Glass coffee tables can feel relatively light and airy, but we love the look of classic wooden coffee tables too there are plenty of beautiful vintage mid-century examples out there, although since they've become so popular over the last decade or so, they can be expensive. The material you choose for your coffee table can make a huge difference to how big a presence it is in your room. And note that the standard height for a coffee table is 40cm, so much higher or lower may feel a bit strange. When choosing what size you want, our decoration editor Ruth Sleightholme advises marking out roughly the space you want it to take up on the floor with masking tape and then comparing those measurements to the tables you find online or in the shops. Like its upholstered cousin, the ottoman, the coffee table can be a great focal point in a room arrange the sofa at one end and a pair of armchairs at the other, and you have a classic living room layout, a more sociable alternative to pointing everything at the TV. It's always good to have as generous a surface as possible, so that there is scope for flowers and piles of coffee table books, but there are some very sweet small coffee tables out there too for when you just need something to hold your stuff. It has to carry an assortment of objects from books and magazines to scented candles, cups of tea, and let's be honest, quite often your dinner plates too. A coffee table tends to be one of the most hard-working pieces of furniture in a living room.

Cool coffee tables