It’s a little while since we’ve made any more progress on the living room – WHY is it the finishing touches that are so hard to work out? I genuinely though that once we got the replastering, the new floor, the redecorating, the rest would just fall into place but not so. At this rate, so many years will go by it will be time to redecorate before we’ve even finished the room.
We’re still on the hunt for new sofas but one item of furniture that I AM really happy with is our new coffee table. It’s been a bit of a contentious issue. Before we got together Pete used to live in Cambridgeshire where he had a house and some very lovely furniture thinking he was going to be there for keeps.
One of the items we’ve been trying to rehome was his handmade Italian coffee table which used to live in the living room but at a meter square, it just felt like it took up too much space even in our sizeable room. Once we put the floor down and redecorated, he did agree it was time to get a new one that worked better for our needs and now the original table is in one of our spare bedrooms.
Finding exactly what you need can be a little challenging so I’m sharing some tips to help.
Size Matters
Yes, it really does. Nothing new right? As we found, having a coffee table that’s too big for a room makes the room seem small, even if it’s not. We’ve gone from a square shape to a rectangular one which doesn’t look lost but makes it much easier to move around. If you have a small living room it might be better to get a couple of side tables instead of one central piece. Or you could use a pouffe instead, doubling up as extra seating.
Storage
From papers to cables, we knew we needed something with either a cupboard or drawers to accommodate all. the. crap. At any one time I seem to have about 3 boxes of matches on the go, broken pens, old magazines and several tennis balls lying around that Maddie keeps “liberating”. Having a pair of deep sturdy drawers is invaluable to helping me feel like the room is tidy even though I’ve just done a Monica and shoved everything out of sight.
Style
Probably the most important element of your purchase. If you favour antiques, don’t opt for a super modern minimalist look. If pared-back Scandi is your vibe, an ornate gilt-edged Renaissance piece may look a little out of place. We’re quite careful to find pieces that we love long term. Fast interiors don’t really appeal and I want to make sure our furniture is something we’ll love as much in 5 years time as we do today. With our engineered parquet floor, the coffee table we chose has mango wood drawers in a similar colour to the floor. It’s on a rug which breaks up the materials nicely and has an industrial-look smoked bronze frame that ties in with our mirror, TV and dark radiator.
I’m so happy with the choice we made and it looks perfect in the living room. Now I just need to dedicate the same efforts to replacing the sofas and maybe, just maybe, it could be finished before Christmas.
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