Coffee table fit for purpose

Coffee tables — close companions of most sofas, are also a staple project for senior high school woodwork students and just about every handyman with some basic tools.

In the early years of domesticity I found most of them quite irritating insofar as the majority of them fell somewhere between the stools of “partly useful” and “useless”. Either they were not big enough to support a few books as well as the family’s cups and mugs, or they were so small that they could only support a couple of lucky mugs while everyone else had to cast around wondering where they might best rest their plates.

Perhaps my idea of the ideal sized table differs from the norm but I like a table that accommodates the above mentioned items as well as other odds and sods such as mobile phones, glasses, and other paraphernalia we all lug