ABC’s of Coffee Tables

With move-in a week away and apartment decorating a year away, I’ve started to collect items for my coffee table and end tables. As the daughter of a furniture importer, I learned at a young age that a coffee table can set the tone for the entire room. As the daughter of a woman who is a dictator of taste, I also learned at a young age that what items you place on a coffee table can set the tone for who you are.

Therefore, I put together my ABC’s of decorating a coffee table!

• A: Accents and Angles. Play with the angles of your items and where you place them on the table. If you have a round table, try a square or rectangular tray or an angular vase. If you have a square or rectangular table, try a round tray or books with round items. Play with colors and metallic accents on your items to see what complements the room.
• B: Books. I find that no one truly reads coffee table books. Instead, they like to flip through them. Look for books with beautiful pictures and enticing content or covers. The books displayed on a table definitely shows the apartment/house owner’s personality.
• C: Conversation starters. Whether this means exotic bouquet of flowers, glass sculptures, wooden sculptures, candles, succulents and terrariums, crystals, personal pieces, blankets, or a smorgasbord of items cleverly placed at different heights and levels, decorate your table surface with items that will spark a conversation as to where you got it, why you got it, or even what it is.

Currently, my home table is decorated with a few books I’ll be bringing back to school and eventually to my apartment. As you can tell, there is a slight color theme going on. The table consists of a guide of Sleep No More exclusively for guests of the show at The McKittrick Hotel, the last copy of a fashion designer’s to different dress styles and design techniques found somewhere in the 18 miles of books that is Strand Bookstore, and a complimentary booklet of quotes on marketing from a site visit to Ogilvy & Mather.

For those of you who have never heard of Sleep No More and never watched Gossip Girl’s season 4, it is incredible interactive show involving no words, only dance and music. Guests follow different actors through six stories of the hotel, all stages for scenes, and watch different parts of the storyline. The guide walks you through the creation, production, and storylines of the show. After waiting two long years to see it, I was blessed with a ticket from my mom for my 21st birthday. Be sure to look for the inside scoop to my experience under Art coming soon!

Inside of 1000 Dresses contains sketches, historical backgrounds of dress styles, and photos of some of the most exquisite dresses on the runway up through 2014.

Lastly, the quotes of David Ogilvy are there to inspire me as I pursue a career in either brand development, content strategy, or marketing analytics.

In a year, I can see practically see my 1000 Dresses book, white candles, bright peonies, and gold statement items on a wooden or white marble table top sitting in my apartment’s living room. But until then, I will be keeping myself busy flipping through these pages with my morning coffee.

What are your coffee table ABC’s?

 

-E.