Coffee Table Arrangement Ideas

"Tablescaping" is like landscaping a tabletop. It's another way of carrying out a design scheme, adding interest to a room and making the most of what you have. Arranging the top of your coffee table gives you the opportunity to show off your creative side. The best part is that when you grow tired of the design, you can create another. Does this Spark an idea?

Consider the Room

Plan your decor based upon the room the coffee table is in. A family room might be the ideal place for informal, fun items while a formal living room may call for a more traditional table arrangement. If you have a wood coffee table, you'll want to look for glass or ceramic objects to create visual interest. If you have a glass coffee table, look for wood objects to create a bit of design drama. If, for instance, you have a glass table in your living room, top it with a small stack of hardbound books on birds. Next to the books, place a birds "nest" that you've either fashioned yourself from twigs or have purchased at a craft store. Fill the nest with candy eggs or faux plastic birds' eggs.

360 Degrees

As you place decorative items on your coffee table, see that they look good from all sides. For instance, framed pictures don't work because you can only see them from one side. A flower arrangement, cluster of vases in varying sizes, basket of fruit, small sculpture or lush green plant will all look equally good from every angle.

Mix It up

Nothing will make your coffee table display appear more interesting than variation. Mix heights, shapes, textures and colors. Pair hard objects with soft, straight with curved, shiny with dull. Imagine a shiny red bowl with a single wood pitcher next to it. Lay a mirror with an ornately designed frame on the table, and place three half-melted candles of varying heights on its surface. Create your own art by putting things together that visitors would not expect to see paired.

Group It

For many years there was a design trend that called for everything in a home to be symmetrical. If there was a candle stick on one side of the fireplace mantel, there needed to be one on the other. Far more interesting though is when you group things like they might be grouped at an art show. Say you want to display seven colorful painted tiles on your coffee table. Group four together, and move over a few inches and group the other three. Finish the look by adding something unexpected, like a soft bowl woven of fabric scraps or an unusual piece of sculpture.