Designer Coffee Tables: Styles, Brands & Pre-Owned Pricing

May 29, 2026

Published on: May 29, 2026 ｜Read time: 6 minutes

The designer coffee table is the centrepiece that anchors a living space. Not the most expensive piece in the room, usually, but the one that sets the proportional language of everything around it.

Florence Knoll designed her coffee table in 1954. Eero Saarinen designed the Tulip for Knoll in 1957. Warren Platner designed his in 1966: hundreds of nickel-plated steel rods welded by hand to circular frames at top and bottom.

All three remain in continuous production. All three retail at £2,400 to £4,500 new with 8 to 12 week lead times. The same authenticated originals are available pre-owned through REHAUS, in roughly half the time at roughly half the price.

This is the buyer's guide to designer coffee tables: the eight icons, the brands behind them, the materials and proportions that matter, and what the pieces actually cost when you don't pay for the showroom.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

A designer coffee table is one made by a named designer for a named manufacturer, in continuous production or a recognised original production period, with a specific design intent rather than a generic shape.
The canon includes the Noguchi Coffee Table (Herman Miller, 1944), the Saarinen Coffee Table (Knoll, 1957), the Platner Coffee Table (Knoll, 1966), and Florence Knoll's original (Knoll, 1954).
New retail for the canon runs £1,800 to £4,500 with 8 to 16 week lead times. Pre-owned through REHAUS, the same authenticated pieces are roughly half retail and arrive in 1 to 5 days.
Every piece is one of one, authenticated, and covered by the Forever Guarantee. Live with it for 30 days or trade it back for what you paid when you're ready for the next.

About the author

Tom Allason is the founder and CEO of REHAUS, the circular designer furniture platform. He works directly with the REHAUS authentication, restoration and sourcing teams, and writes on iconic design, circular ownership, and the economics of designer furniture.

Why the Designer Coffee Table Matters

The coffee table earns its place through both function and form. It carries books, drinks, snacks, and the occasional plate. It also sets the geometry of the seating area. Get it wrong, and the sofa floats. Get it right, and the room composes itself around it.

A designer coffee table is not the same thing as a luxury coffee table. The luxury market sells material, polished stone, brass inlay, and hand-finished marble, often at high price points. The designer market sells form, proportion, and the specific mind that worked it out.

The eight pieces below earned their place because a named designer solved a spatial problem with a material commitment, and the answer became permanent in the decor of modern homes.

The Eight Iconic Designer Coffee Tables

Noguchi Coffee Table by Isamu Noguchi, 1944

Isamu Noguchi designed the IN-50 in 1944. Herman Miller introduced it in 1947 and has produced it ever since. Two interlocking solid wood pieces support a 19 mm plate glass top. Noguchi called it sculpture-for-use and described it as his best piece of furniture. The form is biomorphic, the function is a surface, and the result is closer to art than to a typical table. New from Vitra in the EU runs around £1,800. Authenticated originals appear in the REHAUS Vitra collection.

Saarinen Coffee Table by Eero Saarinen, 1957

Eero Saarinen designed the Tulip and Pedestal collections for Knoll to eliminate "the slum of legs" beneath conventional tables and bring freedom to the surrounding environment. The cast aluminium pedestal supports tops in marble, granite, or laminate.

Five years of development with Knoll's technical team produced the curve. The form is elegant, the function is permanent. The Saarinen Coffee Table at REHAUS is currently available at roughly a third of new retail.

Platner Coffee Table by Warren Platner, 1966

Warren Platner joined Knoll in 1960. His 1966 collection is built by hand-welding hundreds of curved nickel-plated steel rods to circular frames at the top and bottom. Structure becomes ornament. The 1960s style of the piece, decorative, gentle, and graceful, has aged into one of the most-recognised forms in the modernist canon. Platner originals surface regularly in the wider Knoll collection at REHAUS.

Florence Knoll Coffee Table by Florence Knoll, 1954

Florence Knoll trained under Mies van der Rohe and brought Bauhaus rationalism into the American living room. Her coffee table is chrome tubular steel, a marble or wood top, and nothing else. The form is the function.

The Verde Alpi marble version remains the collector's choice. The Florence Knoll Verde Alpi at REHAUS is in current stock at £2,300 against £3,277 retail.

Nakashima Plank and Minguren Tables by George Nakashima, 1960s

George Nakashima worked from his New Hope, Pennsylvania studio, finishing each table by hand from American black walnut. The live edge of the plank stayed visible. The butterfly joint, drawn from Japanese woodworking, became his signature. Nakashima's tables sit at the opposite pole from European modernism.

The same rigour, expressed through wood instead of steel. Period pieces in the Nakashima register appear occasionally in the REHAUS coffee table collection.

Marcel Breuer Laccio Tables, 1925

The Laccio nesting tables are the earliest piece in the canon. Marcel Breuer designed them at the Bauhaus in 1925, in the same chrome tubular steel vocabulary as his Wassily chair. The pair nests, which makes them a versatile, ideal small-room solution that still reads as serious design. Knoll holds the licence and continues production today.

Cassina LC10-P by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand & Pierre Jeanneret, 1928

The LC10-P is the architect's coffee table. Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret designed it as part of the 1928 LC collection. Steel frame, glass top, geometric clarity.

Cassina holds the exclusive licence as the official Le Corbusier reissue manufacturer in Italy, which means the only authenticated originals in production come through Cassina. Period and recent pieces appear in the Cassina collection at REHAUS.

Desalto Clay D64 by Marc Krusin

The contemporary entry. Marc Krusin designs for Knoll, Cassina, and Desalto. His Clay D64 for Desalto is one of the cleaner expressions of Italian contemporary coffee table design: a single moulded volume, no visible joinery, finished in a soft matte that reads more sculpture than furniture.

The Desalto Clay D64 at REHAUS is in stock at £4,140 against £6,939 retail.

Materials, Shapes, and Choosing the Right Piece

Materials follow the brief. Solid wood (walnut, oak, ash) gives warmth and grain that improves with age, and is versatile across most styles. Marble offers presence and weight, with the Verde Alpi green of Florence Knoll's original as the reference.

Glass is the lightest visual option and complements any sofa. Stone, in Italian travertine or quartz, anchors a room without dominating it. Metal, in chrome, nickel, or brass, is structure made visible.

Shape is dictated by traffic flow and sofa geometry. Round tables work in small living areas and homes with children, since they have no corners. Oval tables suit long sofa runs. Square tables anchor compact single-sofa setups. Rectangular tables sit best in front of L-shaped seating in larger rooms. Modern side tables in matching materials complete the composition.

Storage coffee tables, pieces with drawers or lift-top compartments, serve households that prefer their books and remotes out of sight. The trade-off is visual heft. The canonical designer pieces almost universally avoid storage, treating the table as a surface and a form, not a container.

When choosing, start with proportions. Then materials. Then the designer. The right piece complements the sofa, suits the room's dimensions, and earns its presence every day. Beauty is a useful filter, not the first one.

The Brands Behind the Icons

Knoll, founded in 1938 in New York with manufacturing across Italy and the United States, holds the licence to four of the eight icons above: Saarinen, Florence Knoll, Platner, and the Breuer Laccio. The Walter Knoll guide covers the European parallel.

Cassina, founded in 1927 in Meda, Italy, is the official manufacturer of Le Corbusier's furniture. B&B Italia brought industrial precision to high-end furniture from 1966 onward; the complete B&B Italia brand guide covers the catalogue in depth.

Vitra holds the European licence for the Eames, Noguchi and Prouvé canon. Fritz Hansen, founded in Copenhagen in 1872, anchors the Scandinavian register. Ligne Roset holds the Togo and Ploum on the French side. Herman Miller holds the American originals; Alexander Girard worked at Herman Miller through the 1950s and 1960s alongside Charles Eames and George Nelson, designing furniture, textiles, and the interiors of La Fonda del Sol in New York.

Buying Designer Coffee Tables Through REHAUS

A new Saarinen, Platner or Florence Knoll from a UK Knoll dealer arrives in 8 to 16 weeks. The same authenticated piece through REHAUS arrives in 1 to 5 days, at roughly half retail. The pieces are originals, not reissues by other names, not designer-inspired versions. Every piece is authenticated, photographed, and individually listed.

Each piece is one of one. The Forever Guarantee covers it for life: live with it for 30 days, return it free same-day if it doesn't suit, or trade it back for what you paid when you're ready for the next. Heritage furniture also tends to hold its value, which makes the right designer piece a quiet investment as well as a daily commitment to a better-made object.

Browse the live coffee table collection at REHAUS to see what's currently in stock.

Frequently Asked Questions About Designer Coffee Tables

What makes a coffee table a "designer" coffee table?

A designer coffee table is one made by a named designer for a named manufacturer, with a specific design intent and continuous production or a recognised original production period. The form, materials, and proportions are deliberate rather than generic.

What is the most iconic designer coffee table?

The Noguchi Coffee Table by Isamu Noguchi, designed in 1944 and produced by Herman Miller from 1947 onward, is the most-referenced. Eero Saarinen's 1957 pedestal coffee table for Knoll and Warren Platner's 1966 wire table for Knoll are the closest contenders.

How much does a designer coffee table cost?

New retail for the canon runs £1,800 to £4,500 with 8 to 16 week lead times. Pre-owned through REHAUS, the same authenticated pieces arrive at roughly half retail in 1 to 5 days. A Saarinen at REHAUS sits well below £1,000; a Florence Knoll Verde Alpi at around £2,300.

What size should a coffee table be?

Roughly two-thirds the length of the sofa, with its height within 2 inches of the sofa seat. Allow 17 to 24 inches of clearance from the sofa front. Standard heights run 40 to 46 cm.

Round, square, oval or rectangular: which shape works best for coffee tables?

Round tables suit small spaces and households with children. Oval tables complement long sofa runs. Square tables anchor compact single-sofa setups. Rectangular tables work best in front of L-shaped sofas or in larger living areas.

Are pre-owned designer coffee tables worth buying?

Yes. The Noguchi, Saarinen, Florence Knoll and Platner are all in continuous production, so an authenticated pre-owned original is functionally identical to new, at roughly half the price and 1 to 5 day delivery instead of 8 to 16 weeks. The Forever Guarantee covers the trade-back if it doesn't suit.