When it comes to timeless and durable coffee tables, wooden coffee tables are in a league of their own. Whereas travertine tables can chip — and take a small army to move — and glass tables can be a hazard to kids and a pain to keep clean, wood tables gracefully weather it all. While deciding on a wooden coffee table for your living room or family room isn’t hard, selecting the right style, shape, and finish can be. To help make shopping for one easier, we’re spotlighting some wood options you should consider, plus providing tricks and tips on where they work best.
Finishes
Stained
If you’re shopping for a traditional wood coffee table, most of the pieces you encounter are likely to showcase basic stained finishes. Wood can be stained virtually any color, though most woods are stained in a color very similar to their natural finish. Stained wood is generally treated with a polyurethane coat to protect the wood and add shine. For the most dramatic look, consider an ebonized wood coffee table. These black-stained tables are ideal in scenarios where you desire the durability and practicality of wood, but you also want a more modernized look.
Burl
Burl coffee tables feature a mottled or swirled finish and high-gloss sheen. Burl wood is created from naturally-occurring growths that appear on some trees. Its rarity makes burl wood more costly, but many consider the visual interest burlwood provides worth the splurge. Keep in mind that burlwood can be sourced from virtually any tree, so it’s possible to find dark, medium, and light brown wood tables crafted of burl.
Many burlwood tables are modern and postmodern in style, although it is possible to find more antiquated styles that incorporate burl. Postmodern burl tables often showcase oversized forms and are commonly adorned with chrome or brass accents. Milo Baughman designed a number of burl tables for Thayer Coggin. John Widdicomb and Bernhardt also frequently incorporated burl into their designs.
Whitewash / Cerused
Rustic wood coffee tables are likely to feature whitewashed or cerused finishes. Whitewashed finishes can be lightly applied like a wash or they can be applied thickly like paint. They can also be uniform in appearance or distressed. Cerused wood finishes give wood a light, stripped-wood appearance that is conducive to cottage-inspired or farmhouse-inspired interiors. In general, contemporary cerused tables are large in scale and often feature trestle bases or turned baluster-style legs.
Pencil Reed & Bamboo
While not necessarily by-the-book wood, bamboo is a form of wood and a bamboo coffee table is worth considering, especially if your aesthetic preference runs coastal, boho chic, or postmodern glam. Mid-Century bamboo tables often showcase a more Polynesian-inspired aesthetic, which today we might associate with the retro Tiki style. Check out designs by Ficks Reed and Paul Frankl, if you’re interested in landing the look. In the 1970s and 80s, however, pencil reed came into vogue and many makers began designing boxy, large-scale tables covered entirely in stacked pencil reed. Often these tables included waterfall edges of tiered silhouettes to soften the look.
Styles
Traditional
Given that wood predates virtually all other construction materials, there’s virtually no limit to the traditional style wood tables you can discover. That said, the coffee table wasn’t actually invented until the early 20th century, so the majority of traditional wood coffee tables you see on the market are revival styles.
Mid-Century Modern
By the time the Mid 20th century rolled around, wood was still the preferred construction material of choice. For this reason, wood Mid-Century Modern coffee tables are plentiful. While many MCM styles are round, square, or rectangular in appearance, the biomorphic coffee table rose to prominence during this time. Many Mid-Century Modern wood styles also incorporate non-wood materials such as glass or tile.
Mass-market furniture makers were all the rage in the mid-20th century, with many makers creating furniture collections with two or three different coffee table options. Check out vintage designs from makers like Broyhill, Lane Furniture, and Heywood-Wakefield to get a sense of the era’s most popular designs.
Modern
Modern wood coffee tables are perfect for melding a sense of tradition with a more modern aesthetic. Many modern coffee tables are larger than traditional or Mid-Century tables, as makers have scaled them up to better accommodate today’s larger new-build homes. Large-scale drum-style tables and block-style tables are perhaps the most common designs today, but if you desire something slimmer in profile, look for wood and iron tables which tend to be more compact in scale.
Shapes
Oval or round
Round wooden coffee tables are perfect for breaking up hard-angled furniture like sofas, chairs, and media cabinets. When choosing a round table, you’ll have the option to opt for a leg-style base, pedestal base or a leg-less, block-style base. Leg-less bases can provide the most streamlined look, making them an especially popular choice for more modern rooms.
Square or Rectangular
A square or rectangular wooden coffee table is about as classic as it gets. Rectangular tables are ideal for those who want to provide table space for every person seated along the length of a sofa. Square tables are great for those who want to use their coffee table for more than just setting drinks. Roomy square tables are ideal for game-playing, study sessions and more.
Live Edge
Consider a live-edge wood table for rooms where a round or square coffee table feels too predictable. These free-form tables are crafted from unaltered tree slabs, resulting in a unique assortment of shapes and sizes. Many of these tables have bases constructed of a contrasting material like iron or Lucite, but some feature continuous wood bases, upping the organic-modern feel even more.
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Lead photo by Staprans Design / Photo by R. Brad Knipstein Photography
