery

The table is FSC-certified solid European oak throughout, made in Poland — no veneer over a substrate, no composite core hidden under a timber skin — finished in natural oil, which leaves the grain visible rather than sealing it under a film finish. Form & Refine also lists the Ø90 table as a separate white-oil edition; Objena's catalogued piece is the natural-oil oak. The table stands 72.5 cm tall, with the underside of the tabletop at 70.5 cm, and weighs 17.7 kg net, light enough for one person to reposition without help but solid enough that the centred base doesn't tip under an off-centre lean. Those numbers matter more than usual with a centre-leg table: because there's no leg at the rim, the base diameter under the tabletop is narrower than the top itself, so it's worth checking that spec against a room's traffic before ordering rather than after delivery.

Where it sits in Form & Refine's range

Form & Refine was founded in Copenhagen in 2018 by Helle Herman Mortensen, Jonas Herman Pedersen and Lasse Lund Lauridsen, on the idea that furniture should be traceable to its material and built without decoration standing in for construction. The Trefoil Round Table shares that logic with the house's other solid-timber pieces — the Shoemaker Chair™ and the Monolith Side Table among them — where the joinery is the design, not something hidden underneath it. A round table with a centred base is also, practically, an easier fit for a small dining room or an apartment corner than a table with four legs planted at the corners of the top; there's more usable floor around it, even before anyone sits down.

The Trefoil Round Table Ø90 in oak is part of Objena's Form & Refine profile, catalogued at an indicative AUD 1,940 ahead of release. For the wider case on how Form & Refine sources and builds — the joinery standards behind pieces like the Shoemaker Chair™, and the Danish design studio's founding brief — read our Form & Refine house chapter.

Three questions

How many legs does the Form & Refine Trefoil Round Table have? It depends on the size. The Ø90 cm table — the one Objena has catalogued — has four identical solid-oak legs meeting at a centred column. A smaller Ø75 cm sibling in the same collection uses three legs instead.

Why is a four-legged table called "Trefoil"? Trefoil names the whole collection, not one table. Herman Studio designed the family — round tables in two sizes, a square table and a wall-mounted folding table — around the same idea of identical legs converging at a shadowed centre point; on the Ø90 round table, that centre point happens to gather four legs rather than three.

What is the Trefoil Round Table made from, and what does it weigh? FSC-certified solid European oak, finished in natural oil, with no veneer or panel construction anywhere in the piece. Form & Refine also offers the Ø90 table as a separate white-oil edition, but Objena's catalogued piece is the natural-oil oak. It weighs 17.7 kg net and stands 72.5 cm tall, with the tabletop underside at 70.5 cm.