“Never buy a coffee table that you can’t put your feet on” – Life’s little instruction booklet. Those are words I read as a young person and I have really taken to heart. I have an opinion that may seem an odd thing to post about. Coffee tables are important. So, let me then distract you for a moment and explain the importance of the coffee table.
1. It shapes your living room around community
There is a moment in ‘Friends’ where someone tells Joey that they do not have a TV. Joey responds instantly in shock…. “You don’t have a TV!? What’s all your furniture pointed at!?” It’s a hilarious moment but behind it lies a profound statement. Most commonly we centre our living room around the TV. Put a big coffee table in the middle of your room and all of a sudden, even if you have a massive TV in the corner, the room is shaped around the coffee table. Which shapes it around community. Whether its your family or people you invite round. The focus of the room is shifted.
2. It provides somewhere for you to put your books – a.k.a. showing the importance of reading.
If you have a coffee table, you need to keep some books on it. The obvious reason for this, is it provides easy access to reading material when we are sitting in a chair. Too often, the only thing we have easy access too is a phone and so this is what we reach for. Having books to hand in our living is key tactic in the war against meaningless distraction. Second, this highlights the importance of reading. If the coffee table is the centre of your main room, and books are the key feature, it shouts out to everyone that books are at the the centre of your home. This is especially important if you have children,
3. It provides an easy place for everyone to put their drinks.
You know it makes things difficult if you have people round and they have nowhere to put their drink. Having a coffee table solves this. It saves the embarrassment of everyone feeling the need to ask if it is ok for them to put their drinks on the floor/shelf/unit/whatever.
4. It provides a handy foot rest.
Never buy a coffee table that you can’t put your feet on. Seriously, what is the point on wasting money on separate foot rest when you have a perfectly good table there. “But that isn’t what it is for!” I hear shout. But why not? I reply. But what if it was? I add. Think of the possibilities. Maybe you feel putting your feet on it…will ruin it somehow. Fair enough – don’t buy one that you can’t put your feet on.
Now, a quick caveat, sometimes you go through a season of life where having floor space is more important than having a coffee table. I’m in that situation right now. On balance, it is better that we have floor space than a coffee table. The downside of this is that I have nowhere to put my books, nowhere to put my drink and nowhere to put my feet.
So, coffee tables are important!
