What about the Coffee Table?

It's funny, but people will spend days and hours trying to choose just the right living room couch or rug, or the focus piece of wall art—and leave one of the most important decorating decisions to an afterthought.

It's time to wake up and smell the coffee table!

Worry not, dear mid-century modernist, for help is on the way in the form of 'Coffee or Cocktails?' in the new Summer 2017 issue of CA-Modern magazine. Home improvement editor Tanja Kern has selected a dozen terrific modern tables to tempt you into paying more attention to what too often is a decorating afterthought.

"Most of the time, this is the last thing they check," observes Olivier Renault, a South Bay modern furniture retailer who contributed one piece to the story. "It's not always very good for them."

Renault knows where from he speaks in his accented English. Before he and two family members started their furnishing business, Oh La La!, with a showroom in Los Gatos, he worked as an interior decorator on the Riviera in his native France. When performing such a service, he says, "I like to go visit a place to see what is around. Then, I do my suggestions, and most of the time they follow them."

When it comes to coffee tables, Renault favors three Italian manufacturers that are admittedly "really high end": San Giocomo, Riflessi, and Cattelan Italia.

For the CA-Modern story, Tanja chose a different piece from Oh La La!, though still of Italian design. The Atari is a smoked-glass tabletop on a stained walnut base available from Mobili Fredi.