We have a heavy "rustic style" coffee table in the famiy room. It's big and it's heavy but it has two large drawers that I can hide things away in. Oh, and it gives DS2 somewhere to dance....takes after his mama!
Now we have moved we have a grown up separate "formal" lounge /dining room which I'm decorating. So far DH and I have ummed and arred over the coffee table thing. He wants a large one for the centre. Me, I'd prefer a nice lamp table and two smaller ****tail tables - you know the small ones that you can either have along side of the couch or move out to the front to put your martini on...(well, more likely wine in this house...).
We found an amazing one in an antique shop but both quibbled at the price - it was $1800 - but it was circa 1780 and from France...hmmm.
Anyway, if we do go for a larger coffee table I would prefer an oval one. I'm not liking corners.
Our coffee table is fondly called the "Coffee Table of Death"
We have all suffered injuries, especially the girls. A few black eyes, one split ear, lots of bumped toes and legs.
It is a big thing with drawers and shelves. Which were a great idea at the time, but are just another area to dust and clear crap from, the drawers also become dumping grounds.
On a positive side, it is big enough to eat off if we are doing a share meal and makes a great kids party table.
Our coffee table is fondly called the "Coffee Table of Death"
We have all suffered injuries, especially the girls. A few black eyes, one split ear, lots of bumped toes and legs.
It is a big thing with drawers and shelves. Which were a great idea at the time, but are just another area to dust and clear crap from, the drawers also become dumping grounds.
On a positive side, it is big enough to eat off if we are doing a share meal and makes a great kids party table.
Sometimes I think it would be nice, but I know it would just be a PITA if we had one. We don't have a lot of room in our lounge room for one and it would just become a dumping ground for everything. We do have small side tables for putting cups etc and we don't eat in the lounge room anyway. When we had one at home when I was growing up it always sat in front of the lounge. I have no idea why it was always the lounge and never the lounge chairs LOL. I didn't think it really made a difference?
See, our coffee table is exactly the right size for two people to stand on and dance. This is where my dilemma arises.
We've just bought a lovely new rug (!) with a lovely design on it, but the right-size-for-dancing coffee table occupies too much of the rug design. So I'm thinking I could replace it with a smaller coffee which might open up the space or it might have the opposite effect where the wrong-size smaller piece of furniture actually makes the room seem smaller. Plus, the current coffee table has lots of crayon and scribble marks and it's been scrubbed so many times the stain has worn off the the top - maybe it's just safer to stick with it until my children have university degrees and have left home.
By the way - to the person who used the words "formal lounge" - ENVY. That is all.
We did have one but decided with a baby who will be on the move soon to put it into storage until she is a little older. It has given alot more room to in front of the couches, so she can be put down on the floor and be able to roll around without banging into anything.
My very sturdy, large enough to dance on coffee table with large drawer now makes for an excellent duplo table. It is stored largely out of the way and holds our extensive duplo collection in it's drawer. I now no longer care who marks it, and it's a great height for Holly to sit at by herself.
I felt the same about a beautiful rug. That's why we moved ours. I hated the coffee table leg marks.
Nay for now - we had one but once we had kids, it was just in the way and eventually a hazard (sharp corners etc). I do miss it, especially when we have a pizza/movie night and we want to plonk everything down in the middle of the lounge. Currently we have two little tables by the sides of the couches for drinks etc
Once the kids are older, I plan to go back to having one
We have one, but it is not central to the room - the lounges are in an L shape tucked into the corner of the room and it fits nicely into the open space in front of them, but still leaves plenty of room for schools, dancing, floor puzzles or whatever may be happening in the rest of the room.
It does get used as a dumping ground, but there is nothing that 'lives' on the table - ie when the house is tidy it is empty. There are big drawers underneath, but they open towards the lounge and honestly I frequently forget they are there so stuff doesn't get put in it.
There are some minor marks on the edges but the table has rounded edges (so we haven't had many accidents) and it is a large granite centre with 100mm wide of wood on the edges (granite was from the section they cut out for the kitchen sink - so pretty solid and no marks).
The formal lounge has one, would look too open without, but it just holds the chess set. I've got a few special ornaments that were packed away when DD started crawling - now she's at school I should probably track them down and put them back on the side tables.
My parents have a massive one and it is usually covered in stuff that mum gets cranky at us making a mess when we visit (although 75% of the crap is theirs).
I have an ottoman instead of a coffee table. The kids can do whatever they want to it and I can move it if we need extra seating, plus it opens up so I can store stuff in it.
If you have a lot of room or walking space in your living area, with a good 2 ft space to accommodate a coffee table, then a big one would be awesome. What's your seating furniture like? If you have individual pieces then a square one would be nice, if you've a sectional, I would personally consider rectangular or circular coffee tables!
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