Why so many tables look good online and let you down at home

There is a particular small disappointment that almost everyone who has ever ordered furniture online will recognise. The piece arrives. It is unpacked. It is assembled. And it does not, in the room, look like the photograph.

Some of this is normal. A photograph is a flat representation of a three-dimensional object, lit by professionals, in a styled set, often with subtly enhanced colour. The chair next to the table in the picture isn't your chair. The rug isn't your rug. The light isn't your light. A small disappointment is statistically inevitable.

But a great deal of it is design. Furniture made for online catalogues is, as a category, designed to photograph well. That is not the same as being designed to live well.

A photogenic piece tends to be visually striking, often with a high-contrast finish, sharp edges and a slightly statement profile. These are the things a small thumbnail image rewards. They are not, however, the qualities you want in a piece of furniture you'll be living around for thirty years. The high-contrast finish dates. The sharp edges chip. The statement profile becomes tiring. The piece that catalogue-photographed beautifully looks slightly dated within five years and outright tired within ten. (See solid wood versus veneer — which is actually better.)

A piece designed to live well is the opposite. It is quieter on first read. The proportions are settled rather than emphatic. The finish is honest, with grain visible rather than concealed under a high lacquer. The edges are soft enough that they age into beauty rather than away from it. (See why a handmade table feels different the moment you sit down.)

The other thing photographs cannot show is mass and proportion. A 25mm-thick veneered top and a 50mm solid timber top look fairly similar in a thumbnail. They feel completely different in a room. The picture cannot register the weight of the piece, or the way the light catches a thicker edge, or the soft confidence with which a heavy piece sits. (See why a 50mm-thick top changes how a table feels.)

If a table is going to be in your house for the rest of your life, it ought to be a table designed for the house, not the photograph. (See also what mass-market furniture gets wrong about real homes.)