While I was renovating my house, and while there was so much dust I could barely breathe, I rented a small apartment a few blocks away from the construction site and used it as a place to flop after a long day of helping the construction workers, and as a place to take a shower. I didn’t select it for being an apartment where I would want to live, but it was cheaper than a hotel and came furnished and that was all I cared about.

The funny thing was that the apartment was a mini marble palace replete with polished marble floors, red velvet drapes and elaborate cherry furniture… so out of character for a tiny Spanish village set into an olive grove landscape. But the funniest part of the entire apartment was an antique, gilded console table and gold framed mirror at the entrance. It was a perfect old world, half-moon, mounted console table with 2 ornately carved front legs and a marble top.

Console Table Entrance Haunting

Since I was always tired and dirty when I entered the apartment, I didn’t give much thought to the gaudy décor, and would go straight to the shower and then off to bed. But invariably I would see the console table, toss my keys and mail and miscellaneous junk on the little gilded table and ….it would wobble under the weight of keys and a few letters. And then one day it fell. I panicked and replaced it to where it belonged and checked that the marble hadn’t cracked or that the gilded paint on the carved legs hadn’t chipped.

Luckily I didn’t destroy the console table. But right until the day I happily left the luxury of that apartment, that irritating console table haunted my entrance. The idea of it was ideal – a place for keys and letters at the entrance of the house, but the actuality of it was a wobbly piece of adornment that just got in the way.

That’s another reason it took me a long time to choose the console table I eventually put in my newly renovated house. I wanted a table to use AND to look great, and not something so decorative it could only be looked at.

Practical Console Tables

It’s very common for homeowners to place a console table at the entrance, not only to make a good first house impression, but to have a place for small items that are otherwise in our hands or pockets as we enter and exit. The console table should be sturdy enough to not collapse if used to set keys or mail or a purse or wallet or even sunglasses and other small items.

It’s also not a bad idea to have a mirror above the table for a quick glance as you leave the house or even to make the entryway appear a little larger than it is and to reflect the light that may come through the door. But that very useful little piece of furniture can quickly become an annoyance if it is either wobbly or unstable, or if it is too decorative to hold small items, or if it becomes the household junk trap and is the most unsightly first impression you receive as you enter. That is why it is important to give some thought to your selection.

• Will it be used to place thing son or is it more a decorative table with a mirror to check your lipstick?
• Could it become a potential junk trap? How to avoid it becoming a clutter table?

If it’s just a table to set your lipstick on while you retouch your makeup, then almost anything you like will do (even a total glass console table), but if not, make sure the console table you choose has sturdy legs, at least in front, and if it also mounts to the wall, make sure the brackets can be mounted into whatever the wall is made of. If you think there is chance that your table will gradually become a junk collector for the entire family, then it may be wise to consider a table that has 1 or 2 drawers to hide mail and keys and other miscellaneous items.

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.