As a renter, I'm incredibly familiar with the majority of Ikea's output. It seems that when a landlord buys a flat to rent out, the first thing he does is goes off to Ikea with £500 to furnish the place. To be fair, if I were renting something out I wouldn't be spending much on the furniture, and the stuff usually seems to be of decent quality, so I'm not complaining too much. A bit of diversity would be nice, that's all!

This coffee table is available in a few different colours. My version has a beech laminate finish and cost £15.99, but you can also get white (£13.99), black/brown (£15.99) and oak effect (£15.99). The measurements are 90cm by 55cm, and it's 45cm tall. This means it's quite dominant if you've only got a small room, so you definitely need to consider what kind of floor space you have available. We used to have it in the centre of our living area but we found we preferred having a large space in the middle of the room and we pushed it against the wall. We store baskets underneath it so the space isn't wasted, and on top we usually have some decorative candles, a wax tart burner, tissues and a lamp. There's still space for much more on there which unfortunately means this tends to get cluttered as it's such an easy place to dump things! In terms of height, it is a little low but I can still feasibly eat my dinner off it, and it's a good height for popping drinks on. It's great for snacks when we have people round for drinks and it's also good for board games. There's plenty of space for rolling dice and putting drinks down without knocking any pieces over.

Underneath the main coffee table surface is a shelf that can be used for storage. It's perfect for putting magazines and books on, but unfortunately it's not particularly sturdy so you do have to watch what you're putting on it. The people who lived here before us obviously over used it a bit, and one of the four bolts that the shelf goes on is broken - a part has snapped, so it can't be fixed again. This means that if you don't put things on it evenly then it tips over and falls off which is really annoying. Obviously this shows that the table isn't exactly the best quality in the world, but when it only cost £15.99 and it has clearly been over loaded, then I think this is to be expected. For the moment we've just taken the shelf off and stored it under the sofa. You can't tell anything's missing.

The finish on the table is reasonably good but as you'd imagine it's not of the highest quality. It's fairly durable; I've spilt drinks, food and even hot wax on it with no problems. However it can be easily scratched. If anything gets spilt you can wipe down the surface with a damp cloth, and nothing we've done has stained it so far. It seems designed to cope with most things, which is a relief, and if you have kids this would be perfect - it can withstand most every day use, but if it gets damaged then you can replace it for a few quid, if you want. The overall look is okay; it's not exactly my favourite piece of furniture and no-one's going to be asking where you got it, but it's modern and neutral enough to blend in. If you want something really stylish with a wow factor, this isn't what you're after. As gorgeous as it might look in one of Ikea's show rooms, remember that unless you're an interior designer yourself, this one table isn't going to transfer the look to your home, and it's not the most expensive looking of items.

The table feels pretty sturdy and you don't get that horrible wobble that you sometimes get on cheap tables. However it's not especially heavy so we can easily pull it into the middle of the room when we want and push it back to the side again. Of course this was here when we moved in, so I didn't put it together myself. I've taken a look at the instructions on the website, and honestly it does look quite complicated. I'm sure it's manageable though and it doesn't look any more difficult than any other products I've ever put together. All you need is a cross head screwdriver and a hammer to complete the job.

Overall I'm giving this 4 stars. It's not an amazing item that I'll rave about to everyone but it's reasonably durable and a total bargain. Recommended for anyone that's looking for function over style.