Burning Question: Just Coasting?
All the impending holiday parties that everyone will be throwing and attending got us thinking about… coasters of all things. Most homes are either a please-use-coasters zone or a we-don’t-own-a-single-coaster area. Which one are you? Do those of you who go without just embrace drink rings or do you have some secret formula (or fabulous furniture) to ward them off? And do those of you who use them regularly have a favorite type (metal? monogrammed? glass with a photo slipped inside?). Do tell.
And we’d love guesses about which type we are. The answer might just surprise you…
Image courtesy of Pottery Barn
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We don’t really use them, mostly because we use trays and/or tablecloths.
i am not a coaster person, buy my husband is militant about coaster usage. since almost all of our furniture is from ikea, it isn’t going to be the end of the world if i don’t use a coaster. that said, i have been secretly in love with these coasters from veer for quite some time – http://bit.ly/aJA3O
Both – I love coasters, but could care less if people use them. I just find myself always wanting to buy new ones!
We have those natural stone coaster that have a sliver of cork on the back. They are supposed to be super absorbent and actually have been pretty useful. We try to use them since we have dark wood furniture but don’t stress out if somebody forgets.
We have stone topped tables so we don’t worry about coasters.
Don’t you respect wood? (quote from Curb Your Enthusiasm, episode dedicated to coasters and ring marks)
We definitely have coasters in our house. I’m mostly particular about setting drinks onour glass coffee table.
I have a few different sets but now that I think about it, they’re all square. I have some that have small turquoise colored tiles and my new favorites are vintage looking with birds. I also have some Christmas coasters that I love to set out with the rest of our holiday decor.
I’d guess you two are coaster users. :)
I actually do have a formula! I wrote about it a while back on my blog. It works like magic. Check it out. http://www.ourfinehouse.com/2009/09/no-more-water-marks.html
we’ve made our house so that we don’t really need coasters. just one more thing for the kids to break. we used to have ceramic coasters when we had a wood coffee table. now we have leather ottomans so we don’t need coasters anymore.
Within the past few years, I have gradually switched over from old college furniture to nicer, high quality wooden furniture, and I feel a pretty strong desire to keep it all looking nice, especially since some of it belonged to my grandmother.
Glass coasters may look pretty, but are pointless if you ask me, because, as some other people have mentioned, the water just pools up on the glass and drips right off onto the table – or your glass sits in the pool of water on the coaster, and might slip or slide off and then you have an even bigger mess! No thanks!
I searched for a long time to find coasters that match my decorating style – that weren’t cheap or cheezy looking, and I love the ones I’ve ended up with:
http://www.worldmarket.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3596768
They’re from World Market, wood, so they absorb water perfectly, and they all have beautiful designs hand carved into them, so each one’s a little unique!
Oh, one more thing. On my old dining room table, I had several large white marks on it from water and also from heat – when I had a pot luck party, and some people didn’t put a hot pad underneath their hot dish to protect the table. I thought the wood was ruined and would just have to be completely refinished. Nope!
At Lowe’s I found these little rags called Jasco Furniture White Ring Remover. Only $4.94! Its claim: Restores without stripping finish. Removes water marks and minor surface scratches.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=221291-1168-0243
Well, my surface damage was not what I would have called “minor.” My dismayed parents thought I’d ruined the table. But that little cloth worked! Amazingly well! You just rub it a lot until the white goes away, and then wipe down the wood with lemon oil to shine it back up, and it looks perfect again!
But it is a bit of effort that is much easier to avoid in the first place by using coasters and hot pads.
We use monogrammed, soapstone coasters that absorb any glass condensation. We got them on clearance from Frontgate, where I had admired them for several seasons at an exorbitant cost. We like coasters because it shows respects for our things and the belongings of others. We may not have the most expensive furniture, but we there are a lot more people in the world who have even less. To us, it is a simple way of being grateful everyday.
anyone have any ideas for a trendy and stylish DIY coaster??? I not a coaster user right now…mostly because we don’t have any!!…but we are in the process of buying new furniture, setting up our new home, etc. and I think that coasters are going to be something we should acquire!
Hey Carol,
There are so many DIY coaster ideas if you just google “make a coaster.” Everything from glass that you can etch with a monogram to ceramic ones that you can paint yourself. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
My coffee table is black wood with a weathered finish so I don’t care about drink rings! And if it gets too messed up, I’ll just sand it and paint it again.
I would guess that y’all definitely use coasters on your glass top table. I would hate cleaning all those rings. (one reason I’ll never have a glass-topped table!)Maybe some jute ones or other natural fiber?
Thanks for all the coaster answers guys! For anyone guessing where we lie on the issue here at Casa Petersik, we actually revealed it a while back in the comments so just scroll back through them to see our response!
xo,
s
I grew up in a home where coasters were law. My mother always reminded me water rings were damaging to wood and to request a coaster or napkin if one wasn’t available. She even gave me coasters as a gift, but they scratched my wood table.
Anyway, our dining room table is made of wood. The top looks like real wood, but you would never know it has a veneer top. No need for coasters. We usually throw a placemat on the coffee table when it’s just us, but when company comes, we use the decorative napkins.
I always have my eye peeled for a glass sitting directly on furniture. Then I try to slip a coaster under the glass when no one is looking.
We have glass coasters (with the picture inside.) But I’m discovering these are kind of lousy coasters. The water puddles on them (and sometimes runs off). Since there is so much water on the glass coaster, the glass and coaster stick.
Annoying. I wouldn’t recommend them.
We don’t use them due since our tables are slate top…but when I had wood top tables we did! Rings bad.
We have a bunch of different types, but my favorite are Thirsty Coasters (http://www.thirstycoasters.com/). We started using them when we lived in a super humid area and anything made of metal or glass would stick to the bottom of your cup (we broke a lot of glass coasters when they’d stick, then suddenly fall off and break on the tile floor).
We use coasters in our house to protect our tables. I like everything to last as long as possible and coasters help. Our coasters are ones that I made, they are stone, distressed and have “artsy” pictures from our wedding day on them. People always compliment me on them :)
Krista
our coffee table was handmade by my husband, so on that piece we are pretty religious about using coasters. on our old desk which was at least 7 years old, i simply used a post-it cube as my “coaster”. we have plenty of post-its, and it seemed to do better than the coasters we do have. the ones for the coffee table don’t really handle all the sweat produced by our classes very well. they still end up allowing water onto the table top. plus, sometimes they stick to the bottom of your glass when you pick it up. that’s not fun when it falls off and BANGs against the table or floor or your knees!
The only coasters we have are ones I purchased at a garage sale this past summer ($1 for 4). They are bamboo reeds set in an acrylic/resin square. We have kids and have a “no drink/no food outside of the kitchen” rule, so we don’t really use them during the day. After the kids have gone to bed, we use them on the console behind the sectional for our waters that we ‘sneak’ into the family room!
I am a coasters only in the living room kind of girl. Otherwise, I just use a magazine. Found a great coaster craft on http://beneathmyheart.blogspot.com/2009/11/cute-inexpensive-and-easy-christmas.html
I made the black and white monogrammed ones by printing letters out on my computer and putting them on 17 cent (!!!) white tiles from Home Depot. Guess what all my neighbors are getting for Christmas?
If I were going to have coasters, I’d snag the ones you have in the photo – I think I may have even torn that page out of the catalog :) But, we too are a non-coaster home. Our coffee table in the living room is solid mahogany, but it always has large coffee table art books on it. The artist rotates out depending on our school lessons, so sometimes the coffee cups get plopped down on Vang Gogh, sometimes Cassatt. Winslow Homer is our current coaster :) The books are hardback, but *cheap* from Half Price Books – maybe $9 a book. Our Renoir bit the dust a few weeks ago from a Cabernet Sauvingon spill (red wine and a rambunctious 2 year old boy ought not be in the same room), but that’s the only book that’s been sacrificed so far.
I knew you’d be no coasters, by the way :) If you had ‘em, we would’ve seen them by now.
~Jacci
Ugh. When will I start proof-reading!? “Van Gogh” and “Sauvignon”. Yeesh – sorry, guys.
We have them, but I want to EMPHATICALLY STATE that we are not crazy coaster people. I have one of those people as a friend and it is TIRING to drink anything at their house, because you are always worried about violating the coaster rule.
Our coasters are nice, thick, medium-gray felt ones that I bought off Etsy. They have very sweet rounded corners and look great.
In all things, even coasters, I am the “free spirit” and my darling husband is the “nerd”…. So, feel free to drop by anytime and sit near me if you don’t want to use a coaster and sit near him if you want to see a stealth-like ninja move that magically slips a coaster on any surface before it can go from your lips to wherever you wanted to set it:)
We tend not to use coasters, though we keep some around — I suppose more out of a desire to look grown-up in front of guests. (When we can find the coasters, that is. It’s an old set of coasters that are supposed to look like crystal or cut glass or some darned thing along those lines.)
Our secret formula is method Wood For Good Furniture Polish; it seems to have taken care of all of the “drink rings,” and it’s not terribly stinky or harsh. (And with a toddler who often sets down his sippy-cup where ever he ends up finishing his drink, we’d otherwise have a LOT of “drink rings.” Especially since some of the sippy-cups have gotten a bit leaky on the bottom.)
I bet you’re the sandstone/drinkstone kind. Neutral colors, natural material, very efficient at their job.
I’m a “please use a coaster” gal. Like several of the other posters, my favorite set is the absorbent stone with cork on the back. I have a couple of sets – one set is monogram and the other is celtic knots. I also have some ‘everyday’ wood costers that are alway out where I plop drinks down (at my desk, on the nightstand, etc). My end tables have glass (well plexi) tops and my coffee table is a leather ottoman with a tray on it. So if a guest forgets, it’s not a big deal at all.
My only demand is that people NOT set glasses on the arms of my Craftsman chairs. I know that those nice big broad, flat wood arms are just right for glass perching, but don’t – just don’t. LOL.
We own two sets of coasters: one is purely decorative (a set I picked up in Spain when I studied abroad with pictures on them from Salamanca) and a bamboo set that we sometimes use.
We have a pair of the bamboo ones in the bedroom to prevent rings on the headboard and bedside table, and the rest hang out in the living room. We don’t religiously use them in there since all our tables are hand-me-downs and we don’t really care about rings on them.
Once we get nicer furniture, I’ll probably be a coaster-Nazi. :)
Is this cuz of Curb Your Enthusiasm? :)
Hey Erik,
We’ve occasionally caught that show but don’t know what you’re referring to. Is there some big coaster or anti-coaster debate on the show?
xo,
s
My husband and I just purchased our very first set of coasters last week!! We bought a 4 dark wood coasters from Pier 1, 2 for the coffee table, because I was tired of cleaning off the water rings on the glass and then two for our bedroom, one for each nightstand because we just bought new furniture in August! I have never really felt like a coaster type family, but I guess we all have to grow up sometime! haha
Wow! I’m so glad to know that i’m not the only person that has had problems with glass coasters!
You will find none of those pesky little things at my house. But there are lots of kids, and we encourage them to eat only in the kitchen or at the table. Keeps all the crumbs and spills in one place.
We use coasters, and as a matter of fact I just got some as a gift from a friend. She made them her self and I love them. She used ceramic tiles and monogramed with them with gold paint. Very chic!
We own coasters (actually, I made them, I’m a ceramics teacher and I got bored during one work day at school…) but we rarely use them. Our coffee table is from IKEA and cost $15 dollars, so we don’t do much to take care of it. Of course after a couple of years of our coaster-less abuse we’re in the market for a new coffee table.
I grew up in a “use a coaster home” and I’ve never considered operating any other way. As a result I have lots of coasters many of which have been gifts: small ceramic dishes, heavy cardboard painted with landscapes of travel destinations, family pictures under glass. My current favorites are letterpress coasters from greenchairpress.com. I wondered if paper coasters would hold up and they do! They are beautiful to the eye and hand. I have pinecones for November/December and once the holidays are over I’m switching to a teal alphabet collage. The focal point of my living/dining room is a 20′ wall of bookshelves so the letter coasters fit right in and make me smile.
We’re big coaster people. We have several different kinds that are out all the time–one set is slices of wood from the PNW; another set is leaf reliefs in clay, another set is leaves appliqued into brushed velvet. We also have a huge stack of cardboard ones from our favorite brew pub on the Oregon coast for parties and such.
We find people use them if they are around and it does help save the furniture.
Sherry & John,
I saw the striped coasters from John’s sister, but can’t recall what else you might use…my guess is glass.
At the moment we don’t need coasters, so I haven’t really thought about it. I’d probably like something in a natural fabric like hemp or a bamboo wood.
Merry Christmas!,
Kim
We have coasters but we don’t always use them. We also have two huge dogs with very ginormous tails so most people end up holding their drinks anyway. Whatevs… Our coffee table was from Ikea so I don’t care too much. Sometimes coasters end up being magazines too.
We use these cute pottery square coasters I got from my brothers wedding we got as favors!
I actually find coaster nazis annoying and hovering. It’s about as polite as giving someone a bib before they start eating. I ESPECIALLY hate it when someone makes you use a coaster under a wine glass. Ummm, my red wine isn’t going to condense. And no, there will be no wine ring because I don’t spill. I am not a toddler.
I have no coasters in my house, a lot of wood furniture, and guess what? no rings! It’s because all of our wood furniture is protected with their proper finishes or waxes. Unless an ice glass is left overnight, I don’t see how rings are an issue.
We couldn’t be more anti-coaster! We chose materials (snakeskin print leather trunks and veneer)for the express purpose of no damage!
We use coasters but they’re not fancy and we can rarely easily find them because the kids like to play with them. So we use them after we find them.
I’m guessing you don’t use coasters and put your cups on…magazines?
Ah, just went back and read the answer. Of course!
We had a wood coffee table and used the glass coasters with the photo inside until one day the glass coaster stuck to the glass then slipped off and the corner fell and left a nick in the table. I found some cheap rubber ones at Target, but would like to find some more attractive looking coasters.
I’ve always been coaster free, but more b/c I could never find a set I liked for a price I could afford (can we say scrappy college grad?)
I was recently at a trash dump in Maine checking out a freebie second hand trailer they have. Didn’t find anything in there, but when I was passing the glass recycling container I spotted these awesome tiles- a light tanish color w/large earthy brown & yellow flowers on them. Looked like someone had removed a very outdated kitchen wall tile. I snagged few, cleaned off the backs and added little round felt feet! They look great and the coffee table stays dry :-)
I live in Texas and it’s very hot and humid down here so the glasses really sweat. As far as coaster are concerned, we used to have them but my kiddos were always playing with them so they don’t stay on the tables like they should so I got rid of them. Our coffee table is very old and was refinished by my husband’s grandmother and she put about 10 coats of poly on it so it’s indistructible. I did get a new side table next to the couch so on Thanksgiving I put some old books on it that I didn’t care about getting wet so the drinks went on those.
We have a nice set of coasters that I couldn’t pass up at Goodwill. I don’t have a coaster rule per se but I do have a rule in my house that no beverages past the kitchen area. Maybe that’s worse than forcing guests to use coasters but it works for us and guests happily oblige. ;o)
I’m all about some coasters…not on the dining table obviously, but definitely on our nice oak coffee table. We have some glass mosaic square ones, and the Thirstystone ones with felt bottoms. If I see a glass without a coaster on the coffee table, I promptly slip one under. Mainly because we saved our hard-earned $ to have nice furniture and I want it to last a long time! Is that so bad? haha
I save cool coasters whenever I am at a bar. The last trip we went on to see family in the UK, I collected a good stack of quirky Irish, Welsh and English coasters (for things like Green Goblin Cider and Black Sheep Ale). So I just spread out the wacky coaster collection whenever we have a party. They catch the eye so they get used reasonably regularly. And I love ‘em.