Midcentury Small Coffee Tables
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Vintage 1960s North American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Lucite
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Lucite
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Teak
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Maple
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Mid-20th Century French Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Formica, Wood, Beech
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Formica, Wood, Beech
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Lucite
Vintage 1940s Danish Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Oak
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Beech, Formica
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Oak, Wood
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Formica, Wood, Beech
Vintage 1950s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Formica, Wood, Beech
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Pine
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble, Steel
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
Mid-20th Century European Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble, Brass
Late 20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel, Iron, Wrought Iron
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Lucite
Vintage 1960s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Oak
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
Vintage 1960s Czech Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Beech
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rattan, Glass
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Mirror, Wood
Mid-20th Century North American Art Deco Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
Mid-20th Century North American Hollywood Regency Coffee and Cocktail Ta...
Iron
Vintage 1950s European Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Mahogany
Vintage 1970s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rattan
20th Century English Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wrought Iron
Vintage 1940s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Bronze
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron
Mid-20th Century Italian Regency Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1960s European Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Ceramic, Wood
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass, Chrome
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron
Vintage 1940s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Gold Leaf
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Midcentury Small Coffee Tables For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much are Midcentury Small Coffee Tables?
A Close Look at mid-century-modern Furniture
Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern American furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.
Postwar American architects and designers were animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist “International Style” architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the ’30s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale, in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.
Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for, respectively, pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair. George Nelson and his design team created Bubble lamp shades using a new translucent polymer skin. Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were re-purposed: the Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs that used surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests. The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influence in the rise of modern design in the United States thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field.
As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century designers caught the spirit.
Classically-oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb — who designed holistic groups of sleek, blonde-wood furniture — and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.
As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.
Finding the Right Coffee and Cocktail Tables for You
As a practical centerpiece to your living area, antique and vintage coffee and cocktail tables are an invaluable addition to any interior.
Low tables that were initially used as tea or coffee tables have been around since at least the mid- to late-1800s. Early coffee tables surfaced in Victorian-era England, likely influenced by the use of tea tables in Japanese tea gardens. In the United States, furniture makers worked to introduce low, long tables into their offerings as the popularity of coffee and “coffee breaks” took hold during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
It didn’t take long for coffee and cocktail tables to become a design staple and for consumers to recognize their role in entertaining no matter what beverages were being served. Originally, these tables were as simple as they are practical — as high as your sofa and made primarily of wood. In recent years, however, metal, glass and plastics have become popular in coffee and cocktail tables, and design hasn’t been restricted to the conventional low profile, either.
Visionary craftspeople such as Paul Evans introduced bold, geometric designs that challenge the traditional idea of what a coffee table can be. The elongated rectangles and wide boxy forms of Evans’s desirable Cityscape coffee table, for example, will meet your needs but undoubtedly prove imposing in your living space.
If you’re shopping for an older coffee table to bring into your home — be it an antique Georgian-style coffee table made of mahogany or walnut with decorative inlays or a classic square mid-century modern piece comprised of rosewood designed by the likes of Ettore Sottsass — there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Both the table itself and what you put on it should align with the overall design of the room, not just by what you think looks fashionable in isolation. According to interior designer Tamara Eaton, the material of your vintage coffee table is something you need to consider. “With a glass coffee table, you also have to think about the surface underneath, like the rug or floor,” she says. “With wood and stone tables, you think about what’s on top.”
Find the perfect centerpiece for any room, no matter what your personal style on 1stDibs. Browse a vast selection of antique, new and vintage coffee and cocktail tables today.
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