Footstools are the unsung heroes of lounge room furniture, ever ready to help you put your feet up.
Also known as poufs - though less so nowadays - or ottomans, they nip around the floor making the armchairs look good while taking very little credit themselves.
They are more the saucer than the cup, more Wise than Morecambe.
Though the armchair's faithful sidekick, their strength is their independence and the versatility that brings.
Witness the recliner chair with retractable footrest.
As well as being one of the ugliest pieces of furniture ever to take up space in a living room - there's always something of the dentist's chair about them - they require a good bit of gymnastics to get in and out of.
It was never intended to be this difficult.
And the recliner's footrest is forever indentured to the one piece of furniture.
The solution is the footstool - the helpful handmaiden with the initiative to double as an occasional table and the advantage of no moving parts.
Except perhaps where it is useful to have them.
Arthur Barnett furnishing division manager Don Lee says their storage ottomans - which have parts that move - are a popular line (the top flips to become a handy tray).
"One woman bought three of them."
Another of their footstools, a leather cube, has also sold well.
"We find people buy these quite a lot for children to use," he says.
Keri Bowler, branch manager furnishings at McKenzie and Willis further attests to their versatility: "They are used for various different things, as well as for putting your feet on".
"Some people put them in front of the couch to put magazines on, or to put their coffee on."
Neither are the ottoman's charms restricted to the lounge.
"They are also used at the end of the bed to put an extra blanket on," Ms Bowler says.
The footstool also appears to hold its value, if the small and unscientific sample in Purple Rain is anything to go by.
On a recent visit, the Princes St second-hand treasure trove had two models.
Owner Frits Homburg said he had more, but people kept buying them.
That's a phenomenon that has stood the test of time.
There is evidence that footstools have been in use since ancient Egyptian times, making them as venerable a piece of furniture as the chair and the table.
The Oxford History of the Biblical World, by Michael D. Coogan, indicates the ark of the covenant might have been used by God as a footstool, which is a pretty good recommendation.
Apart from the utilitarian, investment, aesthetic and biblical value of footstools, there are genuine health reasons for employing them.
Podiatrist Georgina Read, of Dunedin Podiatry, says people with poor circulation can suffer from thickening toenails.
Putting your feet up can help, as it allows the blood and accompanying nutrients to travel to the extremities more readily.
Similarly, those with diabetes will get a health kick out of elevating the feet, which can be problem areas, for much the same reason, she says.
That is not to say footstools are the whole answer.
Relaxation researcher Dr Caroline Horwath, of the University of Otago's nutrition department, has been looking at the role of relaxation in improving health.
Without knocking the idea of a good feet-up with the Inside Out section of the Otago Daily Times, she says there's probably slightly more work in eliciting life-changing relaxation responses or achieving the "mindfulness" that her research indicates has all sorts of health benefits.
But we are, after all, just talking about a footstool, so effects at the level of "life changing" were always going to be unlikely.
"It is valuable for everybody to have some time to themselves doing things they enjoy," she says.
Coming from an expert in relaxation, that's probably recommendation enough for the humble footstool.
Spend some time with one, doing something you enjoy.
