Over the last year, the main floor at the Central Library has undergone renovations. Among other changes to the Arts Department, our Special Collection was released from locked cabinets and installed on open shelving in an alcove with comfortable armchairs and a coffee table. The Special Collection books are large and lovely and often so heavy that no one wants to haul them home. Hence the cozy set up.

Sometimes coffee table books lack respect, accused of being long on gloss and short on substance. However, if a picture is worth a thousand words, there is a lot to be gleaned even from decorative page turners with little text. When I explored the idea online, I found consensus that a coffee table book should be interesting enough to stimulate conversation with guests who browse it.

At home, the coffee table is an intimate little space that often includes favourite objects. Pottery Barn offers a demo about organizing an attractive tablescape. House & Home will help you choose the table.

I found lists of favourite books on sites like Style at Home and Van Houte coffee (how appropriate). In fact, our department alone holds so many beautiful and intriguing books that creating a list of favourites would be daunting.

Over the next few blogs my colleagues and I are sharing a few favourites. We hope you will check them out for awhile to your own coffee table world.

When you visit us next, make some time to peruse the tomes that are too large to carry. Or bring a cart or car and take a few home.

Jane

useless lamp to useful table

I've always been curious, endowed with an active imagination. I remember, as a kid walking home from school, coming across a section of pipe with a switch on it, perhaps from a vacuum cleaner. It became, in my mind, something more interesting: a SPACE WEAPON.

The bad habit persists. I still sift through flotsam and jetsam relegated to the black bin; but now I call it repurposing.

As well as working for the Library, I belong to the militia, spending time in Mewata Armoury.

I was there one weekday when the old light fixtures were being replaced. Aha, I thought, something useful, in British racing green!

I really wasn't sure of a use, but their shape intrigued me. I asked for one and tucked the new treasure safely in my hatchback (very useful for a scavenger). Soon, the fixture liner became a lampshade, but the outer shell stayed longer in storage. Eventually, something inspired me to cobble together a table from the outer shell.

I cut a circle of mdf for the bottom and added plastic feet. The glass top was connected to the base using 3/4" pipe, chrome tubing, two pipe flanges and a wooden collar. Some of these parts were discards previously scavenged.

If you are like me, you prefer to find new possibilities for cast offs rather than add to your garbage footprint.

At the Library, there are many books to inspire you to unique green endeavours.

Decorating junkmarket style : [repurposed junk to suit any decor], Salvage style for the garden, and Making rustic originals are just three examples in the collection. And, speaking of unique tables, check out 500 tables : inspiring interpretations of function and style.

Dave, Central Library