Console depth and length
The consoles here are all narrow, and the most common size by a distance is fifteen inches deep by forty long. Length varies from forty to sixty three inches; depth barely moves.
That is not a coincidence of the range, it is what a console is. Sixteen inches out of a hallway usually still leaves a hallway; the depth of a chest of drawers usually does not. The depth figure is what decides whether a piece can go where it is wanted, and it should be checked before anything else.
Where a console table goes
Three places, mostly. Along a hallway wall, where it gives somewhere to put keys and post without narrowing the route. Behind a sofa that floats in a room, where it closes the back of the seating group and holds lamps. And against a wall in a dining or living room as a serving and display surface.
Each of those wants a different length. A hallway piece is limited by the wall between two doors; a sofa piece wants to relate to the length of the sofa; a display piece can be as long as the wall allows.
Table heights
The heights here run thirty to thirty six inches. Thirty is ordinary table height, the same as a dining table; thirty six is counter height. Both are well above a side table, which is sized to a seated arm rather than to someone on their feet.
Thirty inches sits comfortably below a mirror or a picture and reads as a table. Thirty six is counter height and suits serving, since things are set down and picked up without stooping. Against a sofa the height matters in a different way, since a console much taller than the sofa back reads as a wall rather than as furniture.
What goes on top
Consoles are the piece of furniture people fill without planning to. In a hallway that is keys, post and a lamp; behind a sofa it is lamps and books; in a dining room it is serving dishes and whatever the table cannot hold.
That is worth thinking about when choosing, because the length has to suit what it will carry and not just the wall. A forty inch top holds a lamp and a tray with room to see the stone; the same objects on a sixty three inch top leave two thirds of it empty, which is either generous or unfinished depending on whether that was the intention.
Marble colors in a hallway
The range runs pale marbles, Calacatta and Carrara, a beige and an Arabescato, and black. Hallways are often the narrowest and least daylit part of a house, which is the argument for the pale stones there.
A black console does the opposite deliberately: it reads as a single dark object against a pale wall and anchors a hallway rather than brightening it. Behind a sofa, in a room with daylight, the calculation is different and the dark stones come into their own.
Where a console sits in the range
A console is the only piece here settled by its depth rather than its height, because it has to stay out of a walkway. Everything else in the range is measured against something a person sits on.
The marble furniture page sets out how the four formats divide, and the side tables are the pieces most often bought alongside a console.
