Thanks, everyone! The C&B table is really great, joinery or no; it just strikes me as foolish to spend that much on a coffee table that will inevitably get little-boy-ified. The HD and JC tables are pine, alas, which will get dented really fast. Kathypass, that furnitureontheweb site has another table (link below) I really like, though no idea which wood it is. Have you had good experiences with this site? I'm reluctant to buy from unknown vendors. An architect friend suggested taking out the glass and putting in plexi. how does this look, does anyone know? (I suspect I am over the line as far as over-thinking/over-researching this goes!) Here is a link that might be useful: another possible coffee table

I shopped for my coffee table for 4 years. They just don't make many like what I wanted and needed: a. Must be open bottomed with legs, not pedestal (I have dogs that chase balls through all the tables in my house) b. Must be oval to fit in nicely in the space c. No glass (too hard to clean BTDT) d. Traditional styling, but NO Queen Anne legs, preferably no metal either e. No more than 48" in length So you see, I had a LOT of "musts"! I finally found one I could love in January after umpteen bajillion google searches - here it is... Here is a link that might be useful: Not a true oval, but close enough for me...

Thank you Sky and Allison for your quick replies! Our living room is used more often now that we have a tv in it (the family room with its HUGE tv is sometimes more overwhelming than I want it to be and our living room has "my" Direct tv dvr in it so I live here now lol). I don't have any pics yet; I couldnt find their "whole shebang" sets online. Jordans is a major furniture store in the boston area and the only one (of Jordans, Bernie and Phyls, and Bob's Discount Furniture) to offer returns/refunds within 7 days less delivery (and pickup) charges. Soooo...for $200 (delivery is $99 and if we return another $99) its worth it to me to accept it all and then return it if necessary. I guess I am just afraid of the glass being too cold or overly formal. But every wood set they showed us, it was just tooo informal. We ordered new carpet from Home Depot last week so we want to put off delivery of our furniture til at least then. I can't believe I convinced DH to even go looking; he told me afterwards that he knew we'd be buying something today lol. He knows me much too well!

wmsimons45.. I had followed your posts from time to time and remembered you looking as well, but never saw where you ended up getting one. thanks for answering. I may get frustrated enough to try that. kulrn... the silver Marcia Square 43" happens to be the one I ordered in gold, that is now on long back order. I wonder how hard it would be to paint the silver one, gold? Anyone have thoughts on that? I am not beyond trying that for that price. Porter.. I have considered putting 2 rectangle ones together, 2 square wont solve problem. I have 2- 6' sofas that have to sit at right angles. The coffee table I currently have used for 17 yrs is dark wood and is 42x48. One side always got the long side, and never looked balanced. When I decided to get new one to go with newly recovered sofas, I thought Id get a square one and go light and bright, so it didnt visually take up so much space. Didnt know it was going to be this hard to find. Thanks for all your posts and help. I really appreciate it!