Five kinds of centre table

Centre tables with storage

The centre table sits closest to where the evening actually happens, so it collects everything — remotes, chargers, coasters, half the post. A lid that lifts or a drawer that pulls means it holds all of that instead of displaying it.

LeatherSamode leather trunk coffee tableA trunk, so the storage is the whole point — two velvet-lined drawers that open from the front and from the back, which matters when the table sits in the middle of the room rather than against a wall. 107 cm long, in scrunched vintage leather with hand-hammered brass nailheads.Two drawersThe Attic Carlston oval tableOval, 120 cm long, with two drawers set into fluted mango wood under a marble-look ceramic top. Forty kilos and it arrives flat, so put the legs on where you actually mean to keep it.Oak or walnutSPIN Pie centre tableHalf the round top slides across, so the storage is built into the piece rather than a box pushed underneath it — the difference between a table that tidies up and one that only hides mess. Two finishes, oak and walnut; shown here in walnut, and the link opens the oak.Four drawersCinema storage coffee tableFour drawers behind a fluted front that carries no handles at all, so shut it reads as one solid block of wood. Look at the footprint before you fall for the fluting though: 124 cm long and 78 cm deep, close to twice the depth of an ordinary centre table. Ten wood finishes.

Nested tables

Two or three tables of graduated size that slide under one another. One surface when the room is quiet, three when there are people in it, and back to a single footprint the moment they leave.

Set of 4Stockholm nesting coffee tableFour tables rather than the usual three, on slim vintage brass frames. The two big ones layer up into a coffee table and the two small ones nest as a side table, so the set splits into two jobs at either end of the sofa. Usually ships in 30 days.24–32 inElwell mix & match nesting tablesBought one size at a time — 24 inches across at 13 high, or 32 inches at 16 — so the pair you end up with is your own mix. Vintage brass or bronze frames, with a top in tempered glass or white Banswara marble. The link goes to the 24-inch.IvoryOdessa nesting tables, set of 2Ivory, in a speckled marble-slurry finish on fat cylindrical legs — the softest shape on this page, and the one that will read as sculpture in a room full of hard edges. One caveat: Mason Home list both tables at 76 by 60 cm and separate them only by height, 40 cm and 35, so on their own numbers these stand side by side rather than one sliding inside the other.Set of 3Kovo rattan table, set of 3A caned oval with two round tables that tuck underneath it rather than beside it — the oval stands at 63.5 cm and the two rounds at 57, so the whole set stacks into one footprint. Read the rest of the measurements before you fall for the picture, though: the oval is 61 cm long and only 30.5 cm deep. Those are end-of-the-sofa proportions, not middle-of-the-room ones.Cane and brassCaned oval on a brass frame, set of 3The one shape on this page that opens sideways rather than upward: two round tables slide out from under either end of the oval, so it runs most of the width of the sofa when people are over and shuts back to a single oval when they leave. Note the glass laid over the cane — that is the part to check for, because bare cane takes rings and crumbs and never gives them back.

Clustered tables

Not one table but a group of them at different heights, pushed together in the middle. Easier to live with than a single slab — you can pull one over to a chair, and the shape of the arrangement changes with the evening.

46–89 cmBurma coffee table islandThree round tops at three heights — 89 cm across at 38 cm high, then 51 at 43, then 46 at 51, so the tallest is also the smallest and it is the one that ends up beside a chair. Cane inside a metal rim on the big one, wood inside black metal on the other two. Photographed on the floor at Grayon Homes in Kirti Nagar; Gulmohar Lane sell it as the Burma island.RattanSabang hexagon handwoven tablesHexagons rather than rounds, handwoven in rattan over a black metal cage. Three sizes from 48 to 70 cm across, each at its own height, and no assembly — they arrive ready to push together.RattanDarjeeling handwoven coffee tablesThe round version of the same idea, with a sunburst weave across the top. Fifty to seventy centimetres across and 43 to 56 cm high — and it is the tall narrow one you want parked beside an armchair. Shown in natural and white on a white base; there is a dark one too.Set of 3SPIN Woke round table, set of 3Three round tops at different heights. Group them in the middle, or split them around the room and let one live beside an armchair — you are not committed to one arrangement.

Seen in storeA cluster in rippled glassThe same idea in glass rather than wood, in three tints — smoke, amber, bronze — each on its own metal disc with a brass cap at the centre. Glass is the version to reach for in a small room: you see the floor through it, so three tables read as three pieces instead of one block, and the ripple hides the marks flat glass puts on display.Seen at Grayon Homes, Kirti Nagar

Centre tables with seating

Stools that live underneath the table until somebody needs them. This is the answer for a living room that regularly holds more people than the sofa does — four extra seats, and still only the footprint of the table when nobody is over.

SheeshamGramado sheesham & glass table with 4 stoolsA glass inset in a solid sheesham frame, in a provincial teak finish, with four upholstered cubes. Solid wood on a cross stretcher, so it is heavy — decide where it goes once.Set of 5Lichfield nesting table with 4 stoolsWalnut finish, and the four stools tuck in under the table rather than standing beside it — so the extra seating genuinely disappears on the evenings nobody is over.SheeshamAasaliya sheesham table with 4 stoolsSquare, in solid sheesham — Indian rosewood — with a stool tucked under each of the four sides. The Amazon end of this idea, which makes it the cheapest way to buy four extra seats you never have to look at.

Centre tables that become a desk

A top that lifts on a gas spring to somewhere between coffee height and desk height. Bought to work from, mostly — but it is also the difference between eating dinner on your knees and eating it at a table.

Lift topBidiso lift-top centre tableThe affordable end of the idea. The top rises and slides forward to sit over your lap, with a compartment underneath for everything you just cleared off it.WalnutWest Elm mid-century pop-up tableThe top pops up and forward to laptop height, and the space it lifts off is the storage. Walnut on splayed mid-century legs, which is the one here that still reads as furniture when it is shut.48–63 cmIKEA Östavall adjustable tableNinety centimetres across, and the top lifts from 48 to 63 cm on a gas spring with a lock so it cannot drop on anyone. A hidden compartment with removable boxes underneath, and space for the cables.Made to orderBoConcept ChivaMorten Georgsen’s design, and the grown-up version of this: dark oak with a marble ceramic top, rising from 41 to 53 cm and extending from 92 to 109 cm. Made to order in 12–14 weeks, and priced where you would expect.

Where these come from

Only four of the tables above are Amazon buys. Centre tables are the piece worth going to the furniture shops for directly — the sizes are stated properly, and the finishes are what they say they are.

• Gulmohar Lane

  Where six of the tables above come from — handwoven rattan, leather-clad trunks, brass-framed nesting sets, fluted drawers. Every dimension is published before you buy.

• SPIN

  Indian and design-led. Strong on living room pieces that hold a small footprint.

• Pepperfry

  The widest Indian range for solid-wood centre tables, and where the sets with stools underneath tend to live.

• West Elm India

  Mid-century shapes and the pop-up mechanism done properly. Worth watching for the sales rather than buying at list.

• Mason Home

  Mumbai homeware, and where the more sculptural end of the centre table turns up — shape first, storage second.

• IKEA India

  The affordable end of the lift-top mechanism, and every size is published down to the centimetre before you buy.

• BoConcept

  Danish and made to order. Worth a look even if you are not buying, as the reference for what an extending centre table can be.