Guide
How to turn your coffee table into a focal point
by Pia Seidel
Books that are definitely not suitable for the coffee table - or are they?
29.10.2024
Translation: machine translated
If you want to skilfully stage your home, you can't do without them: books for the coffee table. However, the following books are more likely to end up under the sofa. For reasons.
Picture books, biographies, books about travelling, art and architecture are designed to show visitors who you are - a globetrotter, a connoisseur of the arts, an aesthete. Coffee table books, which could also be loosely translated as coffee table books in German, are designed to make an impression. They are often displayed where people are waiting and have time to leaf through them. And they say something about the place where you are, the people who work or live here.
I can't tell you how to perfectly organise such an ensemble of coffee table and books. My colleague and interior design expert Pia knows much better.
But at least I can offer you a non-guide. A few tips on which books are not suitable for draping on a beautiful table - even if they match the colour of the sofa cushions beautifully. If you are less conservative and more progressive, if you enjoy provocation - then ignore everything that follows. And sorry for bothering you up to this point.
Books about sexuality
Sexuality is omnipresent in our time: porn has arrived on X, the ex-Twitter. On posters, in TV adverts, in the sand of the beach volleyball court at the Olympics - naked skin everywhere. Nevertheless, there are limits. An illustrated book on camasutric sex positions is welcome to stay in the bedroom. People who visit you and discover the book might otherwise wonder whether you're trying to send a signal.
Although ... somehow it would be interesting to see which acquaintance would leaf through certain books during a visit.
Books about diseases
Have you studied medicine? Okay, then the "Prometheus" is an appropriate work for the shelf, or for the side table in the living room if you prefer.
However, guidebooks on diseases are conversation and mood killers. What's more, the illustrations of fatty livers or eczema are rarely aesthetically pleasing. And nobody wants to know whether your Schnuffi dog has a stiff hip joint. Unless, as a non-pet owner, I'm simply not familiar with the scene and that's the way it is.
Books about certain personalities
Barack Obama, Marie Curie, Steve Jobs, Roger Federer, Albert Einstein, Manni Matter for all I care. Biographies about important personalities of our time and from history fit perfectly on the coffee table. You can use them to show which people inspire you.
Of course, there are also biographies of Hitler and Mao Zedong, Mussolini and Stalin. Are you a professor of history and do you specialise in mass extermination, oppression and dictatorship in general? And do all the people who know you know that? Then these books will suit your coffee table arrangement.
Books about break-ups
Imagine this: You're in a happy relationship and then there on the little table in front of the seating area is a book about when and how to break up. This will almost certainly irritate you: Is this a hidden message from the hosts to you? Or do the hosts themselves have a problem? Who knows. In any case, this could be an evening rich in wine and deep conversation.
You've read this far. Thank you. A non-guide like this is, I'll admit, a somewhat unusual way to point out just how large Galaxus' range of books is. Well, now you know.
And I don't want to let you go without tips on books that are guaranteed to be coffee-table worthy. Modern architecture, aesthetic gardens and culinary delights - that always works.
Guidebooks
CHF28.90
Kleiner Atlas der Kulinarik
German, Britta Köhler, Claudia Theis-Passaro, Martina Liverani, 2022
Unfortunately, we don't yet have a "Coffee Table Book" filter option in the book range (I'll do my best to find one ...).
Or am I completely wrong with my non-tips? Would you call the books in my selection coffee table books after all? Write in the comments what you think.
Header image: Martin Jungfer
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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