From mess to chic. In this post, I’m sharing some of the coffee table decor ideas that help me to keep that area of our living room clutter-free.
Ever since we purchased a new coffee table, the living room became my favorite room in our apartment. But I quickly realized that our new cute coffee table started to serve as a dumping ground for mail, receipts, and anything and everything that needed a stop before moving to its final storing destination. I constantly felt that these things ruin the entire vibe of the room as our coffee table is the focal point of the living room.
What I learned though is that after styling that area in a minimalistic but elegant way, we stopped putting anything on the table that doesn’t belong there as we didn’t want to mess up the beautiful set-up. Granted: there are other areas of our living room that started accumulating clutter because of this decision, but at least our coffee table is always clean and neat.
I wanted to share a few tips for styling your own coffee table if you are experiencing the same issues.
Create a Movable Accent Piece
First and foremost, think about your needs for using the space. For instance, a coffee table is the only area in our tiny NYC apartment where we can eat so while deciding on how to decorate the room we wanted the centerpiece to be portable, i.e. it looks beautiful and neat in between meals but we can completely clean it up when needed.
If you have a similar situation, a cute tray is the best way to go. You can style it as you wish, but when it’s time to set up a table for the meal, it’s easy to pick up and moves an entire set.
On our coffee table, I have a cute white and light blue shell tray where I display some of my favorite accent pieces. Perhaps, the most important part of our decorative tray is my favorite scented candles from Chesapeake Bay Candle’s Heritage Collection. They feature a refreshing and yummy citrus scent of mandarin and blood orange combined with a lively blend of melon and mango.
I also make sure that our living room always has fresh flowers that I prefer cutting short and displaying in a gold-accented glass. Since our marble coffee table needs to be protected from mug marks, I also added to the tray gold and marble coasters. To continue with the food theme, I also added some gold-embossed napkins and salt and pepper shakers.
As you see, all of the items on our movable tray accent piece serve their purpose. Whether it’s to serve as a base for my favorite candle or store food-related accessories, this adorable tray is both decorative and useful.
Pile on Pretty Coffee Table Books
Coffee table books are called this way for a reason: they look incredibly stylish and help to create different heights for your table set-up. You probably heard about this home styling tip before, but I’ll repeat it. While styling a coffee table, it’s important to incorporate different textures and heights to achieve a sleek, designer look.
Personally, my favorite trick is to pile off beautiful coffee table books and style them with things like a reed diffuser and decorative objects. Since we already have the Blood Orange candles from Chesapeake Bay Candle’s Heritage Collection on display, it totally makes sense to pick a diffuser from the same line to avoid a fragrance clash. Since this stylish diffuser features tall elegant reeds, it also helps to create that different heights look that we discussed.
How to Keep Your Coffee Table Tidy
It’s one thing to beautifully decorate your coffee table and a completely different story to keep it in this condition for a long period of time. For the longest time, I couldn’t find the solution on where to store our TV remotes as they didn’t work quite right with the vibe of the coffee table.
Then, I found this adorable trinket box that perfectly matched the height and length of our remotes. A useful side effect of this decision is that having a dedicated place for our TV remotes makes it easier to find them always in one place, as opposed to strolling through the entire living room.
Another source of unnecessary coffee table clutter—our key chains and wallets—also disappeared after I found this adorable display tray. It works even better than it sounds: these days we don’t run through an entire apartment while getting ready as we know where exactly to find our keys and wallets.
How to Make Supermarket Flowers Look Expensive
Fresh-cut flowers are an important part of our living room décor. But it’s not in our budget to spend hundreds of dollars per month on designer flower arrangements. Instead, I learned how to use supermarket or street market flowers to look fresh and expensive for a long period of time.
My first tip is to select types of flowers that look expensive. Peonies, hydrangeas, and roses are usually the ones I go for as they are widely available through street sellers and always look chic. I don’t recommend going for a floral arrangement as in my book it always looks a bit too bulky and generic.
Instead, pick individual light-shaded blooms that look the freshest. My personal favorites are pink peonies, white hydrangeas, and light pink roses.
Another recommendation is to never display flowers in the plastic wrap they come with. Instead, take your blooms out of the wrapping and cut them shorter prior to arranging them in a vase. I prefer cutting my flowers almost in half so the bottom line of the blooms touches the vase. I feel that it makes them look more elegant and stylish.
Finally, a cute vase is another important detail to think about when it comes to creating a luxurious-looking floral arrangement. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and use jars, glasses, and even vintage beer mugs as a vase. In my book, the more unique your vase is looking, the more special is the floral arrangement!
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There you have it: my favorite tips and tricks on how to style a coffee table. I hope this post inspired you to update your living room with some cute coffee table arrangements too. If you found some new, never heard before tips, please let me know in the comments area below. Also, feel free to share your coffee table décor tips!
