Thinking some more about coffee tables

design by Jo Rabaut

Pictures of other people's houses today-- mine's a mess!  And my big, empty living room is still feeling really sad right now.  Our house, while moderately large, is plauged by the curse of so many older homes.  It's like a rabbit warren in here-- room after small room in little rows going down both sides of the downstairs.  We have some rooms that we literally never set foot in, and end up over-living in others since our floorplan is so wacky.  We seemed to think that structural work-- like moving not only load-bearing walls, but, you know, the wall that used to be the back of the house-- was something we would do in a weekend someday when we had a couple extra hundred dollars lying around.  Right.  Instead, we're on the "five year plan" for renovation.  We plan to live with the house, as is, for five years, then hopefully move out over the summer and have all the work completed in three months.  Two gutted bathrooms, gutting the kitchen and taking over another room to make it larger, re-siding the house, walling in an attic and moving around some windows--yup.  All gonna happen in three months.  I believe the five-year plan probably needs some revision.

Another view of the living room above-- love that ottoman and the coffee table.

via House of Turquoise

We live mostly in the first room as you walk into our house.  We have a playroom--two of them, actually-- and yet this seems to be where we do all our living.  It's where we watch TV, the kids keep a lot of their toys (in that ugly closed storage cabinet) and I do all my computer-ing.  So technically, having it kind of like a runway isn't so bad (it's a long room-- over 20 feet) and moderately narrow-- about 18 feet deep).  Except that it makes me really depressed to spend all day in a house that I don't think is all that beautiful right now.

 I'm still so sad about the ottoman, so I spent some time today trying to find some options for a coffee table that will a) not give my new toddler a concussion and b) look really awesome.

#1-- one of my favorites-- from our Craigslist:

I just think it's very cool.  I love the industrial feeling, the crustiness, the aged wood.  Very good stuff.  Also veryveryvery bad when you have two boys under three.

If money (and size-- I think it's pretty huge)were no object, I'd go with this one

or maybe this one

both from Bobo Intriguing Objects (which just opened a showroom in High Point-- swoon!)

Then I sort of think that maybe I should try to be very much more DIY than I really am and build something similar using recycled pallets-- which are always lying around the backs of stores and on the side of the road and such-- for free.  That kind of wood is just exactly how I want it to look.  Sanded, oiled or rubbed with beeswax and I think the texture and color could be really beautiful.  Hard to make, but nearly free.

But since money is (always!) an object, this one is a little better

from Ballard

None of these exactly fit the "it will not concuss your child" requirement, though.

So maybe a coupla these?

from Urban Outfiters--why is that picture so small?

I like this.  Am I imagining that Celerie Kembel did some square cubes that were a contrasting color in the wavy cutouts several years ago?  I can't find images but I remember loving something like that-- at around $1200 a pop, and I'd need 4.  Ha.

And at $110 each these are much more affordable.  Plus it would cancel out the constant refrain of me yelling at the kids to get off the coffee table (why do boys do that?  Girls don't climb on tables, do they?) since it's pretty much just a stool anyway. I think painted a high-gloss white on the outside, leaving the powder blue interior, might be really beautiful.  Whatcha think?