How to Choose a Feng-Shui-Correct Coffee Table

Is your coffee table a “weapon of calf or shin destruction?”

You know what I mean, some coffee tables have such sharp corners that, should you ever be distracted and run into one of them, either your calves or your shins would suffer dearly.

• A wooden coffee table with sharp corners in one such weapon of calf and shin destruction.
• A metal and glass coffee table with sharp corners is even more dangerous.
• An all glass coffee table with sharp corners is, perhaps, the worst, because it also carries with it the potential that when someone hits it, it could shatter and cause more damage.

Even Worse for Small Bodies

These weapons of calf or shin destruction are even more dangerous for babies and toddlers. In their case, it is their beautiful faces that are at risk of colliding with the such sharp corners.

In an ideal world, such coffee tables doubling as weapons should not even be manufactured.

Why Do People Do This to Themselves?

So I walk into a home and find a coffee table with sharp corners in the living room. I ask if anyone has ever gotten hurt when accidentally running into it. It turns out that every single family member has, at one time or another, hurt their shins or calves on that table. Even a few guests have had trouble with it. Yet the family continues to keep this piece of furniture in the middle of their living room. Why?

Why do people do this to themselves? What is behind this disregard for safety and comfort?

Keeping Something that is Not Good for You

I have met many people who would hang on to pieces of furniture that posed actual danger to their family. These are some of the reasons people give for keeping such pieces:

• The piece was given to them by someone they loved, and they felt that by letting go of that piece of furniture they were saying no to that love.
• It was given to them by someone they didn’t get along with, but they were afraid to confront the person’s reaction if one day they came to visit and found out the table (or other piece of furniture) was gone.
• It was to them a symbol of luxury or wealth. Many times, the idea to get that coffee table came from seeing a picture in a high end home, or that was the kind of furniture they had seen at the home of a wealthy friend when they were kids.
• They liked how the piece of furniture looked at the store, and they told themselves that as long as everyone in the home would be careful, not a klutz, there would not be any problems with it.

The Symbolic Reasons for Keeping Things That are Not Good for You

Sooner or later, every person in a family will get careless, go too fast, or get a little dizzy. If this happens next to a dangerous coffee table, there will be an accident. Depending on the strength or speed of the impact, contact with the sharp corner in a coffee table could mean just a mean bruise, or a slash and open wound.

What is behind keeping things that are potentially dangerous in the home.

Th symbolic meaning in Feng Shui of keeping things that pose danger for the family in the home can be:

• Recklessness, or thinking that things that are likely to happen will not happen to you, because you are you.
• Desire to be punished, usually as a consequence of guilt or low sense of self-worth.

How to Choose a Feng Shui correct coffee table

For a coffee table to have good Feng Shui, it needs to meet these requirements:

1. Be oval, oblong, round, or square/rectangular if the corners are rounded.
2. Be made of a sturdy, not fragile material. Wood is the preferred material, but there are also some coffee tables made of a combination of metal and marble or granite that have good Feng Shui (as long as they don’t have sharp corners)
3. The legs should not protrude beyond the edges of the top board on the coffee table, so that they don’t become tripping hazards.

What I have Done, and What I Do Now

The first home my husband and I shared together was a tiny, furnished, one-bedroom apartment. The living room was so small that the coffee table, even though it didn’t have sharp corners, made the space look crowded, and was itself a tripping hazard. This was before I discovered Feng Shui.

Then we had a home built. When we first moved into that home, friends and relatives saw us as a chance to get rid of their old furniture. We said yes, partly because we were kind of spent and it would be a while before we could afford new furniture, and partly because we were afraid to offend the people who were trying to show us kindness.

A relative gave us an orange sofa and recliner that looked like it was taken right out of That’70s Show. To complement this set, they also gave us a gigantic hexagonal coffee table. Due to its hexagonal shape, it didn’t have sharp corners, but it did have protruding metal legs jutting out, which were tripping hazards.

As soon as I could, I let go of that coffee table, only to find out, months later, that although the sofa and chair had been a gift, the coffee table was a loan! Oh my, the relative in question got very mad at me. I think I did her a favor, by not allowing that monstrosity to end up in her living room! (What do you think?)

These days, I have a beautiful beige storage ottoman in our living room, in lieu of a coffee table. It is sturdy, but covered in very soft padding, so no one has ever gotten hurt by running into it. It looks very much like this one, minus the upholstery tacks:

Only my furniture is not blue. Our living room set is red.

What Do You Do?

Do you have one such coffee table that doubles as a weapon of calf or shin destruction?

If you do, is there any way you can cover up those corners with something soft? If there is, do it, but if there isn’t – let the coffee table go!

There is no good reason to keep something in your home that is potentially dangerous to you or your family.

Share with Me

Have you ever kept any piece of furniture in your home where someone got hurt?

Why did you acquire that piece in the first place?

Did you modify it or let it go after the accident?

Use the “Reply” feature below this message to share.

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