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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

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The New Living Room Catch-All

March 5, 2014

Editor’s Update: I’m floored, it’s IKEA, the best quality IKEA I’ve ever seen.

I thought I knew the type of coffee table I wanted for our evolving living room. Something with modern lines. Light hardwood. A large, low circular table with (or customized by me to have) pretty mid-century leggies, hairpin or pretty pegs of some kind. And then, wouldn’t you know, I went thrifting and fell in love with something nearly the opposite:

Our new contemporary coffee table.

Nix the hardwood and mid-century, add in some slick white contemporary-ness with a heavy metal base. Even if it’s a lot different than what I might have ordinarily picked out (something like this, light wood is hard to find), our new coffee table perfectly fits the functional demands that we knew we really needed in our life:

  • Lots of storage (this has both visible shelving and hidden drawers)
  • A flat surface (good for drawing and writing)
  • Easy to clean (kids are dirty, and we’re not sticklers for using coasters)
  • Big (the sectional is big, and our living room is big, and scale is important)

Welcome home, pretty white coffee table.

This is the first “real” coffee table I’ve owned; even the trunk that I used as a makeshift coffee table in the last house was less than ideal for that purpose, a little bit taller than I would have liked, a lot a bit uneven when it came to using it as a writing surface. And even though the trunk opened up for potential storage, I learned not to keep anything inside it because 1) there were always goods atop and it was annoying to clear off to open and 2) there was a division in the boards on the flat top surface through which all spilled liquids managed to filter. Milk was the worst of the liquids, I won’t tell you how quickly spilled milk begins to smell when it accidentally dribbles into a plastic garbage bag storing sweaters.

I’m pretty sure the subtle drawers are my favorite feature of this new-to-us coffee table. They’re push-operated, so no knobs or pulls to break up the clean lines of the design. At just over 3′ x 3′, the new table brings us 9 sq. ft. of surface area and 9 sq. ft. of storage for things like books, magazines, and a radically growing collection of Disney Infinity characters. It’s brand-spankin’ new to our home so, no, I haven’t even gotten to organizing anything into drawers yet.

Push drawers in our contemporary coffee table.

The table has no distinct markings that would indicate brand, but I would place it as a piece constructed in the last 10-15 years. It’s particle board, but way heavier than it looks, immeasurably more sturdy than anything I’ve bought at IKEA, and in general, in really good shape, just a few things that helped me justify the $125 price tag.

Its design is considerably more contemporary than other items currently in the room so I hope adding an area rug and softer decor to the room will help to make it feel a little more at home. And if not, I’m preparing myself to change out the base with something lighter wood to fit in (if you haven’t already seen the greatest ever dresser re-design, you should check it out and be wildly inspired).

Metal base on our contemporary coffee table.

I found and bought the table at a local co-op (The Shops On West Ridge, locals!) and what concerned me initially was the height of the table; with only a 12″ rise from the floor, it seems really low in person, like, bash your shins low, but our West Elm sectional only has a seat height of 15″, so placed in our living room, the 12″ height works really well, and no, no shin bashing yet.

It’s so low that I’m not sure it would look great alongside a “normal” height sofa, so maybe me buying a coffee table online would have backfired, because I hadn’t really honed in on how a higher coffee table might look a little “off” in this space.

A short 12" coffee table.

Going from no coffee table to having something this functional has made an immediate impression on our ability to use our living room. Books stored! Coffee stabilized on a real table! And it’s heavy enough that it doesn’t slide around when the dog leans up against it! I love seeing this place begin to come together (we’re goin’ on 9 months here, this is not happening fast).

P.S. For those of you who have inquired about how the Tillary sectional is holding up, see above for some seam puckering in the back supports. I’ll be back with a more thorough review in the next few months, promise.

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Living Room

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

9 Comments


Rachel
March 5, 2014 at 9:26 am
Reply

Wow I never thought I’d say this about a coffee table but it’s all that comes to mind: sexy!



Stephanie
March 5, 2014 at 11:28 am
Reply

You say it’s better quality than IKEA, but in fact, I believe it is a TOFTERYD, from the swedish mothership. We almost bought the same one ourselves, but I ended up being concerned like you about it being too low. It looks awesome with your couch and flooring. It’s great!



    Emily
    March 5, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    Whoa. That’s so funny. You’re right. It is, by far, the best quality IKEA piece I have ever come across!

kristin
March 5, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Reply

Do you still have those black safari chairs you purchased on craigslist in there? I haven’t seen them in a while. I’m local and have been searching far and wide for a set of my own (I’m kicking myself for not buying that pair when I saw them on craigslist myself!). Let me know if you’re ever interested in selling them!



    Emily
    March 5, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    Haha! We do still have them, I guess they just haven’t made them into the photos lately. Truthfully, now that the floors are light, the darker brown wood is something we have been reconsidering, so if we decide to sell I will send you a note!

Melissa
March 6, 2014 at 11:12 am
Reply

Wow, it does work perfectly. Reminded me to keep an open mind when looking for furniture. And now you can show off those handsome Cody coasters someone gave you… Can’t wait to see it in person!



Brittany Kemp
March 6, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Reply

Hi there!

I’ve nominated you for the Liebster award! While it may not come with a cool prize, it is a super fun opportunity to meet and network with other new-ish bloggers, and I really hope you’ll keep the fun going by participating. For more details, you can stop by my blog:

http://confessionsofasecretcrafter.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-liebster-award.html

I hope you have a fabulous day!



Eve
April 6, 2014 at 5:40 am
Reply

I love the coffee table. We had a tufted Tillary that we purchased last May and we just sold it (for way too little) about a month ago. It looked pretty and was fairly comfortable (except that it was so low and the edge where the sofas met had a board that could probably fracture your spine if you sat wrong). However, the seat fabric wrinkled horribly and the back cushions pushed off way too easily. I didn’t know if the fabric was just an issue with the performance velvet but I found a site on FB basically saying the same (that popped up months after I bought it and had been scouring the internet in vain for reviews). I hope your experience is better, but I considered it a very expensive mistake. Maybe I would have been less annoyed if we’d only spent $600 on it like I ended up selling it for.

We ended up buying a Karlstad, which was the other sofa we’d considered at that time, and we are much much much happier with it.



    Emily
    April 6, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    Awesome feedback, thank you for sharing it, Eve! I know this will really help (or disappoint) people who are on the fence. I owe an updated post – mine will share some of those views (fabric does seem a little wrinkly when we sit for a long time, though I think it seems to contract back into shape). We do not have the issue you state about the board that would break your spine! Yowch.

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