As part of the group of occasional tables – which includes coffee tables, end tables, accent tables, cocktail tables and console tables, sofa tables are pieces of furniture consisting of a long, thin flat top, which is supported by four straight, curved, twisted or cabriole legs. The traditional sofa tables (of the old 18th, 19th century) have small, rounded, drop-leaf ends and two to four drawers. Today they vary a lot, not only in style, but also in shape and size.
A sofa table is usually placed in the living room or in the dining room, behind a sofa, near the wall / door or in front of the window. It makes a great place to put the keys, the telephone, letters, an ashtray, a nice vase with a bunch of flowers, a big living room lamp or a nice deco item. If it is equipped with a shelf underneath, it can also be used to display some small artifacts, framed pictures or statuettes. Or if the shelves are especially designed, you can store a collection of wine.
The sofa table may be manufactured from a mixture of glass, metal (copper or iron), wood (oak, maple, mahogany, cherry) and basically the form is rectangular, but sometimes the frame line can be curved in smooth curls. The top of a sofa table covers a large range of finishes: laminate, cherry laminate, ribbon, mahogany, antique black, heritage oak finish, pine finish, golden oak and burnish.
Leaf drop sofa table
A drop leaf sofa table is a table with folding extensions, which are draped in loose folds when they are not in use. This type of sofa table can be very easily transformed into a dining table, for those houses where space doesn't allow a normal one. Usually they have two to three pull drawers underneath the table top. When it’s folded, the drop leaf sofa table can seat up to 6 persons. As a standard they are made of oak, mahogany or cherry wood. But today there are also clear glass butterfly drop leaf dining tables with powder coated metal and a heavy metal cast base. When transporting or moving this type of table inside the house, special care is required: do not take hold of the glass top, use the metal base.
A drop leaf sofa table need not always be used as a dining table. If it is not too big and it is placed near an armchair or a sofa, when folded, you can use it for a cup of coffee, a glass of water or wine, an ashtray, a tray of cookies or small sandwiches while you are sitting on the armchair or sofa and reading the newspaper or a book. If it is placed against a wall - and has only one extension – you can use it as a writing table to write the mail, sign some papers, or review some important documents. The shelves and drawers underneath can provide enough space to store your writing materials.
How to own a sofa table
If you have decided to get a sofa table the easiest way to accomplish your wish is to buy one. You can either go to a shop or gallery (but this implies quite a sum of money) or you could try at a wholesale shop or on the Internet (and you can definitely save up to 50-60% of the list price). The hardest way would be to build yourself a sofa table (with or without folding extensions). In order to do that you can buy sofa table plans from a specialist or a specialized company or you can use some of the free sofa table plans from the Internet. It requires a lot of work and some skill and ability, but you can be proud of doing the job yourself, the cost will be low (only the price for materials and the price for the plans) and you can reproduce some famous styles of table (Queen Anne, Chippendale etc) which are way above the average budget.
