Posts Tagged ‘coffee table’
The Modern Coffee Table
Coffee tables are one of the most important things one can place in their living room. Although they’re primarily utilitarian, coffee tables have many other aspects, making them unique pieces of furniture. Their uses include supporting beverages, books, and magazines, as well as people’s feet when they’re sitting on their couch. (Depending on the rules in that family’s home) The first coffee tables started appearing towards the end of the Victorian Era in England. They were designed to be long, low-slung tables where people could place their drinks. (Such as coffee or tea) Typically, coffee tables were (and still are) placed in front of a sofa. There, they can hold, as many drinks as there are people sitting down.
Gradually, the coffee table became more popular with the average person. By the early 20th Century, it was commonplace to have a coffee table in your living room. In fact, today it would seem odd to most people in the U.S. if you didn’t have any sort of coffee table in your living room. As coffee tables developed, people began placing books and magazines on them.
This was a convenient place to put things you or your guests would like to sit down and read. Instead of leaving your magazine in the kitchen or bedroom, where you may forget about it, placing it in one central and convenient location such as a coffee table makes it easy to keep track of it and read it at your leisure. Out of this ideology came the coffee table book. Coffee table books are essentially large books that are placed on the table, which are as much a decoration as an item to read.
They also create great conversation pieces, and are a way of expressing your interest in something. For example, somebody who loves cars may have a coffee table book title, “Classic Cars of the 1960′s” Sitting next to that may be his wife’s book about flowers. The coffee table, as well as holding many items neccissary to a living room, is very important because it is the centerpiece of the room. People congregate around it, fueling conversation and interraction.
Groups of people may also use it’s flat surface to place a game board on. A great example of people gathering around a coffee table is a family game night. Many families have a night, once a week, where they all sit around and play board games like Monopoly.
To conclude, coffee tables are extremely important to anyone’s living room environmet. Coffee tables are both a useful tool to hold items people want in their living rooms, and create a central area for get-togethers and family time. Without a good coffee table, a living room isn’t a living room. People would sit in far corners of the room and talk less with each other, and this would make it a less enjoyable place for everybody. Rather than having an isolated, boring room, most people choose to put in coffee tables for a reason: They create a more friendly liveable space for any guest or family member.
