The two measurements to take are the sofa’s full length and the height of its seat, and it’s best to take them before you look at a single table. A coffee table completely changes how your sofa looks, so the sofa should set the size, never the other way round. Most of the mistakes people make with coffee tables come from buying the table first and hoping it will fit.
Measure the length from the outside of one arm to the outside of the other. For the seat height, press lightly on the middle cushion and measure from the floor to the top of it, since a soft cushion drops a little when someone sits down.
How Long The Table Should Be
The old rule is two thirds. Take the length of your sofa, multiply it by two thirds, and look for a table around that size. For an 84 inch sofa, that comes to about 56 inches. For a 72 inch sofa, it’s about 48.
If you’re stuck between two sizes, go shorter.
A table that’s a bit short still leaves room for someone to sit at the end of the sofa and get up again without climbing over anything. A table that’s too long does the opposite, and it makes the sofa look smaller than it really is.
How High It Should Be
I like the top of the table at the same height as the sofa seat or slightly lower, an inch or two at most. Most sofas have a seat somewhere around 17 to 19 inches off the floor, and most coffee tables are made at 16 to 18 inches for that reason, so a standard table will be fine for a standard sofa. Low sofas are where people get caught out.
Some modern ones sit only 14 or 15 inches off the floor, and a regular coffee table in front of one looks like it’s standing on its toes. If you’re browsing somewhere like Rococo Milano or any other furniture site, it helps to scroll down to the dimensions before you spend too long on the photos, because the height is the number that rules a table out fastest.
One Table Or Two
For larger seating arrangements, you don’t always need one big coffee table. Two or three smaller tables often work much better, especially on a long sectional where whoever sits at the far end can’t reach a single table in the middle anyway. Nesting tables are handy here. You can pull them apart when people come over and push them back together afterward.
On an L shaped sofa, I’d go round or oval. A round table tucked toward the corner can be reached from both sides, and there are no corners for anyone to bang a shin on, which matters a lot more once there are small kids running around.
How Much Space To Leave
Keep enough space between the sofa and the table so the room feels comfortable and easy to move around. In numbers, most people find these gaps work:
- About 14 to 18 inches between the front of the sofa and the table.
- About the same between the table and any armchair facing it.
- 2 to 3 feet between the table and a TV stand, so people can walk past.
Closer than 14 inches and your knees will hit the table every time you stand up. Much further than 18 and you’ll be leaning half off the sofa to reach your coffee.
Glass, Wood Or Something Else
This one’s more about how the table looks than how it fits. A big solid wooden or marble table looks heavier than a glass one of the same size, because with glass or thin legs you can still see the rug underneath. In a small room, the lighter look helps. Personally, I’m not a fan of glass with kids or pets in the house, since every fingerprint and nose print shows up on it by lunchtime, but that’s a trade off you’ll have to weigh for your own home.
Before you buy anything, tape the outline of the table onto the floor with painter’s tape and live with it for a couple of days. If you keep stepping on the tape, it’s too big.