It's the one piece your living room is missing. Guests come over, sit down on the sofa and look down. There's no coffee table book to look through as they are waiting for you to prepare drinks. That's because there's no coffee table. Once you bring in a drink and a snack, there's no place for you to set down the tray, so you make your guest quickly select what they want. Then they need a place to put it. Instead of being able to set these items on the table in front of them, and be able to stay fully involved in the conversation, they are going to have to twist around to place their cup and napkin on the end table to the side of them. It's an awkward dance of the twist they will now be doing for the rest of their time here, minus the Chubby Checker music.
It's time to buy a coffee table.
Folding Snack Trays
Maybe it's the selection of coffee tables on the market that has turned you away until now. There are a lot of them out there. There are even stores that only sell coffee tables and seem to have a successful business going from it. But narrowing down the massive selection is not that hard. Start with the criteria you need and you will be easily able to pare down the list.
Shape - First, let's look at making sure the table goes with the look you already have in place. If you have a sectional sofa or scattered seating around a central area in your living room, you will likely want to look for oval or round coffee tables that are conducive to a social environment. If you have an L-shaped sectional, you may want to instead stick to rectangular coffee tables that will complement the furniture pieces.
Size - This is going to directly depend on the amount of space you have. If you have a great room you have a lot of flexibility to have a larger table. A smaller room can't pull this off. Likewise, your décor will come into play here. If you have low slung modern furniture pieces you want to have a smaller table so it won't distract from the overall picture. Also, look at the other furniture pieces you have. While the size of the room is a factor, so is proportion. You don't want to have some furniture pieces that overwhelm others. If you do guests will be paying less attention to the conversation and will be looking at your furnishings and wondering what's wrong.
When it comes to style of furniture that is a something you will likely not have a problem with, as you will be able to choose a look that goes with the rest of your décor.
The final consideration is if you would like coffee tables with extra features. For instance, if you watch a lot of TV, you may want one with the lift top so you can have a built in table to have your TV dinners while watching your favorite show. Another great feature is a drawer or shelf under the table for extra storage.