Flatware Set with Riveted Colored Handles, 4 to 6 Piece Place Setting

A place setting of stainless steel flatware on flat, glossy colored handles, each one fixed with three steel rivets in the old bistro style. The four-piece covers everyday meals, the six-piece covers the whole dinner, and there are eight colors to choose from.

No drawer of identical gray handles. No round-ended knife sliding across a steak. Lay the table, and the color does the rest.

Most flatware disappears on the table, and the handle is where that changes

Pull open almost any kitchen drawer and the flatware inside is polished steel from end to end, bought as a boxed set and never really looked at again. It does its job, and it adds nothing to a table you have gone to the trouble of setting. A colored handle changes that with no effort at all, because the handle is the part that lies flat beside the plate, right where everyone sitting down will see it.

These handles are flat and straight, squared off at the ends with softly rounded corners, and each one carries three round steel rivets set in a line down the middle. Look along the side of a handle and you can see a fine silver line of steel running its full length, sandwiched between two layers of color. That is the classic riveted construction you see on bistro tables, and it gives the pieces their look.

A serrated knife in every set, not a butter knife standing in

The knife in all three sets is pointed, with a row of teeth along its curved edge and a plain straight back. Plenty of everyday sets pair the fork with a smooth, round-ended dinner knife, which is fine for pasta and hopeless the night you cook steak or pork chops. Here the serrated knife is simply the knife, so the right one is already at every place.

The dinner fork has four tines and the spoon has an oval bowl polished to a mirror shine. Both are a little over eight inches long, a normal and comfortable dinner size, and the teaspoon is just over six inches, small enough to stir a coffee cup.

Four, five or six pieces, in the color that suits your table

Each set is one place setting for one person. The four-piece is the everyday one, with a knife, fork, spoon and teaspoon. The five-piece adds a smaller fork for dessert or salad, and the six-piece adds a round-tipped butter knife as well, so a single setting covers the whole meal from the bread to the last course. A table for four is four sets, and nothing says they all have to be the same color.

Black and Brown are the quietest of the eight. Black looks sharp against a white plate on almost any table, and the Brown handles carry a dark wood-grain look that sits well on oak or walnut. Navy, Green and Red bring the most color, and they work nicely with stoneware and linen. Beige is soft and warm, White has a thin gray marble-look vein running through it, and Pink is a dusty, muted shade rather than a bright one. The steel is the same in all eight, so only the handles change.

Whichever you pick, the handles are the first thing people notice when they sit down.