Coffee Table Styling Tips & Essentials

Over the weekend my husband and I put together our new family room coffee table and oh my gosh… I’m so in love! Want a little sneak peek of the new beauty in my life?

She’s fabulous, right?! (you can find it in two sizes {here}) But she’s also buck naked and needs some beautiful accessories to really make her shine. I’m sure some of you have bare coffee tables in need of a little prettying up too so I thought I’d share the five essentials that I look for when decorating/styling my coffee tables so that they’re both beautiful and functional. Ready? (post includes some affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here})

Update! Before I share my styling tips, I wanted to share that my room remodel is DONE – you can check it out {here}. Here’s a little sneak peek of how my coffee table turned out:

The accessories on my coffee table include: tray (28″ x 28″) | Brass cranes | Magnifying glass | Pinstripe bone box | Book: Elements of Style | Book: The Collected Home | Book: Emily Henderson Styled | Book: Dogs

Now back to my styling tips!….

Large Trays (The Perfect Base)

I always use a large tray on my coffee tables. Always. You just can’t go wrong using a tray as your starting point. They’re practical because they keep everything neatly corralled and they’re a great way to add some contrasting texture or color to keep things interesting. The options for types of trays are endless – I used a woven tray on the coffee table/ottoman in our living room:  

while Randi of Randi Garrett Design chose a scalloped wood tray for her fall home tour that you can see more of {here} – I love how it mimics the curvy lines of her coffee table but contrasts in color:

A lot of the most beautiful trays are on the small side but don’t let that stop you from using them – the look of a smaller tray within a larger one is a gorgeous one!  Kelley Nan pulled this off beautifully in her recent fall home tour that you can see more of {here}:

There are tons and tons of tray options to choose – these are a few of my current favorites:

Natural Elements

I love using natural elements in my home so it’s no surprise that they’re one of the first things on my list when it comes to coffee table accessories. You can use anything from a bowl of pinecones or feathers to a mini terrarium like this cutie that I made last year (you can check out my post about how to build a terrarium {here}):

I also love to use elements from the sea such as driftwood, shells, and coral. I love the gorgeous piece of white coral that Bree of ZDesign At Home used on her coffee table for her spring home tour that you can see more of {here}:

The best thing about natural elements is that there are so many outside your door that you can find and use for free. I also have a few “regulars” that I’ve bought (the seed pod “two” is my favorite) and am always able to find a good home four:

Books

Books work great on coffee tables for adding a layered look – plus it’s nice to have some interesting coffee table books that your family and guests will want to pick up and read. Sarah of Life on Virginia Street shows how books can add such a beautiful layer in her spring home tour that you can see more of {here}:

And when it comes time to decorate for the holidays, one of my tricks is to wrap up your coffee table books like presents for easy, inexpensive holiday decorations! 

Having the passion for design that I do, most of my coffee table books are about…yep, design. But I think it’s also nice to display pretty photo albums on your coffee table or books about the area that you live in that guests would enjoy picking up and reading. These are a few of the coffee table books that I own and love:

Something with Height

Coffee tables look best when you use accessories of varying heights, including at least one thing that’s decently tall. It can be a tall plant (by the way, if you’re a plant killer like me I totally recommend these snake plants – they’re seriously unkillable!),

or tall blooming branches that are either real or faux. These gorgeous branches in a bottle are from Erin of Sunny Side Up’s beautiful kitchen but they would look just as lovely in a tray on a coffee table. You can check out more of Erin’s kitchen tour {here}.

Candlesticks are another go-to for adding height like Jennifer of Decor Gold Designs did for her recent fall home tour that you can see more of {here}:

Decorative Boxes

Decorative boxes are the best! There are so, so many beautiful options and they great for stashing your TV remotes, coasters, or anything else that you don’t need out all of the time cluttering up your table. I adore the black and white box that Tamara of Citrine Living used when styling her coffee table/ottoman for her recent fall home tour – you can check out more pictures of her beautiful fall home {here}.

Picking just a few favorite boxes was a chore because there are lots amazingly beautiful ones out there but these are some I don’t think you could go wrong with that I’ve been eyeing lately:

Once you’ve got these essentials in place, then it’s time to have some fun and add a few quirky things you love! For me, that’s often brass animals (#obsessed) but for you it might be some kind of memorabilia from a favorite sport, something related to your favorite hobby, or a piece that simply has some history and special meaning to you. I’ve already found a few things I’m pretty excited about using on our family room coffee table – more deets on that along with my week four One Room Challenge progress tomorrow! See you then!