Bedside, Coffee and Side Tables: How to Choose Accent Tables That Work Together
A bedside table, a coffee table and a side table all do the one job: give you a steady surface within reach. They just do it at three heights, built for three different seats: the bed, the sofa and the armchair. You choose each one by the height of the thing it stands beside, the top material that suits how you actually use it, and how the three look together in a room.
Below: what separates the three, how to size them, which tabletop to pick for a Perth home, whether to match or mix, and how to make them work in a smaller space.
Bedside, coffee or side table: what's the difference, and which do I need?
The difference is height and where it stands. A coffee table is low and sits in front of the sofa. A bedside table stands beside the bed at about mattress height. A side table is the flexible one that can do either job or sit next to a chair.
That overlap matters when you're shopping. At Adore Home Living, side and lamp tables are sold as multi-role pieces. The same table can live beside a lounge one week and beside a bed the next. The Jude Glass Top Nest Table (Set of 3) is a good example: three tables that tuck inside each other. The product notes call out using them "as side tables for holding drinks" in the living room or "as bedside tables for lamps, books" in the bedroom.
So you don't always need three different products. One well-chosen side table can cover two of the three roles.
What size and height should each table be?
Match each table's height to the seat it serves, then check it against the space around it. A side or bedside table wants its top near the arm of the chair or the top of the mattress. A coffee table sits lower, in front of the sofa, with clear walking room around it.
Use the real measurements rather than guessing. The featured lamp and side tables give you a feel for standard heights:
Asura Ceramic Top Lamp Table – Black: 500 × 500 × 500 mm (a compact cube that sits near the arm of most lounge chairs).
Tahana Marble Lamp Table – Black: 600 × 600 × 500 mm (same height, a wider top).
Jude Nest Table (Set of 3): three round tops at 550, 450 and 350 mm across (spread them out or stack them back to one footprint).
Before you commit, measure two things: the seat or bed the table will stand beside, and the walkway you need to keep clear around a coffee table. Then measure the doorway and hallway it has to travel through to get there. More on that below. In newer homes that path is tighter than it used to be.
Which tabletop is right for how I live in Perth: marble, timber, glass or ceramic?
If you want low upkeep, choose glass or ceramic. If you want warmth and don't mind a little maintenance, choose solid timber. Real marble is the most demanding of the lot, beautiful, but it needs care. That matters in a Perth home, where summers run hot and dry, with mean maximums above 31°C and afternoon humidity down near 38 per cent.
Is real marble worth the upkeep?
Marble is mostly calcium carbonate, which reacts to everyday acids. A splash of wine or a citrus cleaner can leave a dull "etch" mark, chemical damage rather than a stain, and wiping won't lift it. Sealing helps, but a sealer is a maintenance item, not a force field. A good one has a service life of roughly ten to fifteen years. Adore's own care guidance is to wipe marble with a damp cloth daily and deep-clean and re-seal it every six to twelve months.
What's a solid-timber top like?
Timber brings warmth that stone and glass don't. The Kyoto Coffee Table – M – Natural Oak is solid wood construction on a three-leg base. The Margaret Lamp Table has a solid Marri timber top on a solid-timber base with a Marri veneer finish. One thing to expect from solid timber: it takes up and gives off moisture, so it moves with the seasons. In a normal home a piece shifts about 4 per cent in moisture content across the year. Small movement in Perth's dry summers is normal timber behaviour, not a fault. Well-made timber is properly "seasoned" (dried to a stable moisture level) before it's built, around 10 to 15 per cent moisture content. That's what helps stop it cracking once it's living in an air-conditioned room. Not every "timber" table is solid all the way through. The Margaret Coffee Table is described as a quality hardwood with a warm oak finish. Its build is an oak veneer over a laminated and solid rubber-wood body rather than solid timber throughout. It still matches the Margaret lamp table if you want the set.
Are glass and ceramic easier to care for?
These are the easy-care options. The Amara Glass Top Side Table – Silver pairs a tempered-glass top with a stainless-steel frame. Adore's care line for glass is simply a glass cleaner and a lint-free cloth. The Asura Ceramic Top Lamp Table has a 6 mm ceramic top on a matt-black base and is described as "durable and scratch-resistant." That makes it a sensible pick for a surface that gets daily use.
What about a marble-look resin top?
If you love the marble look but not the upkeep, resin tops split the difference. The Tahana Marble Square Coffee Table – Space Grey uses a marble-look surface finished with a high-gloss resin coating. The product notes describe it as offering "enhanced durability and easy maintenance." It's a coordinated range, so a matching Tahana lamp table is available.
Should I match my tables or mix them?
Both work: the trick is one common thread running through the pieces. A shared metal finish, a repeated shape, or a single tone will hold a mixed set together. Without one, matched pieces are the safer path.
Matching is the simplest way to look considered: the Tahana coffee and lamp tables are one design at two sizes. The Margaret coffee and lamp tables are both part of the Margaret collection. Mixing gives you more character (the natural-oak Kyoto with a glass Amara side table, say) as long as the tones agree. If you want a steer on palette, Pantone's 2026 Colour of the Year is Cloud Dancer, a soft white (part of a wider move toward calm, textured neutrals). That's exactly the mood a natural timber like the Kyoto suits. It's also the natural home of Japandi, the pared-back Japanese-Scandinavian look. Whichever way you go, keep the surface styling light so the tables look like a set, not a collection.
Which tables work in a small Perth living room or apartment?
Reach for nesting tables and compact round ones. They give you surface when you need it and disappear when you don't. That matters, because newer Perth homes are being built on smaller footprints.
The blocks have shrunk: the average site area for a new Greater Perth house fell from 448 m² in 2012 to 399 m² in 2021, an 11 per cent drop. A new WA house now averages about 223 m², while a townhouse or unit averages closer to 154 m². Most WA homes are still houses rather than apartments, about 78 per cent. But the growing townhouse segment tends toward tighter, multi-level plans where scale and stairs count.
Good small-space picks from the range:
Jude Nest Table (Set of 3): spreads to three surfaces, stacks back to one.
Amara Glass Top Side Table: "small in size," and glass looks light in a tight room.
Asura Ceramic Top Lamp Table: a neat 500 mm cube.
One more measurement before you buy: the way in. An accessible doorway is designed to a clear opening of at least 850 mm. Compliant newer homes use a minimum 820 mm internal doorway and 1000 mm hallways. Check the whole delivery path, not just the front door. If you're furnishing on a tight budget, there's more on affordable living-room pieces and small-space ideas worth a look.
Where to next
Three quick steps from here:
Measure the seat or bed each table will stand beside, plus the doorway and hallway it has to clear.
Decide low-maintenance (glass or ceramic), warm (solid timber), or the marble look without the upkeep (resin), based on how the surface will actually be used.
Choose matched or mixed, with one finish, shape or tone tying the pieces together.
Materials are hard to judge on a screen: the weight of a solid Marri top, how a marble-look resin catches the light, whether a nest of tables suits your walkway. Adore Home Living's Western Australian showrooms let you see the coffee tables and side and lamp tables in this guide in person and check the proportions against your own measurements. If you'd rather plan the whole grouping, its design service runs in-store, by phone or as an in-home consultation (a $199 fee applies, deductible against purchases over $2,000), and the Adore Members Club offers member pricing if you're furnishing more than one room. Bring your measurements and the seat heights you're working to, and the rest is straightforward.