Using a Console Table in the Dining Room: Serving and Storage

Most people buy a console for the hallway. In a dining room it does a different job, and it is worth thinking about that job before you pick one. A console here is a serving counter, a drawer for the things that live near the table, and the frame for whatever hangs on the wall behind it. It also sits in the one place every diner has to walk past.

We sell three consoles, and we will use all three as worked examples: the Fitzroy, the Beaumont and the Brunel. Their measurements are quite different, which makes them useful for showing what matters.

The three examples side by side

	Fitzroy	Beaumont	Brunel
Width	120 cm	101.6 cm	180 cm
Depth	30 cm	29 cm	29.5 cm
Height	80.5 cm	78 cm	83 cm
Storage	Concealed compartment behind sliding tambour doors, plus a lower shelf	Two drawers, plus a full-width lower shelf	None, open display surface
Colours	Black, walnut	Blue, black, green	Rustic wood effect with black frame

All three of our dining tables are 75cm tall: the Aaronsburg 120cm round, the Dakota at 140cm by 77cm, and the Pimlico 80cm square. We will come back to those numbers.

Job one: a serving surface

In a dining room, the console is where the food waits. A roast resting before it is carved, the second bottle, the pudding while the plates are cleared. Putting those things on the console rather than the table leaves room for elbows and stops the table feeling crowded, which matters most on smaller tables like the Pimlico.

Height is the thing to check. A serving surface works best at a comfortable standing height, and it looks best when it sits clearly above or below the tabletop rather than almost level with it. Every one of our consoles is taller than our 75cm tables. The Beaumont at 78cm is the closest, the Fitzroy at 80.5cm sits between, and the Brunel at 83cm is the tallest. From across the room, the console top reads as its own line on the wall, not a continuation of the table.

A practical point: always put hot dishes on a mat or trivet. Our consoles have wood-effect or painted finishes, and their care notes ask you to protect them from heat and moisture.

Job two: storage for the table

Think about what you reach for during a meal and what you would rather not keep in the kitchen. Napkins, placemats, coasters, candles, a spare corkscrew, the good serving spoons. These are small, flat things, and a console suits them well.

The Beaumont has two drawers with antique-brass-effect ring handles. Drawers are the most useful arrangement for table linen and cutlery because everything lies flat and stays out of sight. Its full-width lower shelf takes the bulkier things: a basket of placemats, a stack of cookbooks, a fruit bowl.

The Fitzroy hides its storage behind fluted tambour doors that slide rather than swing open. That is handy in a dining room, because a sliding door never swings into a chair. For the black version, we list the compartment at 17cm deep and 16.5cm high, so it suits candles, coasters and folded napkins rather than serving dishes. Below it there is an open shelf for baskets or books.

The Brunel has no drawers and no shelf. It is a long, open surface on a stepped frame, and it is the right choice when you want display space rather than storage.

Job three: display and the wall behind the table

The wall a console stands against is often the emptiest in the room. A console gives it a base, and whatever sits on top or hangs above it finishes the picture. A mirror above a console bounces light back across the table, which helps in a dining room that only has a window on one side. A pair of lamps or a single lamp and a plant give soft light for evening meals without switching on the ceiling light.

Width drives how much you can do. The Brunel at 180cm takes a large piece of art or a long run of objects, and it can hold two lamps with space between them. The Fitzroy at 120cm suits one round mirror with a lamp or vase to one side. The Beaumont at 101.6cm is best with one mirror and a short group of objects, or a single piece of art.

It also helps to line the console up with something. Centring it on the dining table, or on a window or fireplace on the opposite wall, makes the room feel planned.

Depth and the walkway

This is where people most often get a dining room wrong. A console is shallow, but it still sits in the path behind the chairs. Our three are 29cm, 29.5cm and 30cm deep, which is about as slim as a useful console gets.

As general guidance, allow about 90cm behind a pulled-out chair for someone to walk past. The key is to measure that from the front edge of the console, not from the wall. If the console stands behind a row of chairs, add its depth to the clearance you need between the table and the wall. For more on this, our guide to what size dining table suits your room walks through the full clearance calculation.

If the room is tight, put the console on a wall that nobody sits against: the end of a rectangular table rather than the long side, or the wall beside a round table rather than directly behind a chair. Our small dining room ideas cover other ways to win back space.

Matching the console to your table

A console looks most at home when its length relates to the table in front of it.

Brunel with the Dakota. The Dakota is 140cm long, and the Brunel is 180cm wide, so the console runs a little beyond the table at each end on a long wall. They also share a look: a rustic wood-effect surface with black metalwork on the Dakota and a black outer frame on the Brunel. There is more on this pairing in our Brunel guide and our Dakota room planning guide.

Fitzroy with the Aaronsburg. The Fitzroy is 120cm wide, the same as the Aaronsburg's diameter, and its rounded ends echo a round top. The walnut Fitzroy sits well with the rustic brown Aaronsburg, and the black Fitzroy with the black marble-effect Aaronsburg. See our Fitzroy article for more.

Beaumont with the Pimlico. A small square table in a small room needs a console that does not dominate, and at 101.6cm the Beaumont is the shortest we sell. Its drawers take up the storage slack that a compact kitchen often lacks. Our Beaumont guide and Pimlico guide go into the detail.

Colour and finish

You do not need to match the console to the table exactly. A console in a contrasting colour often looks more deliberate than a near miss. A green or blue Beaumont against a walnut or oak Pimlico reads as a chosen accent. If you want the room to feel calm, pick up one colour that is already there: the black of a table base, or the tone of the chairs. Our guide to mixing dining chairs uses the same thinking for seating.

A quick checklist

• Measure the wall, and decide what the console will line up with.
• Check the walkway from the console front, not the wall.
• Decide whether you need hidden storage (Beaumont, Fitzroy) or open display (Brunel).
• Plan what goes on the wall above before the console arrives.
• Keep mats and coasters on it for serving.

All our consoles come with free delivery to mainland UK, most orders arrive in 3 to 5 working days, and you have 30 days to return anything that does not suit the room. You can browse the full range in console tables, and pair them with our dining tables.