Open shelving underneath a wooden coffee table works when you are intentional about what goes there. Woven baskets, stacked books, carefully chosen objects. It only works if you commit to keeping it curated. The shelf needs to be set at a height that does not trap your legs when you are sitting on a sofa in front of the table. Dark wood works better for open shelving because it does not show dust as obviously. The visual weight of displayed items needs to balance with the table top. These are the wooden coffee tables with storage that require you to actually use the styling element rather than just dump things there.