nope, doesn't have to. I don't match anything - ever. that's just my taste though. My coffee table is from the 1950s: maple top on black iron legs. One side/end table is green and white mosaic tiles with iron legs. The black iron legs connect the two but they're very different: wood vs mosaic. I think you just have to have one thing that connects the pieces and not necessarily match.

I don't think they need to (or even should) match. Same scale is all that matters, and no obvious clashing. That said, I have a heavy black table with gold accents in my LR, as well as two small distressed silver nesting tables. Probably breaks both the "rules" I mentioned, but they work together....IMO.

As for R&B, I sat in every sofa in their Soho showroom and found the comfort factor to vary widely from style to style. My fave for looks was a horrible sitting experience. I was comfortable in some and my shopping buddy was not, and vise versa. I strongly suggest you park your backside in any sofa you intend to buy before you swipe your card.

Oh, heck no, and I don't think that they need to be similar in tone, either... contrast is good, lest you get the "tried to match and missed" look, which is very much not good. That goes double if you're furnishing with antiques/vintage items. I have a pretty small living room (approx 12x16 if we're being optimistic!) and not one thing matches anything else. The coffee table is nutmeg-stained maple, rectangular with porringer corners and big drawers, sort of country-Victorian-inspired. One side table is a 30" round tea table in cherry-stained quartersawn oak in typical reproduction Mission style. Another is a small antique Arts & Crafts period 16" round tabouret table, quartersawn oak in a chocolatey brown finish (fumed oak). The last is a little bitty 12" square blonde ashwood table with slightly curvy legs, rather more modern than the other items although I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a certain style of mahogany or walnut Victorian bookstand end table to come along in-budget (aka cheap LOL). I have a large backless upholstered bench that's too modern in style for this old house and is on my list of things to sell - once I do I plan to replace it with a wing chair and I think the small copper-topped fumed-oak trestle coffee table would fit underneath the window next to where the chair would go. What makes everything play nicely together is that it's all from (or reproduced from) the same time period, the turn of the 19th-20th century.

Along those lines, my current coffee table & end table work very well together. They were both garage sale purchases. The coffee table is gilt painted wood - an elaborately carved pedestal base with a round marble top. The end table is brown stained wood with gilt highlights, not quite as elaborately carved, but still very old-school. The gilt and carving tie them together. Both must have been beautiful when they were new, but the end table needs refinishing, the marble on the coffee table is etched and stained (I didn't take good care of things when I was in my 20's). Both are probably salvageable, but they're just not my style anymore (if they ever were).

(Anyone know how much it costs to refinish an end table?)

"[...] but they're just not my style anymore (if they ever were).
(Anyone know how much it costs to refinish an end table?)"

Why go to the hassle and expense of refinishing items you don't like in the first place, and if I read your initial post right, that you don't plan on keeping anyway? I'd sell them as-is (if they were garage sale purchases you could probably break even pretty easily) or donate them. You may get more value donating them, in the form of tax deductions - we discovered that this past year, to our happy surprise.

Just for giggles I did link a pretty good website on getting stains and such off marble.

Here is a link that might be useful: salvaging that marble tabletop