Is the Coffee Table a Dying Object?
As modern urban types prefer to sip or slurp their coffee in trendy cafes, or on the road in thrice-recyclable paper cups, is sitting down peacefully on a sofa to stimulate the adrenals in the comfort of one’s lounge rapidly becoming an ancient practice?
Certainly in my home, a funky yet modest Sydney apartment, we don’t have a coffee table! I drink at least three cups a day, but they’re consumed almost unconsciously, sitting at my desk poring over the latest exciting social media news.
Coffee At Home
Sitting at her coffee table, which she and her husband Con built themselves, Sydney inner west furniture store owner Poppy Arvanitakis still loves a good home-made coffee enjoyed over this most favoured of domestic objects.
“The last time a coffee table got any kind of international publicity,” she recounts, “was when Seinfeld’s Kramer decided to release a coffee table book about coffee tables.”
“Other than that, coffee tables may be luxury items, but they’re humble luxury items.”
However when pressed on how many coffee tables Habitat Furniture sell, she reveals that numbers are going up!
“The demographic of where we’re based, in the inner west of Sydney but leaning towards being a furniture shop in the south west of Sydney, is changing,” Poppy reveals. “Not just Greeks who love their coffee, but stacks of people from Middle-Eastern countries where drinking coffee at home is a way of life.”
A Coffee Table Q & A
So in Sydney at least, the humble coffee table is not yet firewood.
For all of our entertainment, here are four of the world’s most interesting coffee tables:
Once seen, you’ll never forget it. The Abu Ghraib coffee table is a classic.
Every guitarist’s dream is to own one of these.
iPhone fans rejoice! Now to make a working one!
I once had a housemate who used our coffee table to slide down the stairs when drunk. This makes the activity even smoother.
Hot Habitat Links
How to Take Care of Wooden Furniture
More Sydney Links:
Article written by ex-Perth lad & now Sydney SEO and social media management director Stewart Dawes of SEOtherapy.com.au … Stewart also presents social media workshops in Sydney to business owners and universities.