| What is a coffee table? It depends on whom you ask. | | | | serve formal coffee from. Gone are the days of |
| While the name implies that a coffee table is made for | | | | afternoon get-togethers when coffee and biscuits |
| the express purpose of serving coffee on it, or | | | | were served, complete with linen tablecloths and silver |
| gathering around it to enjoy a good, stiff cup of coffee, | | | | spoons and fine china. Today, a coffee table is a |
| most people use a coffee table for anything but. | | | | sturdy piece of furniture designed to withstand the |
| Ask ten different people and you'll get ten different | | | | antics of children and adults alike. For many |
| ways in which each of them uses their coffee table. | | | | households, the coffee table is the place to store |
| Some people use the coffee table in their living room | | | | backpacks and textbooks and homework. It's a place |
| to put their feet on while they watch television. Others | | | | to spread out the newspaper or to complete |
| use the coffee table as a decorator accent in a room, | | | | crossword puzzles. It's a place to gather around, either |
| often bedecked with flowerpots, floral displays or | | | | on chairs or on the floor. |
| magazines. Others use the coffee table as an eating | | | | A coffee table these days can often be the one piece |
| table while they watch television. Still others use the | | | | of furniture that a family gathers around on a nightly |
| coffee table to place study supplies or as a general | | | | basis. For that reason alone, a coffee table is a |
| catchall in the living room. How often to you see an | | | | valuable piece of furniture for every family, no matter |
| empty coffee table? Not very often. They're usually | | | | what it's made out of. |
| either cluttered or spotless, depending on how many | | | | A coffee table can be made of marble culled from an |
| children or teenagers live in the household. | | | | Italian quarry or pieced together by nails and |
| A coffee table can be made of anything, really. Glass, | | | | two-by-fours. It can be made of stone or pressed |
| wood, plastic, even a piece of plywood balanced on | | | | plywood. But a coffee table is more than a collection |
| cinderblocks can serve as a coffee table. Children use | | | | of physical materials. A coffee table is the true |
| a coffee table as a toy, sometimes creating a pirate | | | | centerpiece to any living room or den and nearly every |
| ship or tank with it, while teens convert it to a platform | | | | homeowner or apartment dweller has one. It serves its |
| for their game stations. Men use a coffee table to put | | | | function in the household, no matter what that function |
| their feet up when they get home, and women do the | | | | is. It may be fancy or plain, outrageously expensive or |
| same. | | | | cheap as dirt, but a coffee table is a coffee table and |
| A coffee table is an indispensable piece of furniture in | | | | no home is complete without one. |
| most living rooms and dens, but it's rarely used to | | | | |