Go for comfort. It makes the room look more inviting....sit down, put your feet up and stay awhile~~

I like the round shape better as it plays off the square items but I really believe in comfort over correctness. Could you have the table top made in to an ottoman? Then you'd have the best of both worlds. BYW really lovely room!

Yes, beautiful room, jjam. That ottoman looks so comfy, I'd go with that. I don't think it "overpads" the room.

I like the look of the ottoman.

I like the ottoman. Between the brick, the white woodwork, and the wood floor, you've got plenty of hard elements. Not too padded at all. It's a very pretty, inviting room.

Okay, now that it's decided and you're going with the ottoman, could you please sell me your table? I love it :-)

OK, here's your third option that you didn't ask for. A rectangular table with open space under it. I mention this option because I find the round table a bit too large and too squatty for the space and I find the ottoman too heavy with all the other closed in bottom furniture you have in the room. Now you can sell budge your round table.

Thanks all. I watched two basketball games last night with my feet perched on the ottoman and it was divine. So although my eyes haven't adjusted to it fully yet, my feet sure have. The round table is an old family piece; was DH's grandmother's kitchen table that his parents cut down for a coffee table. SO I can't sell it but there are lots of them out there, budge....your CL is probably loaded with them.

This has raised the question in my mind about decorating for the way we REALLY live as opposed to the way we WANT to live. I've come to accept that we are in love with HDTV, for sports and movies especially. Our kids don't live at home anymore but visit frequently,and when we do get together there always seems to be a TV event that we are gathered around. So...now we can all be comfortable doing it.

Big family get together this weekend; anxiously awaiting family reviews...

I say go with the ottoman. I have one (wish it was leather, but its not!) We use it with our feet, we use it as a table and it can be an extra place for seating too.

I love my ottoman coffee table!

jjam, you hit the nail on the head. There are decorating rules and such but nothing beats comfort in your own home. I vote for the ottoman too! ;c)

ottoman

I think both look fine so go with the ottoman. It looks inviting and it will be nice to be able to put your feet up.

Ottoman.

It looks better.

The real question is how are you going to use the piece in the area? Do you always bring beverages in to the room? Then go with a coffee/cocktail table. Spills will happen eventually......and drips. Even if you are always careful, a guest may do it. You do not want to have to always be balancing and worrying about beverages on a tray on the ottoman. Even if you do go with a table the round one is too big to be efficient for use.

Me, I would never have an ottoman instead of a table. I know my guests, and in not time at all it would be ruined with drips, crumbs and ashes, if not burns.

Dilly, that is a good point. DH picked out the tray that is there now and I'm not sure it's sturdy enough for drinks. Any other ottoman users have trouble with spilling? As much as I would think we would have food in there, it's right off the kitchen so our tendency is to leave the food in the kitchen and wander in with just a drink. I will need to make sure everyone has a place to set a drink down elsewhere. We're a non smoking house so no worries about ashes.

Sounds like you and brutuses are on the same page here...maybe a rectangular coffee table with the bottom open would look great. But, the comfort factor is big. I have 30 days to decide; will test it out with the family this weekend and see how careful they are,

I prefer those small folding "TV" tables to a coffee table. They're just the right size for drinks & snacks or a laptop; you can place them exactly where they're most comfortable; each can have his own; and when you're through with them, you can get them out of the way. Maybe decent looking ones would enable you to have your ottoman and your table practicality too.

I just wanted to say that I love your room - especialy the firplace and bookshelves. That is the look I want. We want to add a gas fireplace and have a similiar look, but cannot get the furniture arranged right. Love the round table and the history of it. But understand the desire for comfort.

I would definitely pick the ottoman. I really wish I had gone that route instead of my over priced EA coffee table which DH and my son insist on USING as an ottoman. The edges now have many fine dents on it now and I'm forever dusting it. Yes, the leather padded comfy ottoman for sure!

Love the ottoman!

I don't think you'll be able to give up the ottoman once you try it out :-) The table looks nice but the ottoman looks nice too and is very inviting.

Thanks so much to all of you. Mimi, I think you summed it up; it would be hard to give up the comfort now. That's probably why I asked all of you about it before the kids show up on Saturday! The words of that designer who came in kept haunting me....."It will look like a padded room..." I honestly didn't think so but was a bit intimidated, and it was good to hear some objective feedback.

And, one more question, what do you think of the color of the ottoman? DH thinks that we should consider the darker brown espresso color. It would be a darker shade of brown than the chair in the photo; would almost read black. Any thoughts on that?

My feet are on my leather-topped, round, coffee table every night. It would be lovely to have a leather padded ottoman, although we also perch wine glasses on our table, and I don't know that I would feel secure with my glass on an ottoman.

I don't know about the decorator and I don't know how the room looks IRL......but, on my monitor, I love the ottoman. And sometimes, a piece that may be a bit big or a bit small or a little dark or a little bland, may yet be one of the best decor decisions you can make. Your coffee table is extremely pretty, but the ottoman looks more useful in your lovely, lovely, room.

Red

Thanks, Red!

I don't know about you, but we've got enough loonies in our family that I do sometimes think a real "padded room" might be an efficient decorating investment...

Love the ottoman, and so do you, so you should keep it!

I vote to keep the coffee table. I like the wood and it compliments the tv stand. The table makes the room more comfy looking, and welcoming.

Jjam,
I love the ottoman!! And it doesn't have 50 million tufts like mine that collect crud like crazy!!

Such a pretty room.

Smiles:)

jjam, I am the owner of a reddish leather ottoman so I tend to like the color of the one you have there. Colors are so hard to tell in photos though. Seems to look very nice with your rug and is kinda cheery looking. Dark leather is pretty and rich looking too, though, so might not be bad. So that's a non answer about the color, lol, other than to say the one in the photo looks good :-)

jjam, would you please tell me the name of the manfacturer that made the ottoman? And what is the color called? I'm in the search for a cocktail ottoman and can't seem to find what I want.

Karen

Karen,
It's the rectangular Sullivan Ottoman from Pottery Barn. The color is bourbon, which is available in stores but not online.

It's an investment piece and I'm very happy with it. We had the family over Saturday night and the room just seemed cozier with everyone so comfortable.

It's absolutely our favorite "padded room" :)

I like the lighter brown. I think the espresso may be too much of a contrast with your furniture. This color tends to coordinate well with your existing furniture.

I think you decorator's comment is so telling - a perfectly decorated room is rarely comfortable or usable in real life. I love all the lovely rooms in the magazines, but where's the TV, where do you put your feet? I don't want to tiptoe around my house, I want to live in it!

Tell us about the rug????

I understand the appeal of the ottoman but I think the coffee table looks better and will be more practical. There is no way to use an ottoman for drinks---tray or no tray. I think there is probably a generational difference between those who think the coffee table looks better and those who like the look of the ottoman better. Perhaps if the ottoman was a bit smaller or a different shape? But you'd still have no place for drinks.

She has side tables on either side of the sofa for drinks. Rarely do you have three people sitting on the sofa at once so couldn't the end tables be used for drinks?

I never liked food/drinks on the coffee table anyways - always seemed to be a spill waiting to happen. Maybe that was because everyone had their feet up there too!

Hi again all, and thanks for so many thoughtful comments.

The drink issue is definitely something to consider, and I've got it covered pretty well except for the instance (rare) where a third person sits in the middle of the couch. I'd just have to hope that the tray would hold that drink ok, or that they would just hold on to it. The surface of the ottoman is actually pretty level, so the tray would actually do the job, I think, unless there was an unusual amount of activity going on. Otherwise I have side tables for all of the other seating. If I didn't have room for those, I'd probably reconsider the ottoman altogether.

Debbimc, thank you for noticing the rug. It is an old Karastan I got on ebay several years back, and I do love it. The pattern is called Hunting Scene, I think, and it still shows up on ebay from time to time. I am such a fan of Karastan rugs; they are beautiful and wear like iron.

This process has been great for me. I love my coffee table, but I was in PB a couple of weeks ago, saw it on the floor, and just had to try it. (30 day return policy helps) Now the mood in the room is more relaxed and, well, inviting. Along with how the space looks, a room should be about how you FEEL when you are in it, and somehow, that ottoman seems to make people feel good. That being said, I'm sure five big barcaloungers would make us feel good, but we also want things to look nice and have visual interest, so therein lies the search for the room that can do both.

That's why this forum is so helpful, and fun.

I've ordered a leather ottoman that has a sunken, fixed tray in the middle (the ottoman is divided in three - a padded top, the sunken tray, then another padded top). And both padded tops lift up. Can't say that it is the nicest looking ottoman that I've ever seen, but I'm hoping that I will look past that and enjoy the functionality (right now, the baby is tending to pull the tray off of our upholstered ottoman).

Barring something like I've described, maybe stemless wine and such glasses (less tipping) for the tray on the ottoman.

chloe s mom, sounds like the perfect choice for you. All of the things in our home are predicated by the fact that we have three grown children, and no grandchildren, so it's all about adults here. For years, just about every decision I made had to take three active kids into account. But oh, what a wonderful dilemma it was! Worth every design(?) compromise, BTW.

And stemless wine glasses are a must! Thanks for the idea.