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Stylish Coffee Tables - Infographics for Your Living Room Space!

HAVING TROUBLE PICKING
A COFFEE TABLE? HERE’S
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Choosing a coffee table for your home or office seems simple enough, right?

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You walk into a store, pick a piece, and off you go, or wait for it to have it delivered.

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However, upon further reflection, you discover there’s actually a lot that goes into choosing the right coffee table.

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Naturally, you’re going to want a coffee table that’s the right size, length and width, and one that doesn’t look odd sitting in your living room.

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Or, the fact that it needs to be the correct scale and propionate to your space, working seamlessly with your existing living room furniture and overall aesthetics.

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Ah, so many considerations, such little time.

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Well, we’re here to help you get on with it, so once you know what kind of style you have in mind, these pointers will help you pick the perfect coffee table:

LET’S START WITH HEIGHT

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A coffee table that’s too high or too low will always make those tea and coffee sessions unnecessarily awkward.

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To ensure that everyone feels comfortable in the living room, choose a coffee table that’s the same height as your sofas, or perhaps, 1-2 inches lower.

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That’s a safe bet because any more and your space is going to look and feel a bit off.

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT PROPORTIONS

Similar to finding the right height for your coffee table, you should also look for one that doesn’t sit at odds with the length and width of your sofa.

A good rule of thumb: your coffee table should be roughly two-thirds of the length of your sofa.

So, let’s say your sofa is 96 inches, your coffee table should be no longer than 64 inches.

SOME CLEARANCE RULES TO CONSIDER

  • After figuring out the right length and height, you should consider the ideal shape or design of your coffee table.
  • For example, do you want to go with an oval-shaped one or a round or rectangular one, or maybe coffee tables with storage is more your thing?
  • This can be confusing at first but it doesn’t have to be. The kind of shape you want comes down to the length and clearance you want around it.
  • Traditionally, most people have their coffee table about 12-18 inches away from the sofa – outside this range, your coffee table may feel uncomfortably close or far.
  • Between your coffee table and TV stand, unit or cabinet, have at least 24-30 inches so that there’s enough room to walk easily around the space.
  • To find the optimal width for your coffee table, measure the distance between your sofa and TV stand or fireplace – subtract that by 42 inches. Simples!

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE
– OR RATHER, HOW TO

Another important rule to think about when picking the right coffee table is its overall “weightiness”, but what does that mean, anyway?

It needs to effortlessly complement your existing living room furniture, dining table and chairs, TV stands, units & cabinets, sofa beds, and so on. You get the gist of it.

This is important because your overall space has to feel proportional and balanced.

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We can’t have skinny sofa legs, for instance, and choose a coffee table that’s fully solid and has short, chunky legs running all the way from the table to the floor.

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Similarly, if your sofa’s legs are not visible, then you should choose a coffee table which has higher, skinnier legs.

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Interior designers will often tell you that when a living rooms feels too “leggy”, it just doesn’t feel as grounded – and that’s the opposite of warm, cosy, and inviting, isn’t it?

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN NEEDS TOO – AND NOT JUST YOUR LIVING ROOM

  • After figuring out the right length and height, you should consider the ideal shape or design of your coffee table.
  • For example, do you want to go with an oval-shaped one or a round or rectangular one, or maybe coffee tables with storage is more your thing?
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If you tend to kick your feet up on the coffee table while watching TV or playing your favourite Xbox game, then an ottoman coffee table is a good option.

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Got lots of little ones running around? Go for a wooden coffee table (either with or without storage to suit your personal preferences) and preferably one that doesn’t have sharp edges.

LASTLY: CHOOSING OUR
COFFEE TABLE MATERIAL

Finally, before we send that coffee table to our online cart, we need to check out the various materials that are available, naturally, choosing the one that appeals to both our space and lifestyle.

Wooden coffee tables are great to start with but there are many other varieties of coffee tables out there, such as elegant marble and stone coffee tables and high gloss coffee tables that can really make your living space ‘pop’.

With little ones running around, glass is probably not the best choice because we all know how children either enjoy breaking glass or break it by ‘accident’.

Think about which options would best work for your lifestyle, as we discussed earlier.

FOR SMALL SPACES, A COMPACT METAL COFFEE TABLE MIGHT FIT THE BILL NICELY.

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Hardwood floors that have a mid-tone colour look even more stunning with a complementary tone, such as when you add a marble coffee table.

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Also, think about whether you want a table that can be easily moved around when you want to, or one which you can anchor in place and forget about.

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The above questions and considerations are all a great place to start when choosing the right coffee table and so is Furniture in Fashion (FiF), where we have the largest, most stunning line-up of coffee tables to cater to all tastes, lifestyles, and preferences.