Coffee table

[1][2][3] Most coffee tables are made of wood (though faux wood tables are increasingly common) or glass and metal, typically stainless steel or aluminum, and may incorporate cabinets or drawers.

Coffee tables were thought to initially be constructed in Renaissance England.

Whineray and also in The Country Life Book of English Furniture by Edward T. Joy, a table designed by E. W. Godwin in 1868 and made in large numbers by William Watt, and Collinson and Lock, is a coffee table.

Joseph Aronson in 1938 defined a coffee table as a "low wide table now used before a sofa or couch", adding "there is no historical precedent", perhaps suggesting they came late in the history of furniture.

With the increasing availability of television sets from the 1950s onward, coffee tables came into their own, since they are low enough, even with cups and glasses on them, not to obstruct the view of the TV.