End tables are one of those subtle touches seen in every magazine-worthy living room. If you look closely, you will notice an end table holding up a lamp or a beautiful bowl. In real homes, you will notice coaster sets, revealing the true use of an end table. You know end tables can be beautiful and that having one nearby is useful, but what is the right number of end tables for any interior design?
How many end tables should you have in the living room? This depends on the size and seating design of your living room, and where your end tables will fit best.
How Many End Tables Should You Have?
Just Enough End Tables
When choosing your number of end tables, consider that the balance is always “just enough”. You want your guests and family to be able to set down their drinks or settle near a reading light, but not to be stumbling over end tables at every corner. In fact, the best end table positions are often hidden in the perfect little spaces between seating and walkways.
Better Too Few than Too Many
If you’re not sure, err on the side of fewer end tables, only one or two per living room design. Look at it this way: it’s better to reach for the coffee table to set down a drink than to bang your shin on one too many end tables.
How Many End Tables Do You Need?
What about need for end tables? The right balance has an end table within reach of all or most seated guests, and end tables have special spaces where they fit best.
Fill Each Seating Corner
The best place to put a small end table is in the corner formed by two couches or arm chairs facing inward in a seating circle. The right-angle outside the seated area formed by the chair or couch arms makes the perfect place to nestle an end table with a lamp and coasters.
Two Seats Share and End Table
If you have two chairs near each other, a small end-table in between provides lovely utility for those seated and decorative flare for the room.
Completing a Furniture Line
End tables can be useful and elegantly placed at the outside end of a couch or line of chairs if the placement is just-right. You can complete a furniture line, for example, the space between the couch arm and the nearest wall or doorway, with an end table that serves as a more prominent decorative space.
Useful and Elegantly Placed
Most importantly, end tables are best when placed somewhere they are both useful and elegant. Never place an end table where it can interfere with the walking path, and always place them where there is “dead” space created by seating arrangements.
How Many End Tables in a Living Room
How many end tables is the right number for a living room?
One or Two End Tables on Average
Most living rooms have just one or two end tables. Three end tables would require a larger space, perhaps defined by oversized couches and chairs. Two end tables, however, can fit neatly into many seating arrangements, and there is almost always a space for at least one.
Avoid Cluttering the Space
When placing end tables, the key is to place them where they naturally flow with the room, and never to clutter a space.
Strategically Useful Placement
The most strategic placement of end tables is always best. Ideally, guests should enjoy the layout without realizing an end table is even part of the design – until they need to set down a drink or turn on the nearby lamp.
How many end tables should you have in your living room design? Usually, the answer is somewhere between one and three. The balance will be created by the size of your room and how you choose to arrange your seating. The space naturally created between chairs, in hidden corners, and completing elegant furniture lines is where your end tables will most elegantly go.
To find the best end tables for your space, explore Adirondack Furniture’s end table selection. Stop into one of our two locations and take a look around! We know superior craftsmanship when we see it, and only stock our showrooms with the finest American-made furniture. We can answer all of your questions with our attentive one-on-one service, ensuring you find exactly what you’re looking for!
