LA-Z-BOY Gulf Coast Designers DESIGN BLOG!

All of us think choosing a coffee table is super easy until it’s time to find one!

3/23/2021

By Mercer Moore, Designer
La-Z-Boy, Pensacola

Video: The coffee table is your best friend.

The Kings, the Queens, and the Knight

What gets all the attention in a living room? The sofas, sectionals, chairs, and rugs - they are the Kings and Queens of the living room. They wear the crowns...they get all of the adoration!

My clients and I spend a lot of time choosing the Kings and Queens of the living room: the sofa and chairs, the rug, the upholstery, and the placement of those crowned pieces. But what really makes a room function well is the Knight, the coffee table. It's there to serve, to accompany, to make everyone's lives better!

Choosing your Knight - the coffee table - is something that you think you just instinctually know how to do… until it’s time to find one! But the Knight is the workhorse in the room and is every bit as important as the rest. Give it some respect. The right one will make your living room a wonderful, majestic place and make your day a royal experience.

Well, maybe that's a leeetle much. But in real person terms, the right coffee table WILL enhance your everyday life. It holds your drinks. It patiently nestles your magazines. It presents your flowers. It stoically takes the heat from your candles. It offers a place for you to prop your feet. All of this with no whining, no complaints. Your coffee table is your best friend. Choosing one can be one of the most important decisions of your life.

Coffee table decision.

Last month I designed a room for a family who recently moved to Pensacola. My client had always had the traditional setup of a sofa with two chairs. But she was ready for a more relaxed living space now that she is on the Gulf Coast, and chose an L-shaped sectional. Her well-loved, old coffee table was not going to work well with the new sectional. So, using the following "coffee table guidelines", she and I talked about what would work best! Going through the guidelines helped her eliminate tables. There was no guessing, and no trial and error. She chose her coffee table, and she chose it well.

Which one did she choose?
Which one would you choose?
Vote in the poll at the end of this post!

HELPFUL GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING A BEST FRIEND,
YOUR COFFEE TABLE

A coffee table should be:

At least half the length of your sofa
But no more than roughly ⅔ the length
Should be the same height as the seat, give or take 4 inches

For an L-shaped sectional:

The 1/2 to 2/3 guideline applies better to just the length of the horizontal seat, rather than the full length of the sofa
Round and square shaped coffee tables can almost be interchanged - same goes with rectangular and oval.

Keep scrolling!
The diagrams and photos below explain it best!

Rectangle

Consider a rectangular coffee table if you have a standard sofa (or a sectional with chaise) so everyone can have easy access to whatever they have in their cups...coffee, cocktail, or milk with their cookies! If you have a narrow space with minimal walk-around clearance, the rectangle is absolutely the best choice!

Square

A square coffee table is a great choice if you have a large comfy sectional or the traditional conversational set up with a sofa and a couple of chairs. It is perfect when placed in the center space of the seating area. But it also fits well in the L-shaped nook of your sectional! What I love best a square coffee table is all of the wonderful styling space. Accessories, books, flowers, a lovely box for the numerous remotes, will all fit on top with some room to spare for the coffee cup.

Round

For anyone living in a small space where every piece of furniture counts, you can literally cut corners with a round coffee table. It also works with an L-shaped sectional because it fits into the "nook" perfectly. One of my favorites is this round coffee table with a lower tier for accessories, and magazine and book storage!