Decorating Trays On Coffee Tables

Decorating Trays On Coffee Tables – For a while, my coffee table served as a racetrack for Hot Wheels and a village for Little People. However, as my boys got older, I managed to make this coffee table grown up again! Now, with the help of some blogging friends, I’m sharing tips on how to create an elegant coffee table vignette so you TOO can transform your family room.

I’m excited to feature this coffee table decor as part of a monthly Pinterest challenge hosted by Cindy of County Road 407.

Decorating Trays On Coffee Tables

Have you ever seen a pin on Pinterest and wondered how you can recreate the same vibe at home? On the fourth Tuesday of every month, Cindy challenges a group of bloggers to do just that!

Stunning Spring Coffee Table Decor Ideas

If you are visiting from Leslea at A Heart Filled Home, welcome! She has some wonderful fall coffee table styling tips to get you in the mood for my favorite season!

Don’t forget to check out all the other creative ideas from my fellow bloggers at the bottom of this post.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. For more information, please see my

How To Style A Coffee Table

This month our inspiration photo came from Yvonne at StoneGable who shared her Summer Open House Tour. It is a sight to see!

Yvonne always has expert decorating tips and interior secrets on her blog. I promise you will be glad you visited.

In my vignette below, I will go through how I took elements from Yvonne’s photo and created my own version using elements I already had on hand.

Coffee Table Tray Ideas And Best Style Buys

Using Yvonne’s tray decor as a starting point, I went on a shopping tour around the house. I saw six main elements that I wanted to echo in my own vignette:

Luckily, I already had a few of these items in my inventory, although I admit most of them weren’t on my coffee table…yet!

You will notice that I have to improvise on some elements, but the effect is about the same. Can you spot where I made substitutions?

How To Style The Perfect Coffee Table

For a rustic coffee table aesthetic I used a light colored rectangular tray. This tray was a home feature, but I’ll link to similar items at the bottom of this post.

I’ve seen so many different tray styles on Pinterest, from mirror/acrylic to vintage/wood and everything in between. Since my coffee table and side tables have a dark, rustic feel, I felt that a lighter woven tray would provide a good contrast and still remain casual.

*Note: I like to place my tray at an angle against the rectangular coffee table for more visual interest.

Amazon.com: Serving Tray –coffee Table Tray –elegant Decorative Tray –ps And Printed Glass Table Tray –practical And Sturdy Design–easy To Clean And Washable–ideal For Coffee,breakfast,dessert

This French country urn is one of my favorite purchases of all time! However, it is huuuuge, measuring about 16×9 inches…

Although I love how it looks in the living room, it usually belongs on our dining room table where it doesn’t get nearly as much traffic from 5 year old twins. I do, however, enjoy how the swirls on the decorative box mimic the emblem on the urn.

To balance the drama of the urn, I added a boxwood topiary (stacked on three books), a rustic ceramic bird and a decorative box with various woven and rattan orbs.

Decorating With Trays In Every Room

Again, I didn’t make any additional purchases for this challenge, so the little decorative balls in the box serve as a little nod to Yvonne’s original metal orb.

You’ll notice I also swapped out the cushions on the sofa in the background. While I dig the whole neutral aesthetic, I can’t live without pops of color. I think the patterns on the cushions give a different feel to the vignette. What are your thoughts?

A few years ago I found a great deal on boxwood topiaries at Target. You’ll never know the difference between this little boxwood and others I’ve seen at higher-end home decor stores. Real dried leaves!

Rustic Wooden Ottoman Tray Coffee Table Tray Serving Tray

By the way, the coffee table books are deliberately reversed, as the spines are much too dark for this scene.

My little rustic bird usually sits above the TV in an art niche, but she insisted on becoming a part of this vignette. Who am I to deny her?

Next on your stop is Terrie from Decorating and More with Tip. She always has a fun DIY project up her sleeve, so you’re bound to walk away with plenty of inspiration for your coffee table!

Highland Dunes Nieman Poplar Coffee Table Tray & Reviews

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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that guarantee basic functions and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Earlier this week, Bridget shared her gorgeous new square coffee table in her family room. Of course I’m obsessed with the look because I have the larger version of this table as our dining room table!

Wooden Decorative Tray With Metal Handles

Because Bridget’s table is so big, she has trouble styling it just right. You want it to work for your everyday life, but you also want it to look good. The struggle is real. When we were making a game plan for styling her new table, we realized that we never really talked about styling coffee tables here on the blog. And there are so many tips to share!

First, it is important to style based on the size and shape of your coffee table. I have a round coffee table in our family room (still love this piece!) because the rest of the furniture in our living room has straight lines. We have a sectional with straight lines, a huge straight dining room table, and a large rectangular rug that takes up a large part of the room. Not to mention built-ins that are full of square and rectangular boxes. So many straight lines!

That’s why I knew a round coffee table was the way to go. It helped soften the room and make things a lot less loud here. But what do you put on the table? Let’s dive into some of my tips…

Decorative Tray/ Decorative Serving Tray/ Coffee Table

Of course, we all want every surface in our home to be perfectly styled, but it’s not always realistic when you live a busy life! So the first tip is to make sure your coffee table look works for you and your family. We don’t have kids or pets, so having some “breakables” on the coffee table is okay. However, you need to keep your coffee table clear most of the time, and then only style it when you are entertaining or having guests. That works too!

I always recommend putting a tray on your coffee table. In fact, I do the same thing at our dinner table. When you need a clear table, you simply lift the tray and it is empty and bare in 2.5 seconds. If you have a round table, I suggest going with a square or rectangular tray. Round to round would not look good. However, a round tray might work well for a square tray (as evidenced by the tray on B’s dining table).

My white tray is from West Elm and I love their selection (they have my same lacquer tray in small, square, rectangular and round!). Target and HomeGoods are also great resources for trays. Make sure you are tall enough to fit all the items you need to style.

Porche Tips & Tricks: How To Style A Coffee Table — Porche & Co

A coffee table needs some great coffee table books. I have had these 2 books here for a long time, but I love their size and colors. The book below was a gift from my mother… 100 photos from TIME magazine. It is a wonderful book full of historic black and white photographs taken over the past decades.

I feel like every blogger and designer uses this top book because the black and white striped spine is the ultimate styling tool. What a beautiful spine to add some pattern to a boring table! If I ever write a book, I will definitely make sure the spine is on point! The book is called “Elements of Style” and it’s by blogger/designer, Erin Gates. Of course, I love having this book out because of the beautiful spine, but I also love that it gives guests a glimpse into my passion for home interiors.

When choosing coffee table books, I believe it is crucial that they mean something to you. Yes, you want them to be the right size, hardcover, and have spines that work well with your room…but the titles should also tell a little bit about your story

How To Create An Elegant Look With Coffee Table Decor