Found: Perfect coffee table!

I spent the past three years hunting for the perfect coffee/cocktail table, so I know that it is very, very, very hard to find one that is both eco and family-friendly. By family friendly I mean round or oval (so no pointy corners to gouge small tumbling heads) and not glass (so many of the round ones have glass tops for some reason!). By earth-friendly I mean not made of toxic particleboard or plastic! Also, I wanted one that was at least 4 feet in diameter. I hate a small coffee table. I know that some people prefer to have one or two little ones that they can navigate around easily, but I like to have ample room to spread out magazines and meals. Anyway, it was worth the wait, because I finally found a vintage coffee table (on 1stdibs) that meets all my requirements and even exceeds them, because it has that uniqueness that you can only get with vintage (though the fact that it's been around since the 1950's makes it extra-distressing when I see my daughter drive a toy firetruck across the surface).

But, had I come across Room and Board's Bradshaw table first I definitely would have purchased it. It fits all of my requirements (big, round and solid wood--though the wood is not FSC-certified or anything, so I suppose it could be more eco), and in my opinion is close to perfect. Could work with mod, trad or just about any decor, and I bet if you buy one you will have it for decades.

Green and gorgeous tables

The Paris coffee table from Eboniste is, in my opinion, the epitome of loveliness. A little trad but a little mod too, with "feminine" curves but also possessing sturdy and graphic qualities that should keep the husbands happy. It's hard to imagine a design scheme that wouldn't accommodate it. And hard to believe that such a high-design item is actually green, but apparently that's the case. These tables, and a bunch of similarly chic side and console tables under the "green" category on Eboniste, are made of reclaimed elm and mineral finishes.

That said, I do prefer a round or other coffee table without hard edges because of the rugrats careening around my living room. Also, something about soft edges on centrally-placed tables just feels better to me on a visceral level (I've heard that round tables create better feng shui than hard edges, so perhaps that's what it is?). I recently bought a round coffee table from the 50s because, of course, vintage is the green-est route of all.