Console and entryway tables

Depth is the whole argument

A console table is defined by what it does not take. At around 11.8 inches deep, a table like this leaves a hallway walkable where anything deeper would not. That shallow depth is also why it works behind a sofa, where a deep table would push the seating into the room.

The length in this department is generous at up to 63 inches, which is deliberate. A long shallow table reads as architecture along a wall, while a short one reads as a stand that got left somewhere.

The cutout is structural as well as decorative

The wave cutout along the front of these tables is the detail people notice first. It also does something useful: it makes the front rail shallower without weakening the top, so a basket or a pair of shoes can sit in the space under the table and still be reachable.

Two of the five carry mains outlets in the frame, which is worth having in a hall where phones and keys land together. The rest keep the surface clean.

What a shallow table can and cannot hold

Depth sets the limit on what goes on top as much as on what goes underneath. At around 11.8 inches, the surface takes a lamp, a tray, a stack of post and a set of keys comfortably. It will not take a deep bowl without the bowl overhanging, and a 15 inch laptop sits on it front to back with nothing to spare.

Underneath is the part people underuse. The open bay below the top is sized for a pair of baskets or a low bench, and in a hall that is where shoes and dog leads end up. Two matching baskets do more for the look of a hall than any amount of tidying, because they turn a pile into a shape.

What a console table is not is heavy storage. There are no drawers in this department and no doors. If the hall needs to swallow things rather than display them, the answer is a shoe cabinet, and the console goes somewhere else in the house.

Where they end up

In a hall, this is the piece that holds keys, post and a lamp. Behind a sofa, it holds drinks for people sitting down and a light for people reading. Under a wall-mounted television, it takes the place of a console without adding bulk.

Finishes here are walnut, natural and black. Walnut is the one that suits a hall with wooden flooring, and black is the one that disappears against a dark wall.