Tables by Room: Dining Room, Living Room and Bedroom Tables
The same table can be right in one room and wrong in the next one along, and it is rarely the look that decides it. A surface that copes with a family dinner every evening is over-specified beside a bed, where nothing worse than a glass of water ever lands. A height that works for eating is uncomfortable for a lamp and a book. Room by room, the job changes, and so does the answer.
This page sets out what each room asks of a table, so you can start from the use rather than from the picture.
Dining room tables
The dining room is the only room where the table is the reason the room exists, and it is the hardest working surface in the house — heat, blades, acid, and the weight of people leaning on it three times a day. It is also the only room where the table's height is fixed by the human body rather than by taste: around 30 inches (76cm), because that is what works with a dining chair.
Everything else in the room arranges itself around that one piece, which is why the dining room is where it makes sense to spend most and to choose the material first. Our dining tables collection covers shapes, sizes and extending mechanisms.
Living room tables
The living room is the opposite case: no single table, but several small ones doing different jobs at different heights. A low surface in front of the seating, something at arm height beside a chair, a narrow one against a wall, and often a pair that tuck away when they are not needed.
The mistake most often made here is buying them as a matching set. Four tables in the same finish at four different heights read as a suite rather than a room, and because living room tables are seen together and from every angle, variation is what stops the space looking like a showroom. What should match is the metalwork, not the timber. Our living room tables collection covers coffee, console, nest and side tables.
Bedroom tables
The bedroom asks less of a table than any other room, and that changes the priorities completely. Nothing hot is set down, nothing is cut, spills are rare and light. Durability stops being the deciding factor, and storage, height and proportion take over.
It is also the only room where tables come in pairs, since a bed with two sides wants two bedside tables, and the only room where a table's height is set by another piece of furniture rather than by a chair. Our bedroom tables collection covers bedside tables and dressing tables.
How the room decides the height
Height is the one measurement that is not a matter of preference, and it is set by whatever you are sitting on or beside.
| Room | Table | What sets the height |
|---|---|---|
| Dining room | Dining table | The dining chair — around 30 inches (76cm) |
| Living room | Coffee table | The sofa seat, level or slightly below |
| Living room | Side table | The arm of the chair beside it |
| Living room | Console table | The back of the sofa, or waist height against a wall |
| Bedroom | Bedside table | The top of the mattress, level or just above |
| Bedroom | Dressing table | The stool, at seated working height |
Get this wrong and no amount of style rescues it: a bedside table below the mattress means reaching down for a glass in the dark, and a side table above the arm of a chair is awkward to put anything on at all.
How the room decides the material
Match the surface to the worst thing that will happen to it in that room, not to the best. In a dining room that means heat, knives and spilled wine, so ceramic and hardwood earn their place and softer or more porous surfaces need managing. In a living room the threats are drinks left standing and feet on the edge, which is a lower bar — glass and marble both work here in a way they struggle to in a kitchen diner.
In a bedroom almost nothing threatens the surface, which is why the bedroom is where you can choose entirely on looks without paying for it later. There is more on how each material behaves in our tables by material collection.
How many tables a room can take
Dining rooms take one table and the discipline is not to add more. Living rooms take three or four and the discipline is spacing them so there is clear floor between groups rather than a table beside every seat. Bedrooms take pairs, and the pair should match even when nothing else in the room does — two different bedside tables either side of a bed reads as an accident rather than a choice.
Tables by room FAQs
Should all the tables in a room match?
In a living room, no — several tables in the same finish at different heights read as a suite rather than a room, and variation in timber or top is what stops it looking staged. Keep the metalwork consistent instead. In a bedroom the opposite applies: a pair of bedside tables should match each other.
What height should a table be in each room?
It is set by what you sit on or beside. A dining table sits at around 30 inches (76cm) to work with a dining chair, a coffee table level with the sofa seat or slightly below, a side table level with the arm of the chair, and a bedside table level with the top of the mattress or just above.
Can a dining table work in a living room?
As a desk or a work table, yes, and in an open-plan space that is common. As a coffee table, no — the height difference is around a foot, and there is no comfortable way to use a dining-height surface from a sofa.
Which room is hardest on a table?
The dining room, by a distance, because it is the only one where heat, blades and acidic food all meet the surface regularly. The bedroom is the easiest, which is why it is the room where you can choose a table on looks alone.
How many tables does a living room need?
Three or four is usual — something low in front of the seating, one at arm height beside a chair, and often a narrow one against a wall or behind the sofa. The limit is floor space rather than a rule: if there is no clear floor between them, there are too many.