Pick the top for how you live on the table, then the frame colour for the room.
Which coffee table material is best?
For daily use, sintered stone on a welded steel frame: it takes hot mugs, wet glasses and keys, and a damp cloth is all the care it needs. For warmth and grain, solid oak, with coasters. For a light look in a small room, glass, if you accept fingerprints and dust. Metal is rarely the top; it is the frame, and the frame decides whether the table still stands straight in ten years.
Oak, stone, glass and metal compared
The two tops we make sit at the practical end of the table. Marble and travertine have their own comparison in marble vs Dekton.
| Material | Daily life | What it shows | Care | From us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sintered stone (Dekton) | Hot mugs, wet rings, keys | Little; a hard knock can chip an edge | Damp cloth, never sealed | Anton and Leo |
| Solid oak | Needs coasters, no standing water | Rings if water is left overnight | Barely damp cloth, then dry | Leo, on Design Your Own |
| Glass | Smooth and easy to wipe | Fingerprints, dust underneath, edge chips | Glass cleaner, often | Not made |
| Metal top | Hard wearing | Scratches in the finish | Damp cloth | Frames only, welded steel |
| Marble, travertine | Acid etches, coffee can stain | Rings and dull marks | Sealing | Not made |
Is a glass coffee table a good idea?
In a small room it can be: glass lets you see the floor through it, so the table almost disappears. That is the case for it.
The case against is daily life. Glass shows every fingerprint and every crumb, dust collects underneath where you can see it, and the edge chips if something hard hits it. Tempered glass breaks into small pieces instead of shards, which is safer, not unbreakable.
We do not make glass coffee tables. If lightness is what you want, a white or beige frame reads lighter than black, and a round Leo takes up less of the view than a rectangle.
Stone: sintered, not marble
Our stone is Dekton, a sintered stone: minerals fired into a dense, non-porous slab. It takes heat, wine and wet rings, and it is never sealed. It is not marble and we never sell it as marble.
Three colours on Anton and Leo: Sabbia, a sandy beige; Grigio, a mid grey; Grafite, near-black. The stone coffee table guide has the detail, and the cleaning guide the cloth.
Oak: warm, solid, with coasters
Leo can have a solid oak top on Design Your Own, never veneer, in natural, dark or black oak. It is lacquered: wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry it. Standing water is the risk, not a fingerprint.
Choose oak if you want grain and a quieter surface and you will use coasters. If you were looking for walnut, read walnut or dark oak; the oak coffee table guide has sizes.
Metal: the frame that holds it all
A metal coffee table usually means a metal frame, and that is where a table fails or lasts. Bolted frames work loose over time. Ours are welded steel, powder-coated, so the joints do not loosen.
For an industrial look, a black frame with a Grafite top. For a lighter room, white or beige. Frames come in black on the bestsellers, and white, beige and taupe on Design Your Own. The black coffee table guide pairs frames with stones.
Choose the top for daily life, the frame for the years
- Dekton
- Sabbia, Grigio, Grafite
- Oak
- natural, dark, black
- Frame
- welded steel, 4 colours
