Side table height
The height that works is level with the arm of the chair or a little below it. Higher and reaching a glass means lifting the elbow; lower and it means looking down and reaching past the arm.
Sofa and chair arms vary widely, from low modern arms around eighteen inches to traditional ones above twenty four. That is why this range spans that whole band instead of settling on one height, and it is why the arm is the measurement to take first.
Side table top sizes
The tops here are ten to eighteen inches across, and that range covers two different jobs. At the wider end there is room for a lamp, a book and a glass together, which is the classic side table. At ten or twelve inches the piece is a drinks table: room for a glass beside a chair and nothing more, which is exactly what a tight corner needs.
A larger top in this position stops being a side table and starts competing with the coffee table for the same job. The restraint is the design instead of a limitation of it, which is why the narrow tops are the ones that recur and why several of them are taller than they are wide.
C shaped tables and nightstands
A C shaped table has a base that slides under a sofa or a bed so the top can reach over the seat. It is the answer where there is no floor space beside the arm, and it puts the surface directly in front of the person sitting and not beside them.
Some pieces here are described as accent nightstands, which is the same format doing the same job next to a bed. The height that matters there is the top of the mattress and not the arm of a chair.
One design, three heights
One design here is offered at three heights in the same form, twenty inches, twenty seven and a half, and thirty five and a half. The first two are side table heights; the tallest is well above any chair arm and is a different piece of furniture, closer to a narrow bar table or a standing perch beside a counter.
That spread is several products rather than one, since the tallest version is not answering the same question as the other two. Most of the range settles on a single height between eighteen and twenty four inches, which is why measuring the arm first still removes most of the options.
Marble seen close up
At this size the stone is almost the whole object, and the figure in it is seen from a foot away rather than across a room. A stone that reads as texture on a slab reads as pattern here.
It is also the format where a bold stone is easiest to live with, since a small piece can carry a dramatic vein without dominating the room the way a large top would. The marble page covers the stones themselves.
A pair or a single table
A pair of side tables either side of a sofa is the arrangement most rooms default to, and it works because it makes the seating symmetrical without a large piece in the middle of it.
A single table suits an asymmetric room or a chair standing on its own. Where a pair is wanted, the two will be the same stone, not the same piece, which is true of natural stone anywhere and is why some people deliberately choose two different stones instead and let the pairing read as a choice.
Side table or console table
A side table is used from sitting and a console from standing, which is why their heights are nowhere near each other even when the tops look alike.
The marble furniture page sets out how the four formats divide and how the stones behave in a living room.
