Lucca Coffee Table: 90 x 55 x 50cm, and what that size suits

The listing for the Lucca Coffee Table is one line long: 90 x 55 x 50cm. There is no description of the top, the base, the colour or the finish, and there is a single photograph. Rather than dress that up, this guide does the one useful thing a size can support, which is work out what it fits, and then sets out exactly what you should ask us before ordering.

The one fact we have

That reading is the normal one for a coffee table, but the listing does not label the figures, so ask us to confirm which is which before you commit to a gap that only works one way round.

What 90 x 55cm suits

This is a compact table. At 90cm it sits comfortably in front of a two-seat sofa of roughly 150cm to 180cm, or between a pair of armchairs, and it leaves a walkway where a 120cm table would not. In a bay window or a flat with one tight side, the 30cm you save over a longer table is usually the difference between a room that works and one you edge around.

Allow about 40cm of clear floor between the sofa front and the table edge for feet and for passing. With that, the whole arrangement wants around 170cm along its length and about 135cm front to back, which is the number to measure rather than the table on its own.

50cm is taller than most

This is the detail worth noticing. A good many coffee tables stand at 45cm; this one is listed at 50cm. Typical sofa seats sit in the mid-forties, so a 50cm top will stand slightly above your cushion line rather than level with it.

That suits some people very well. A top above the cushion is easier to eat from, easier to put a laptop on and easier to reach without leaning forward, which matters more as knees get older. It is less suited to the low, long look, and if you are matching it to an existing table elsewhere in an open-plan room, the 5cm will show.

What the listing does not tell you, and should

• The material of the top, and of the base.
• The colour and the finish.
• The shape of the base, which decides whether anything can tuck underneath.
• The weight, and whether it arrives assembled.
• Any care or cleaning advice.

We would rather say all of that plainly than invent a material to fill the page. Ring or message us with the product code and we will tell you what the supplier states, and send more photographs than the one on the page.

If you need a bigger one

For a longer table at the more usual 45cm height, the BK-Milan Coffee Table is listed at 120 x 60 x 45cm with a ceramic top, and the Lewis Coffee Table gives the same footprint on a chrome frame. The Siena Coffee Table is listed at 120 x 60 x 45cm as well, with an oak-effect top and black legs. The Torino Coffee Table is not a bigger table: its listing gives the same 90 x 55 x 50cm, so it is the one to compare if this size is right and you want a different look. All of them are in Coffee Tables.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. When you have measured the gap, the Lucca Coffee Table page has the photograph and the order form.