Having looked at dozens of console tables on line I was really pleased with our final choice. The stepped shelf allows you to present your beautiful things in a more interesting way, we keep glasses on the higher one, bottles of booze on the lower one - its all for show obvs - we go in the kitchen if we actually want to have a drink - but it looks rather classy and grown-up. Being glass topped means that the table doesn't take up lots of room ‘visually’. We tried one with a solid top first and it looked rather clunky. Very pleased with this item.