So, I’ve started with a pretty bold statement, suggesting that I’m going to offer the complete guide to coffee tables in about 500 to 1000 words. Obviously I’m being a little tongue in cheek. But I do hope to offer you the Coles’ Notes on Coffee Tables or perhaps the Coffee Tables for Idiots guide. What I am going to do is offer you lots of resources that I have written about here like on the oak coffee table of pine coffee table and hopefully give you some tips and ideas that you can use when choosing coffee tables for your home. I’ve written extensively about modern coffee tables, contemporary coffee tables and I know where to find cheap coffee tables and where to buy coffee tables that you’ll love so let’s get right into the good stuff.
Homes in most of the world and especially for us in America have gotten bigger. And because of that folks are often looking for a large coffee table or even a couple of large coffee tables. So the first thing I would suggest is that you sit down, before you even think about shopping, and determine the size of coffee table you want. Sometimes this will be a small coffee table or perhaps a couple of coffee end tables or even a set of coffee tables and end tables.
Some tips on assessing coffee tables for your home
Once you have a rough idea of the size of coffee table you want I would cut out some poster board or even newspaper will do and lay it on the floor in a rectangular shape. Most coffee tables are retangular in shape and most of us end up with a rectangle coffee tabel at some point. What this does is give you a visual cue as to what the coffee table looks like, spatially, within your home or living room area. You can then play with that and make the size fit a larger coffee table or a smaller coffee table and see what size your ideal coffee table ends up being.
At this point you want to take a look and see what kinds of coffee tables are out there that will suit your needs. Now very often, you’ll end up with unique coffee tables because you’ve chosen a size with this method that is somewhat unusual. Although with coffee tables nowadays you can find a much larger collection of sizes than you used to be able to. But bear in mind that you might still not find a suitable coffee table to fit your home. In that case you can have a custom made coffee table which is practically everyone’s dream. Though of course you’ll spend a bit of money for this type of expensive coffee table. You’re basically buying designer coffee tables at this point.
However, before you get there, be thorough. Many of the modern design and home furniture stores will carry quite a surprisingly large assortment of coffee tables that are both unique, irregular in size and aesthetically pleasing. Googling “Your city furniture store” or something like that will bring you up quite a few choices if you live in a city of at leas a few hundred thousand in size.
Another place to shop coffee tables for sale is Amazon. Now they don’t have every kind of table that you can imagine but they have a surprisingly large selection of coffee tables at good discounts off of retail. So if you’d like you can click here to head on over to Amazon now. I just love shopping online for all my coffee paraphernalia that I can, and a whole bunch of other stuff too. In fact, Amazon has become almost like my personal shopping assistant in many ways 😉
Other tips for finding and buying coffee tables are to use places like Craigslist and of course eBay if you don’t mind second hand coffee tables or used coffee tables. These will be cheaper coffee tables of course because they are used, but you’ll often find some in terrific condition. I’ve also had great success in shopping for coffee tables at estate sales and auctions. And auctions are a great idea if you have a bit of time, live in a city large enough to support a couple of auction houses and enjoy the experience. And the experience is quite enjoyable and easy to learn, so there is no need to feel uncomfortable if you are new to it. With auctions you get to view the coffee tables ahead of time so you have a good idea of what you are bidding on.
Functions, options and styles of coffee tables
Now something else that should have been mentioned earlier perhaps is that along with the size of coffee tables you’re looking at buying and placing in your home you need to determine style, function and options. I personally have a huge preference for wooden coffee tables and as I look around my home I only see the wooden coffee table. However, other popular options include the glass coffee table which can come as a glass top coffee table with wooden legs or often metal legs. I’ve seen a wrought iron coffee table with a glass top and then there is the 100% glass coffee table which comes in a myriad of colors like the popular black glass coffee table.
A wood coffee table is also available in your choice of wood. I’ve mentioned a couple at the beginning of this article but you can also get the mahogany coffee table, though most often this will be an antique coffee table because mahogany is now an endangered species of wood. But you can find them still at estate sales as a trunk coffee table or rustic coffee table. They fetch a premium because they don’t make them anymore but they really are long lasting and solid and beautiful to look at.
There are other types of coffee tables available too like the acrylic coffee table and marble coffee table. Acrylic is neat because in a similar fashion to glass, it can be moulded into practically any shape, so you’ll see a lot of the modern coffee tables made from acrylic and bent into all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. I’m not a huge fan of marble coffee tables but that’s just my personal preference. They are solid and heavy with unique and unusual patterns on their marble faces.
A couple of last thoughts to leave you with is to consider whether a designer coffee table is important to you. An example of this is the Noguchi coffee table, though mostly these are now mass produced, so good look in finding an original Noguchi coffee table. But there are other up and coming designers that you might want to consider. Just like Italy has brought us such wonderful coffee experiences with the espresso cappuccino and cialde Lavazza including perfecting the French press coffee. It is the Italians that I would turn to for contemporary coffee table design ideas. Your local modern furniture store will point you in the right direction there.
Lastly consider the practicality or lack thereof of what you’d like your coffee tables to accomplish. You can find coffee tables with storage or storage coffee tables like the lift top coffee table. Even without storage options, most coffee tables will have a base that you can rest magazines and newspapers or even coffee table books on. And remember size. Even though I mentioned rectangular coffee tables you might want to consider an oval coffee table, square coffee table, round coffee table or other shapes that might fit your particular space. And lastly, lastly (promise :)) don’t forget color. Now practically all coffee tables can be repainted if you don’t like the color but if you’re looking for a white coffee table, why not just buy one that color rather than creating more work for yourself?
That’s it for me. Man, took longer than I expected, but I hope you’ll find this pretty close to a complete guide to coffee tables. I do believe we touched on all the most important aspects in your quest for finding the ideal coffee tables for your home. Thanks for reading this far!