A console table is one of those pieces that earns its keep quietly, but it does more for a living room than most people give it credit for. It anchors a wall that would otherwise just exist. It gives you somewhere to put the lamp that changes the whole mood of the room in the evening. It creates a moment in a space that might otherwise have no focal point at all. We’ve been thinking carefully about what makes a console work in real living rooms, which means thinking about depth, about leg style, about whether it reads as light or heavy in a space. Some rooms need something slender and sculptural. Others need presence. Shelf below or no shelf below is a genuine decision. The pieces we’ve pulled together here cover the range, but every single one has that quality of feeling chosen rather than filled in. These are the ones worth building a room around.