Last Updated on December 7, 2021 by Kimberly Crawford
Decorating your coffee table requires more thought that simply putting in the right size of table cloth and coffee table book. You want something elegant. Something with pizzazz.
Something that you can drink coffee too since the table will probably serve as a centerpiece of your living room, guest room, and so forth. Let’s see what more we can do to spruce such a table up!
Related: 57+ Different Types Of Tables: Materials, Shapes, and Styles (Buying Guide)
20+ Coffee Table Decor Ideas
#1. Coffee Table Step by Step
#2. Shabby-chic tray
#3. Metal bowl with glass vase
#4. Marble vase and tray
#5. White ceramic candlesticks
#6. Marble oval coffee table
#7. Back to nature
#8. Wooden tray with gold candle holder
#9. Holiday decor
#10. Basket on the table
#11. Side table
#12. Coastal living room with wooden crate
#13. Cement vase with pink flowers
#14. Chippy White Lime Finished Coffee Table
#15. Woven basket
#16. Large vase with wire candle holder
#17. Bohemian chic style with wire basket
#18. Add natural things to table like moss balls, twig balls, and potted flowers
#19. Glass vessels as flower vases
#20. Bench coffee table with driftwood candleholders
Modern coffee table decor
In order to properly decorate a modern coffee table, you should pay attention to modern 21st Century interior design trends and sensibilities.
Barring that, you can at least match your coffee table coverings with your drapes and carpets. The easier thing to do is to buy a coffee table in accordance to your living room’s modern theme. What does that entail? Something functional, minimalist, and manmade in accordance to modernist sensibilities.
Round coffee table decor
If you have a round coffee table and you’re presumably not following the modern coffee table décor, you can start off by going against modernist philosophies.
How about something Art Deco instead? What about putting in a potted plant or at least a plastic one as the table centerpiece? It’s as opposite to modernist as you can get.
Have a couple of books and tea cozies lying around and you’re good to go. You should have a round table décor that’s as comforting as a hug or a mid-afternoon nap.
Coffee table decor tray
Common sense dictates that you should style your coffee table tray in accordance to your table as though you bought them as one set.
Otherwise, go the opposite direction and find something that mismatches the table to get a nice, shabby chic contrast. For example, if you have a wooden round table, get either a steel rectangular decorative tray or a wooden round one.
What is the difference between a coffee table and a cocktail table?
The obvious difference is that a coffee table serves coffee whenever you’re on a personal coffee break and a cocktail table serves cocktails when you have guests around.
They’re sometimes interchangeable because of their shared centerpiece function but they’re different things. A cocktail table is usually rectangular and a coffee table is usually round or oval in shape. Both are placed in front of the sofa to make drinking easier.
Related: 23 Best Coffee Table Alternatives For Small Living Room
How do you place a coffee table?
Coffee table placement should be done with a mix of style and function. Form and practicality. Your coffee table is the centerpiece of your living room, so place it at the center.
However, it shouldn’t be dead center like a target as any photographer should know. Slightly off-center will do. Your coffee table should be placed near the chairs so that you can have a literal coffee break while sitting down and having a cup of Joe near you right on the table in question.
How far should a coffee table be from a couch?
There’s no set rule to how far a coffee table should be from a couch. However, as a rule of thumb, the sofa or couch should be 12-18 inches away from the table.
This is to give you enough leg room but have enough reach to set your drinks down or grab hold of appetizers without you getting up from your seat. You shouldn’t stray too far from the 12-18 inches range or else you might have a table that’s too close or too far from you.
How big should my coffee table be?
The heights of such tables vary, so make sure the seat and table height are about 4 inches from each other when push comes to shove.
Some websites and magazines outright claim that the range between coffee table and couch height should instead be 1-2 inches instead, if not the same height altogether. The table should also be â…” the entire length of your couch for good measure. This ensures that you won’t end up with a table that’s too big or small for your couch or seats.
Related: Coffee Table Size: How To Choose the Right Coffee Table Dimensions (Round, Square)
