Mission Console Table

About a year ago I began a renovation project on a small antique house in Spain and while doing so came to learn a lot about not only how to remodel, but how to creating unique spaces in a home, how to decorate, select tile, flooring, appliances and furniture. I also came to appreciate that there are specific words for specific pieces of furniture that we sometimes call by other names, but in the construction or decorating or furniture industry it may mean quite another thing.

So whilst I had a picture in my head of exactly what I wanted, I had to learn the terms that the designers and furniture manufacturers used in order to find the specific item of my dreams.

A Table with a Mirror Above

For example a piece of furniture that was often seen in Spain (when I was younger) as a rustic wood antique or a gilded antiquity, is a high table that sits at or near the entrance to a house, often with a mirror over it, and in Spain, with candles or a wall candelabra on either side. I have seen them, loved them and used them, but I had no idea what to call them or how to begin searching for anyone who might sell them.

Not a Coffee Table or End Table

I tried to describe what I wanted by asking for a tall coffee table, but would end up being shown coffee tables that were square and low and nothing like what I had in mind. I was shown tables of every size and dimension like end tables; even a tallish glass coffee table and something similar to what I wanted called a hall table. But mostly I was passed from furniture showroom to showroom to see a side table, an end table, or a sofa table.

Almost Sofa Tables

Some side tables might have worked had it not been for their boxy shape and their too wide a width. A glass table with a narrow panel came close and a few sofa tables were higher than the traditional side tables, but none were exactly right.

Between a Hall Table and an Accent Table

An accent table could have worked but what I wanted was something between the hall tables I saw and the accent tables and with a straight or flat surface on one side and a rounded front. There was one antique marble table that required mounting on a wall with brackets that was half right, but I also wanted legs.

So I continued my quest through a huge variety of different styles, from hall and accent tables to coffee and occasional tables and still remained without knowing what I was doing wrong. What was the right word for the furniture I had in my head?

And then someone mentioned “console table” and my search began to head in the right direction.

Yes, at last! I knew what I wanted.

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