While I want my Coffee Table Guide to provide real practical advice and information, I also want to blend in some more interesting commentary on the art of furniture-making and some greater appreciation for these simple little coffee tables we place before our sofas or couches.

A favorite coffee table designer of mine is George Nakashima. George Nakashima was a Japanese American Architect, Woodworker and Furniture Designer who pioneered 20th century furniture design as the father of the American Craft movement. His work infused an organic primal energy with a clean, Asian aesthetic which grows more and more appealing with each passing year.

While of Japanese descent, he was born in Spokane, Washington, and had an immense influence on American furniture and architecture during his lifetime. The George Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop in Pennsylvania is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

This video features an exhibition of his beautiful, rustic coffee tables. Enjoy:

While you may have simply come here to find a simple, utilitarian coffee table for your television room or something similar, I hope this coffee table video helps you appreciate the great artistry that has gone into evolving the coffee table as we know it today through the work of one of the great masters, George Nakashima.

Welcome to the Coffee Table Guide. I hope to provide you your single most comprehensive resource on all matters relating to coffee tables, from selecting the perfect coffee table for your situation, to finding the best deals on coffee tables online to understanding the role of this versatile piece of furniture in the modern household and how it came to be.

What Is A Coffee Table?
Wood, Glass, Round or Square Coffee Table?
The History of the Coffee Table
Coffee Tables Today

What Is A Coffee Table?

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While some call it a cocktail table, the coffee table is the more established name for the low, long furniture piece set before the sofa to provide easy access to hot and cold drinks. Modern coffee tables have come to be the resting place for more than just coffee, however, with coasters, magazines, plants and perhaps most famously coffee table books finding their place atop a coffee table. These contemporary coffee tables have also begun to incorporate storage through small cabinets or drawers.

You’ll find coffee tables everywhere from the living room, family room or sitting room to the recreation room or home entertainment center.

While furniture trends come and go, the coffee table doesn’t ever seem to go out of style. Whether because it provides the perfect complement to the living room sofa or because it represents versatile and practical function, you’ll always find a way to fit a coffee table into your home.

Wood, Glass, Round or Square Coffee Table?

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One reason they are so common and so timeless is that today coffee tables come in all shapes, sizes, materials and sizes. Whether you seek a wood coffee table to match the oak of a traditional living room or a glass coffee table to match your modern minimalism, you’ll find a style and material to match your needs. While some still prefer the rustic coffee table (which is usually wooden), others have come to love the elegant balance and modern aesthetic of the naguchi coffee table, a glass coffee table with a single glass piece for the top and two balanced pieces creating a tripod stance.

Others still may prefer pure functionality, going with a lift top coffee table so that one can prepare the table in the kitchen and place the top directly on its frame with ease. While lift top coffee tables were once heavy and unwieldy, modern designs provide light and easy-to-use tops for even the tightest budgets.

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The History of the Coffee Table

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The basic concept of a low table designed for the primary purpose of presenting hot beverages or setting down your cup between sip existed well before historical references to a coffee table in European designs. From claw and pillar tripod tables in India to low square tea tables in China, the basic functionality we find so versatile and appealing in coffee tables today has existed for centuries across the world.

The first references to modern coffee tables appears to have occurred in the latter Victorian era when a table created by E.W. Godwin was manufactured and sold in large quantities by William Watt, Collinson and Lock. This particular table was actually described as a coffee table, and references to it as such exists within furniture literature occur in such reputable sources as R. W. Symonds and B. B. Whineray’s Victorian Furniture as well as in Edward T. Joy’s The Country Life Book of English Furniture.

However, other historical data indicates that this table would have been a little high by modern expectations for such coffee tables, so we’re really not sure.

The history of this ubiquitous cocktail table becomes even more obscured in the late 19th century with the popularity of revivalism. In 1938, Joseph Aronson perhaps encapsulated and defined the table’s name forever after when he wrote that a coffee table was a “low wide table now used before a sofa or couch.”

Coffee Tables Today

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Today you might say consumerism has taken reign, with all manner of style and material thriving. Revivalism has certainly not disappeared, as even in the seventies Art Deco revivalism manifested itself and left a permanent influence in the furniture industry. It appears that modernism and revivalism are not destined to coexist with different personalities being drawn to different aesthetic ideals.

You even see coffee tables penetrating the casual food industry with companies such as Starbucks utilizing coffee tables in their decor to help provide a warm, comfortable environment for their customers to enjoy their latest caffeine creation.

You certainly shouldn’t be at a loss for choices, with the mass production of a wide range of styles and materials being available everywhere, from online auction sites to your local thrift store, from upscale furniture boutiques to local discount retailers like Wal-Mart, from square coffee tables to lift top coffee tables. Whatever your budget and whatever your requirement, be it functional or ornamental, it shouldn’t take long for your to find a small coffee table or large coffee tables to fit your specific needs.

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When deciding on the perfect coffee table for the room you’re furnishing, you can’t help but consider the square coffee table. You will not find another piece of furniture with so much diversity in available materials, styles and designs. For the purpose of this article, I’m actually referring to both square coffee tables and rectangular coffee tables, as most manufacturers and retailers categorize them as the same basic furniture piece.

How to Select a Square Coffee Table

Just because a square coffee table is so stylistically flexible doesn’t mean you can avoid careful consideration of how it will fit with your existing décor. A contemporary glass square coffee table will look odd and awkward in an ornately traditional living room and a richly detailed Victorian square coffee table will look startling and wrong in an environment filled with minimalist designs or a modern Asian theme.

This may sound obvious, but you might find yourself startled to learn how often people don’t consider the way the texture and design of a piece matches the rest of the room. They just develop a crush on a particular square coffee table then force it into whatever environment they own, often creating an accidental eyesore right in the middle of a heavily used space.

Next you need to consider the function you require in the room to adopt a new square coffee table. For example, will it be a room with elegant furnishings intended as sitting room for entertaining guests, or will it be a heavily used room with the TV and where children will lounge and play?

Square Coffee Table

This makes quite a bit of difference. For function and practicality, you might prefer square lift top coffee tables or you may just want a contemporary coffee table with plenty of drawers for storing magazines and such. Or you may seek clean, simple square coffee table which puts more emphasis on items you place atop it, such as plants, vases or really nice coffee table books.

So be sure to consider both the style of your room and the function you require from your new square coffee table.

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Styles of Square Coffee Tables

Many find a square coffee table appealing because it can come in such a wide variety of appearances. You’ll find square coffee tables created with all manner of materials, from iron and glass to an enormous range of different woods with different colors and grain patterns.

Even within a single wood, like with oak square coffee tables, you’ll find a wide range of styles and themes, from a mission square coffee table to small square end coffee tables.

Perhaps a simple pine coffee table will suit your needs. Or perhaps a finely crafted cherry square coffee table will best match your room’s décor. Or for some, delicate details with gold-colored or brass hardware provide the antique look they desire.

Start by selecting either modern or traditional, and from there you’ll find the styles subdivide further and further until you find something uniquely appealing to you. For example, within traditional you’ll find ornate antique pieces and you’ll find simple pieces with dark wood and traditional designs. Within modern, you’ll find a simple square wood coffee table with basic shapes and clean lines while you’ll also find an exotic square glass coffee table with luxurious bevels and a sparkling surface or sharp-looking small, black square coffee table.

Shopping For Your Square Coffee Table

As with any significant purchase, I urge you to shop around before you open your wallet and commit your money. You’ll find yourself growing more knowledgeable as you shop, and a coffee table you thought was perfect when you first began the process will begin to seem somehow inappropriate for your situation as your knowledge and exposure to different possibilities increases.

These days you simply must take advantage of the Internet. You can view and consider an enormous variety of styles and appearances in very little time with very little effort. You can also gain a much broader understanding of the different price ranges for different coffee table manufacturers and coffee table styles.

Don’t necessarily commit to buying online, but definitely begin your comparison shopping on the web. For example, sometimes you’ll be sure you found the best deal for that ideal square coffee table on a certain website, only to reach the checkout page where you learn the exorbitant cost of shipping the piece to your home.

Even if you do choose to buy online, I still recommend visiting some furniture showrooms before you make your choice. Sometimes nothing compares to really standing and sitting around specific coffee tables to determine how they look and feel when you’re around them. And sometimes it is simply the only way to grasp a real sense of their scale. You might not realize that large square coffee table was just too large until you stood next to it.

I hope this helped you open your eyes to different things you should consider when evaluating different square coffee tables for your home. Be deliberate and thoughtful with your selection, as your new square coffee table will likely be with you for years to come, becoming an oft-forgotten part of many great and poignant memories.

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Considering lift top coffee tables? For most people this will be a great idea. Let me explain why.

As simple as the basic coffee table may be in concept, you can actually find a wide variety of styles and functions fulfilled by different modern coffee tables. They’ve evolved to provide a great number of functions and features.

The most inventive and practical of them all, however, may likely be a lift top coffee table. Lift top coffee tables provide flexible functionality along with elegant looks. If you hope to fully utilize the room in which you place your new coffee table, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more convenient and versatile piece of furniture than the lift top coffee table.

Lift Top Coffee Tables

Just a couple decades ago, a coffee table with lift top meant a sterile, utilitarian piece of furniture. This is no longer the case as today you can find these pieces in all styles, shapes and sizes, from cheap lift top coffee tables for those on a budget to a luxurious and sleek black lift top coffee table or even square coffee tables with a lift top.

You’ll learn that most major manufacturers will now allow special orders so you may order the exact shape, color and size you need for your home. In general, the design of these practical coffee tables has become more and more efficient and functional, making them more and more genuinely useful in your day-to-day life.

Eating On Your Lift Top Coffee Table

Today you and your loved one can comfortably enjoy a casual meal while reclining on your sofa, all thanks to the new designs and functions of modern lift top coffee tables.

With this great furniture, you won’t need to lean over your food awkwardly or extend your arms unnecessarily. Just lift the surface top of the coffee table to rest at just the right height for you to eat while enjoying each others’ company, cheering on your favorite sports team or just watching your favorite television shows.

Lift Top Coffee Tables for Work

When you lift and lock the top of these coffee tables, they also make an excellent work surface for your papers or your laptop computer. Think of it as a temporary and adjustable desktop right there in the comfort of your living room or family room. And as soon as you’re done working it easily transforms back into an elegant cocktail table for serving your favorite beverages.
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These days you’ll even find models which feature lower drawers or shelves beneath the lift top. This provides even more utility by empowering you to store your papers, books, magazines or pens & pencils all in a discreet, tucked-away location yet easily accessible. If you’re tired of clutter crowding your coffee table top, perhaps the flexible functionality of a lift top coffee table can help you clear that clutter away.

Lift Top Coffee Tables Are For Parents… And Kids

Whether they’re playing Monopoly or Clue with the family or whether they’re doing their homework, the lift top coffee table provides an easy way for your kids to crowd around the table in the family room or living room. You’ll better hold their attention by keeping them more comfortable so they can focus on the fun of your company.

This encourages parents to keep their kids more close by. No longer do you have to isolate fun space and work space or lose sight of your kids as they play. Bring up right there into the living room by storing books and toys in the lift top coffee table’s drawers and use the lift top itself to provide the perfect homework or board game surface.

Find Your Lift-Top Coffee Table

Lift top tables fulfill all manner of needs and purposes. They can be formal and sophisticated or just practical and casual. They provide you with convenient storage for everything from magazines and books to CDs and DVDS.

While you may not be able to find a full glass coffee table with a lift top, with just a little research, you’ll find lift top coffee tables with glass tops, stone tops, marble tops, plastic tops and a whole lot more. You can choose elaborate pieces with all kinds of fancy lift top coffee table hardware making for multiple adjustable sections, or you can select a simple oak lift top coffee table for a simple yet traditional family room.

You can choose a fancy Barrington lift top coffee table or a practical one from a discount retailer like Target.

Don’t compromise the beauty or functionality of your living room, sitting room or family room. You can have it all-in-one with elegant yet versatile lift top coffee tables.

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At one time Glass Coffee Tables were a luxury reserved for the wealthy. As furniture manufacturing has evolved, however, this furniture of clear elegance has become affordable, popular and much more diverse.

When considering a glass coffee table for your home, remember that your home’s appearance reflects the attitude and sensibility of your family and your life. How you choose to furnish your humble (or not so humble) abode can shape the way guests feel during their visits with you.

The beauty of glass coffee tables is that they manage to be functional and practical while also conveying a sense of class and refinement. The sparkling, shapely glass of a round glass coffee table or an oval glass coffee table instantly enhances the panache of your decór, yet most glass coffee tables also provide flexible functionality with durable, easy-to-clean maintenance.

Are Glass Coffee Tables Right For You?

Don’t just develop a crush on a certain glass coffee table and buy it. Be certain such a furnishing fits with your home and existing furnishings. Is your home packed with traditional materials like wood and rustic details? If so, a glass table may not fit this traditional style.

However, if your home features more modern features like open spaces and clean, simple lines, then a lovely glass coffee table might be fit just right.

Detail pieces such as coffee tables should complement the design of the area around them. It should rest nicely along the sofa and not break the flow of the room. You should also consider the color, tone and style of the house or apartment itself.

Glass Coffee Table

While contemporary glass coffee tables often work great among more contemporary decor, they can also work well with a traditional setting if you’re careful which specific design you choose. A square glass coffee table with wooden or rustic iron details can still fit a traditional room in some cases.

Caring For Glass Coffee Tables

Once you have your precious new table home, you need to understand how to properly care for your sparkling new furnishing.

One great advantage of glass coffee tables over wood coffee tables is that small accidents aren’t as potentially disastrous. It’s easy and quick to wipe clean your glass table top after an innocent little spill.

However, you should take some precautions as well. Your new glass coffee table is, after all, glass. Be wary of how you scoot around items upon its surface, such as plant pots or lamps. An innocent little repositioning could result in a devastating scratch. Sometimes, like on a trendy black glass coffee table, scratches won’t be very apparent. Other times, however, they can almost ruin the whole furnishing.

Likewise, be sure to use a non-abrasive cleaner with a non-abrasive cloth when wiping your clear coffee table down. Most standard cleaners are abrasive these days, so be deliberate in your choice of cleaning solution. I recommend a simple solution of two or three tablespoons of ammonia with a quart of water. Wipe the table dry when your done.

Another precaution here is that some glass cleaners may do damage to the rest of the coffee table if it features a wooden frame. Again, be deliberate and be careful and you’ll be fine.

Glass Coffee Table Form and Function

I suggest you consider the durability and longevity of a glass coffee table design before you buy it. Even the most beautiful piece of furniture may lose its luster if it simply doesn’t last or if it becomes an inconvenience to your day-to-day living. While your new coffee table can complete your room’s look, it must also provide function. If you prefer the function found in lift top coffee tables then a glass coffee table may not be for you.

Over the arc of time, a living room table with a shape and size broad enough to handle magazines, coffee table books, remote controls and still have plenty of room to comfortably set a couple of drinks will easily justify and reward your choosing it.

I hope this helps you understand how and why a glass coffee table might be just what you need to complete a look for your living room or family room. Don’t jump at the first pretty one you find, but don’t hesitate to work it into your decor either.

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A coffee table is an important part of a living room or family room. It is generally in a central part of the room where people gather and it works both as a functional piece of furniture as well as an aesthetic piece of furniture providing balance with the love seat or couch.

If you’re thinking about buying a coffee table it’s important to think about your specific needs, your lifestyle and of course the decor of the room where you want to add the coffee table. For instance, if you have kids or pets you may not want to invest in an expensive or rare coffee table because it may be damaged.

And even more importantly you will want to consider something with rounded edges instead of sharp corners to help reduce the chance of an accidental injury with those wild little rascals.
With the wide range of coffee tables available you can easily find something to fit all your needs.

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