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A coffee table is the most used and least considered piece in a sitting room. It takes drinks, feet, books, a laptop and a tray, and it does all of that in a gap between a sofa and a fire that is almost never a standard size.
That is the case for having one made. Height set from your sofa cushion, length set from your room, storage where you need it, in a timber that suits the furniture you already own.
Getting the size right
Height. Level with the seat cushion of the sofa, or fractionally below. Measure the cushion compressed, with somebody sitting on it, because an empty cushion reads high.
Length. Roughly two thirds the length of the sofa it faces. In front of a fire, or between two facing sofas, fill the space properly instead.
Clearance. Leave enough between the table edge and the sofa to walk past without turning sideways, and to get your knees in when you sit forward to eat off it.
Which way it is seen from. A table in the middle of a room is seen from all four sides, so the drawer arrangement matters.
The tables we make
Farmhouse coffee table. The plainest and most-specified pattern. Tapered or turned legs, wide front framing, a solid top, one drawer or two.
Coffee table with potboard. A low open board between the legs — originally the shelf cooking pots stood on, explained on the potboard dresser bases page. Here it holds books, papers and baskets, and it is the most useful thing you can add.
Coffee table with potboard and two drawers. The same, with a pair of drawers in the frieze — as much storage as a low table can carry.
Four- and six-drawer potboard coffee tables. Two or three drawers a side, opening from both directions, for a table that stands in the middle of a room.
Square potboard coffee table. Square in plan rather than rectangular, for a room with two facing sofas or a square bay.
Six-leg coffee table with potboard. The extra pair of legs at the centre stops a long frieze looking unsupported and gives the potboard a middle bearer.
Rowton coffee table with potboard, in cherry. From the Rowton range, with the caddy top — a moulded, slightly raised top edge that contains what you put down. Usually in cherry, which darkens markedly over the first few years.
Refectory coffee table. The refectory form scaled down: end-standing legs, a planked top and a low stretcher. The one to choose if the dining table is a refectory.
Double gateleg coffee table. Hinged leaves on both sides supported by swinging gates, so a small table opens out for the length of an evening. See gateleg tables.
Wakes coffee table. Deep drop leaves on the long sides. Closed, it is narrow enough to live against a sofa; open, it is a table you could eat off. Made in more than one pattern.
Single pedestal coffee table with drop leaves. A central turned pedestal instead of legs, with leaves down each side. Nothing to catch a shin on.
Bandsaw base coffee table. The base cut from the solid rather than turned, giving broad shaped standards instead of legs. Made four-leg or as a pedestal.
Parquet top coffee table. A top laid as parquetry — small blocks of timber in a geometric pattern — over a stretchered base, including a version with a C stretcher.
Burr walnut coffee table. A burr is the wildly figured growth from a trunk, cut and laid so the swirl runs across the top. Unrepeatable, because no two burrs are alike.
Carved coffee table. Carved detail to the legs, frieze or top, including a square grape-carved pattern.
Jugendstil coffee table. The turn-of-the-century Austrian and German style: geometric, restrained and much plainer than the carved patterns. Two drawers.
Timbers
Oak, cherry, mahogany and walnut are the standard four, and every table here is made in all of them. Burr walnut is used for the burr top, cherry for the Rowton pattern.
Specials, on application: character oak; pippy oak in light, medium and heavy grades — a coffee table is exactly the size of top where a heavy pippy figure earns its keep; oak selected for medullary ray, the silver-grey figure across quarter-sawn oak; and clean timber with no knots at all.
Finishes: polished, painted, limed, sand-blasted, rub-through paint, natural, or colour matched to a sample. We can match furniture that is 100 years old to new reproduction purchases made the year before.
Order free timber and finish samples. A coffee table is looked down on rather than across at, so the top is the piece and its shade decides everything.
Made to your size
Every dimension is open, and here the height is the one that matters most.
Common changes: height set from your sofa cushion; length and width set to the space; drawers added, doubled or opening from both sides; a potboard added to a pattern that does not carry one; the potboard raised to take particular baskets; leaves added to a fixed top; a matching pair of lamp tables cut from the same boards.
If the piece does not exist yet, our designers draw it first. See bespoke, commissioning and contemporary furniture.
Prices
Quoted individually, because no two are the same size. Tell us the pattern, the size, the timber and the finish and we will give you a guide price. Special timbers and finishes are on application. Lead time is typically ten to twelve weeks.
Frequently asked questions
What height should a coffee table be?
Level with the compressed seat cushion of your sofa, or fractionally lower. Sit on the sofa, measure from the floor to the top of the cushion under your weight, and send us that figure.
What is a potboard on a coffee table?
A low open shelf between the legs, taken from the country dresser base where it held cooking pots. Here it holds books, magazines and baskets, and roughly doubles what the piece will store.
Which coffee table works if the room is small?
A wakes or double gateleg pattern, which stands narrow against the sofa and opens out when you need it. A square potboard table is the other answer, because it stores in the footprint it occupies.
Can you make a coffee table to match my dining table?
Yes, including tables we made years ago. A refectory coffee table under a refectory dining table is a common request. Send photographs, dimensions and a sample of the finish. See matching antique furniture.
