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Coffee tables are some of the cheapest furniture on Marktplaats, and plenty are given away for free. Search for salontafel, decide on size and material first, then check the top for damage you cannot sand out and the legs for wobble.
A coffee table usually works best at about two thirds the length of your sofa and 5-10 cm lower than the seat. For a standard sofa that means roughly 90-120 cm long and 40-45 cm high. Round tables of 70-90 cm suit small Dutch living rooms because you do not bump into corners.
Write your measurements down before you search. Sellers often list dimensions in the description, and a table that looks small in a photo can be 140 cm long.
Massief means solid wood. Fineer means veneer, a thin layer of wood over a board. Both can be good. Solid oak or teak can be sanded and oiled again and again. Veneer can be lightly sanded once, if at all, and deep scratches will go through it.
Melamine or foil-wrapped particleboard (spaanplaat) is the cheap end. It is fine at EUR 10, but water damage makes it swell at the edges and that cannot be fixed. Look at the edges of the top and the bottom of the legs for swelling.
Glass tables should have tempered glass (gehard glas). Look for chips along the edge, which can spread into cracks. Ask whether the glass is loose on the frame and take blankets for transport.
Marble and travertine tables are popular and heavy. A 100 cm marble top can weigh 60 kg or more, so bring a second person. Check for cracks running through the stone rather than surface marks, and look for rings from glasses: marble etches with wine, lemon and cleaning products and needs polishing to remove them. Many marble look tables are ceramic or laminate, so ask.
A coffee table is simple, so the checks are quick.
Mid-century teak tables from Danish and Dutch makers turn up often and can be good value at EUR 60-200 if the veneer is intact. Noguchi style glass tables are almost always copies when cheap; the Vitra original is far more expensive new. Treat a designer name in a listing as a claim to check, not a fact.
If you want something specific, like a round oak table under 80 cm wide with a shelf, describing that in plain words on vindje.com saves going through hundreds of results that only match the word salontafel.
Search with the price filter set to gratis or sort by price and you will find plenty of tables offered for nothing, mostly when people move house. They are a good base for a project: a pine table with an orange lacquer can be sanded and finished with a matt hardwax oil in an afternoon, and swapping dated legs for new hairpin or turned legs costs EUR 20-40 for a set.
Skip free tables with swollen particleboard, broken glass or a top that is coming apart in layers. Those are moving-day leftovers, not projects.
| Item | Typical asking price |
|---|---|
| IKEA Lack or similar basic table | EUR 0-15 |
| Solid oak or pine coffee table | EUR 30-120 |
| Glass coffee table with metal frame | EUR 20-80 |
| Marble or travertine coffee table | EUR 100-450 |
| Vintage teak coffee table | EUR 60-250 |
Rough Marktplaats asking prices in the Netherlands. Condition, age and season move them a lot.
Describe what you want in your own words and vindje.com searches Marktplaats in Dutch, then reads every listing and keeps only the real matches. For example:
Round solid oak coffee table, 70-90 cm across, no water damage, under 80 euro, within 10 km of AmsterdamSearch Marktplaats like this
Salontafel. A small side table is a bijzettafel, and a set of nesting tables is a mimiset or set bijzettafels.
Solid wood can be sanded and oiled or varnished again. Veneer is thin, so only sand it lightly by hand or use a refresher product instead.
White rings are moisture in the finish and sometimes fade with gentle heat from a hair dryer or a little furniture polish. Dark rings have gone into the wood and usually need sanding.
Often not. Ask the seller, look at the edge for a uniform layer that suggests laminate or ceramic, and check the weight, since solid stone is very heavy.