Leather Ottoman as a Coffee Table (1920s Bungalow)
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 30
There's one small choice in this living room that ended up shaping the whole feel of the space. Instead of a coffee table, we used a low leather ottoman — and the longer we worked on the room, the more obvious it became that the ottoman was doing more for the space than a traditional coffee table ever could.
This room is part of a project we wrapped a while back — a 1920 bungalow we took down to the studs and rebuilt from the inside out. The house was in rough shape when we started, but the original 1920s footprint had a kind of intimacy worth holding onto. The living room in particular needed to feel collected and lived-in, not over-designed.
A small note before we get into it — some of the links in this post are affiliate links through ShopMy. If you shop through them, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. We only share pieces we'd actually pull for a project or live with ourselves.
Why we chose an ottoman instead of a coffee table
A coffee table tends to mark a room. It pulls the eye, sets a hard edge in the middle of the seating, and ends up feeling like a piece of furniture you walk around. An ottoman softens that. It rounds the conversation area, gives the sofa a quiet anchor, and lets the seating feel like one continuous moment instead of a sofa pushed up against a hard surface.
Even with the coffered ceiling and the arched openings we added between the living room, kitchen, and entry, the space still has the snugness 1920s houses do so well — they were built smaller and cozier on purpose, and we wanted to lean into that rather than fight it. Leather brought warmth. The lower profile kept the architecture and the view as the focal point. And honestly, the ottoman earns its keep — feet up at the end of the day, a tray for coffee in the morning, an extra seat when people stop by.
How we styled it to still function like a coffee table
The trick to making an ottoman work this way is the tray. A large woven tray turns the whole top into a usable surface — books, a mug, candles, a small vase — without the ottoman feeling cluttered, and without losing the option to actually put your feet up.
A few things we keep in mind when we style a setup like this:
A tray that's wider than you'd expect. It should fill most of the top.
A mix of heights — tapers, a small stack of books, something low and sculptural.
Texture variation. Here, the woven tray plays against leather, stoneware, and a linen sofa.
Restraint. Three or four pieces is usually enough.
The pieces that made this corner work
The whole room sits on warm neutrals — a quiet paint color, a linen sofa with deep seats, mixed wood and stone, and a vintage rug that brings in color and depth. The paint color and the level four drywall finish behind it are a story for another post.
We didn't try to link everything in the room — just the pieces we'd actually recommend.
What we used here
Leather Ottoman — used as the coffee table, low and warm
Woven Tray — oversized, the styling anchor on top; ours was a thrift find but here is one similar
Linen Sofa — deep seat, soft arm, easy to layer
Glass Lamp — clear base, simple linen shade
Vintage Rug — soft pattern, faded blue and warm neutrals
Wooden Taper Candle Holders — turned wood, set of three
The full source list
The complete source list for this room (including a few similar options if anything is sold out) is linked here.
More from this project
You're getting a sneak peek of the kitchen in some of these photos — full reveals are coming. We fully gutted this house, so there's a lot more to share when each post is ready — the new primary suite and en suite we added, the tongue and groove details we built in, and the basement snug we
finished as a movie and family room.
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