Narrow Console Table: The Row That Is Not Called Depth

Here is what the two pages print, label for label, in their Measurements sections.

Read the second row again. On a table, Width sounds like the long side. Here it is the short one.

Length is the span along the wall. Width is how far it comes out at you. And in a hallway, the one that decides everything is the second.

Neither Measurements section carries a row called Depth.

Picture the mistake. You have a hallway, you want something by the door, and you check the width because width is the thing you worry about in a corridor.

You read 13 3/4 ” and think, that is slim, that will not block anything. But 13 3/4 ” is not the slim side. It is the part that comes out into the passage.

The span along the wall is 39 3/8 “, which is the figure you were picturing.

Take your own hallway first, wall to wall, at the exact spot the table would stand. Then take the listing figure off it, whatever that listing decides to call it.

Both pages publish two load figures, and people read the big one.

In the Measurements section of both pages, Max. load reads 44 lb. The Good to know section on both puts the same figure in a sentence: Max load on table top: 44 lbs.

In that same Measurements section, both pages also print Max load/shelf 22 lb. That is the row printed against the shelf, the one where the basket of shoes ends up.

So a lamp on top and something heavy below are answered by two different published rows, and the page prints 22 lb against the shelf rather than the 44 lb it prints against the table top.

Four things, said plainly.

In the Measurements, Good to know and Care sections of both pages I read, I found no sentence about fixing the table to the wall. The Care section on both pages does carry this line, which is a different thing: Check regularly that all assembly fastenings are properly tightened and retighten when necessary. Furniture and televisions tipping over is the subject of Anchor It, a public campaign from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and its pages are where to read what they publish on anchoring rather than take my word for it.

The arithmetic on this page is your hall minus the table and nothing else. It does not include a coat on a hook, a bag on the floor, or anyone coming the other way.

And one buyer on the LISTERBY page disputes the figure itself. In the Reviews section, a reviewer called Jen writes that she specifically bought it because it was supposed to be 15 inches deep, and then: It’s not, it’s 12. That is a buyer report, not a specification, and I am not going to tell you which of the two is right.

But look at the word she uses. IKEA prints that figure under the label Width. Jen calls it depth, because depth is what she was shopping for. She got to the right figure in spite of the label, and her quarrel is with the object rather than with the page.

Which is the argument for putting your own tape on the thing rather than trusting any single number, mine included.

And both of these are IKEA. Two pages from one maker is not the market. Your own listing may well print a row called Depth. Read the label it gives you rather than the one you expect.

How deep is a narrow console table?

On the two IKEA pages I read, the front to back figure is 13 3/4 ” on the HAVSTA console table and 15 ” on the LISTERBY console table, 505.622.48. Both publish it in their Measurements section under the label Width, not Depth, and neither Measurements section carries a row called Depth. Measure your own hallway wall to wall at the spot the table would stand, then take the listing figure off it. On the LISTERBY page, a reviewer called Jen writes in the Reviews section that it is not 15 but 12, which is a buyer report rather than a specification, and a reason to take your own tape to the piece.

How much weight can a console table hold?

Read both figures, because there are two. On both IKEA pages I read, Measurements publishes Max. load 44 lb and Max load/shelf 22 lb, and the Good to know section puts the first one in a sentence: Max load on table top: 44 lbs. The second row is the one printed against the shelf. If your own listing publishes no load figure at all, that is the question to put to the seller in writing before you order.

Does a console table need to be fixed to the wall?

In the Measurements, Good to know and Care sections of the two pages I read, I found no sentence about fixing the table to the wall, so I am not going to tell you one way or the other. Furniture and televisions tipping over is the subject of Anchor It, a public campaign from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and its pages are where to read what they publish on anchoring. Your own listing and the instructions in the box are the other place to look.