The Round Glass Coffee Table

Are you considering a round glass coffee table? Are you planning to use the table in a room with heavy traffic or young children? If so, you will need a much thicker round glass top than would normally be on a coffee table. You could also consider a standard sized glass top on top of a solid wood table. Glass on top of a solid metal table is a little more difficult for high traffic areas as the noise bounces off of walls, floors and the base which leads to extra pressure on the glass top itself. Glass over metal is more prone to breakage as the metal does not absorb the vibrations from the noise, bumps and such like the wood does.

A round glass coffee table is best in rooms that are primarily for adults like the parent’s bedroom and the formal living room. Using round glass coffee tables in the family room where children will be running in and out, over and under is potentially hazardous. If you are determined to have a round glass coffee table and you entertain adults and children in the same space, then a coffee table built to withstand the pressures of the children without being too bulky for the adults is your best bet. This will typically be a thicker glass top, over one-half inch thick, with several supports. Ask the furniture dealer or manufacturer for a weight designation. If it can withstand 800 pounds, then it should be sufficient.

Round coffee tables are different from other coffee tables in that they are typically not as long as oval and rectangular coffee tables or they are significantly wider than their oval and rectangular counterparts. If you have multiple sofas, L-shaped sofa set or a U-shaped sofa set, a round glass coffee table makes a lot of sense for you. Round coffee tables do best in the same applications that people consider square coffee tables for and in situations where a tiny coffee table will do. In a larger furniture arrangement, it may make sense to have multiple smaller coffee tables. In the case of a three sofa arrangement, a small round glass coffee table placed in front of the corner formed by two of the sofas allows for a more intimate conversation on what is a larger, engulfing furniture arrangement.

Additionally if you own more formal sofas with wood details because the legs are exposed or there is another element of the piece that incorporates wood, a wood base can be an ideal way to tie in a round glass coffee table, large or small diameter. However, if you have much more casual furnishings with plush furnishings, you may like a wood cabinet underneath the round glass top, a wood base that is solid all the way around with storage space built into the cabinet either with secret or obvious doors and drawers.

However, if you have very contemporary furnishings or even ultra-modern furniture, a round glass coffee table with a wrought iron base or other metal base may be the best complimentary piece. The metal is more likely to coordinate with your other home furnishings. Black wood and bleached-out, almost completely white wood when the lumber used has a very tight grain gives the sharp contrast these styles are known to promote.