Square Coffee Table

The living room is without a doubt one of the more important rooms of any home. Its main purpose is to give you a place to relax during your downtime and also to entertain any guests during casual get-togethers. If you have a family, it might serve as an area for playing board games or doing jigsaw puzzles during those family game nights. As such, one should put sufficient thought into furnishing the room properly. A poor choice can lead to an uncomfortable environment for yourself and others wanting to use the room.

One of the primary furniture pieces in a living room is of course the coffee table. In a typical layout of a living room, the sofa may reside on one end of the room with the television and entertainment unit on the opposite end. The coffee table then sits in the middle of the room and hence becomes a focus of attention. So not only must it be functional, but it should ideally be visually appealing.

A particular type of coffee table that is popular these days is the square coffee table. Even within this subset of coffee tables, there are several variations from which to choose. I’ll cover a few essential things you should take into consideration when making your decision.

Square coffee tables can come in many sizes generally ranging from around 25 inches up to 50 inches. Therefore, you should be careful when picking the table size. On one hand, you would want a square coffee table to be small enough such that people can conveniently navigate around the living room and especially between the table and the couch.

On the other hand, the table should be large enough for placing items you want as well as somewhat close to the length of the couch. For example, if you have a spacious living room with corner end modular sofas that can sit a total of 8 people, then a large square coffee table would be suitable. One other thing to note is that a table that is too small comparatively to your living room, although not a problem from a practical viewpoint, may look out of proportion.

Therefore, I think it is important to take measurements of your living room before you go to the showrooms and committing yourself to a particular coffee table.

For the most part, the selection of material from which a square coffee table is constructed is a style-based decision. Presently, people who are after a modern look tend to go for a square glass coffee table. Generally, the table top is made from tempered glass, which doesn’t break as easily as normal glass and if it does, the broken glass are in small fragments rather than large sharp pieces. These larger pieces are considered to a much more dangerous, which is of greater issue if you have kids around. The rest of the table is usually either made from wood (e.g. pine and oak) or metal (e.g. chrome and iron).

If you have small children in the home, it might not be safe to have square glass coffee tables. Aside from the danger of breaking the glass and getting hurt, kids might accidentally scratch the surface or leave fingerprints.

An alternative is get a square coffee table made from some kind of wood. The common types include the cherry square coffee table and the oak square coffee table. The appeal is in the pattern from the grain on the wood surface and the warm color exhibited by the finish. If cost is a major limitation for you, you don’t have to get a coffee table made from solid oak or solid cherry. Instead, you can get a fiberboard or a composite wood square coffee table with a cherry or oak finish. This way, you can achieve the look of the fine hardwood but not break your bank account in the process. Just note that this means the table is more lightweight and won’t be as durable.

Yet another choice is the square coffee table ottoman. This variety of coffee tables has a leather upholstery (which can be genuine or synthetic) and usually wooden legs. Not only can you place items on the leather surface, but you could also use it rest your feet or as another seat.

Sometimes, when you have a lot stuff such as magazines, you don't really want to leave them lying the the table top. You might want to neatly put them away so you'll have a clear table on which to put drinks and food. In this case, you'll want to consider looking into square coffee tables with drawers perhaps. I've noticed that with a lot of the more contemporary square coffee table range, they don't seem to have drawers.