Recently a popular trend in restaurant furniture and bar furniture has been to move away from regular dining height tables and chairs and towards attaining a more comfortable and informal look by using sofas accompanied with coffee tables. This has led to bar furniture suppliers sourcing and offering a wide variety of coffee tables to suit almost any situation.

Glass topped coffee tables with chrome frames have the advantage of being easy to clean and giving a thoroughly modern look and are particularly attractive when combined with leather or fabric sofas. The glass topped coffee tables can also be purchased with powder coated steel underframes in the same or contrasting colour to complement the decor of the room. Of course it is important to check that the top is made of tempered toughened glass that has been tested to meet the British standard requirement to test the strength of the glass (in the test a steel metal ball is dropped from height in the testing laboratory on to the glass top). Glass topped coffee tables look particularly effective when round, square and rectangular tops are mixed in the room with one, two and three seater sofas.

Wooden coffee tables are still very popular and are usually based on conventional dining tables but with the legs or pedestal base having a reduced height. These look most attractive in timbers when made from a timber with a distinctive grain, for example oak or ashwood when finished in a light stain will look very beautiful. Of course if darker stains are chosen the wood grain is still noticeable but not so important so cheaper timbers like rubberwood are acceptable. Stability is as much a concern with coffee tables as with regular bar or restaurant tables so a conventional table with four legs is a good choice and if a pedestal is used it is important to ensure that the base has a good wide footprint on the floor.

Some Companies supplying leather sofas also offer leather topped coffee tables. These have only been seen in quantity in the last few years and are a result of cheaper forms of leather becoming available, mostly from Chinese manufacturers. When the skin comes to the factory it is very thick so usually is cut into three slices, the top cut being the most valuable. In recent years processes have become available to use the second and third layers whereby heavy presses form the illusion of a 'topgrain' leather appearance and then a polyeurethane protective coating is applied. This is called 'Bycast' leather and can manufactured in a huge variety of grains, finishes and colours with an appearance that approaches the best topgrain leathers but at a fraction of the price. Naturally the factories making leather sofas and leather dining chairs from this cheaper bycast leather were keen to find other uses for this new raw material, so started offering wooden coffee tables completely covered in leather. Truthfully a room full of leather sofas plus these coffee tables looks somewhat oppressive so it is generally the best idea to use wooden coffee tables of metal and glass coffee tables to lighten up the decor.

There are many Companies on the web specialising only in coffee tables, some of their sources include exotic timbers from India, such as Sheesham wood (Indian Rosewood) or Mango wood. These are available with precise machined finishes or with a less smooth simpler rustic look. Many Companies give the reassurance that the timbers used are farmed responsibly. While they may well be telling the truth, this reassurance can be more confidently received if endorsed by one of the many bodies whose interest it is to promote sustainable timber farming.

Of these, two of the most well known are the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) or the Program For The Endorsement Of Forest Certification Scheme (PEFC). These are both reputable bodies and if the Company you are thinking of buying from are members of one or both of these bodies, you can have some reassurance that their timber supply is from a sustainable source.

Having chosen the coffee tables and chairs or sofas that you feel are best for your venue check the delivery date the Company promise that they can achieve. If possible buy from a Company that is holding stock and in these times of economic gloom, be very wary if asked for full payment before delivery- there are plenty of Companies looking for business right now, so nailing down a good deal should include not only discounts but safe payment terms.