Creative Coffee Table Solution

A coffee table provides a central focus to a room and is an integral part to the overall feel of the design. Coffee tables come in all types, but I prefer to have a functional design.

Today we look at a creative solution for a country themed coffee table for an active living area. We used an old toy box for our design, but you could use any box that has a lid to it, you will just want to make sure that it is a low and wide box. The reason we are using a lidded box for the table is that it also added to the functional aspect of the table. In fact, we keep a lot of our seasonal decorations in the table so they are easy to find and put out. The toy box we used is approximately 3ft by 3ft and less than 18 inches tall. We repainted it to make our color palette, a deep rusty brown. For the top we went to our local hobby store and purchased some 1^1/2 inch thick foam padding and a patterned fabric. The fabric we choose complemented the paint color with it's stripes of deep red and eggshell whites. We then covered the lid with the foam and fabric to provide an attractive table that can with stand some abuse. As a secondary benefit, the foam padding helps eliminate some bumps and bruises from kids playing around the table.

There are many different approaches one could take to a coffee table, which is why it is important to keep the overall theme of the room/area in mind when choosing individual pieces. Do you have any creative coffee table ideas that you have used or seen? If so tell us about them in the comments.