It is our personal opinion, and that of many designers, that furniture is just as important as the styling. Think of any given room like an outfit: The furniture is the clothes, and the accessories are the styling. After all, a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt only looks cool when you layer the accessories. We digress. When it comes to styling a room, the best opportunities to go big come in the form of flat surfaces: coffee tables, media consoles, nightstands, and bookshelves, to name a few. So, we chatted with expert stylist and Hunt & Bloom founder, Will Hunt Lewis, for his expert tips on how to get the styling just right. “I am a maximalist to put it mildly, so all the surfaces in my home are rife with things I consider treasures,” he admits. “That said, I don’t purposely fill up a surface just to fill it.” And that is key.
If you are buying junk you don’t love just for the sake of removing negative space on your tables, you’re doing it wrong. “On my tables, I love to display a collection of things that mean something to me, including items passed down from family members, things I have purchased while traveling, or special gifts.” Until you amass such a collection of treasures, you may have to put up with the fact that there will be some blank space. The best pieces are ones that come together to form a collection over a longer period of time. This is a design phenomenon known and loved as slow decorating.
Even if you don’t have quite as many beloved items as Lewis, surely you have enough beloved trinkets, heirlooms, or quirky things that bring you joy to display. After all, you can never go wrong with coffee table books because they’re cheap conversation pieces that, in our opinion, have no limit when it comes to the appropriate number in a collection. Speaking of books, bookcases are a great place to have some fun with your collections, insists Lewis. “I much prefer a lived-in look over an overly sterile, precise grouping of objects,” he notes. “I’ve never been one to be overly fussy with how books are displayed since there’s no color coordination or strict adherence to stack sizes. I think it makes a space feel more lived in and cozy.”
He has a point. Not to mention, bookcases can house other objects that don’t require any reading: small sculptures, picture frames, vases, and even a cordless lamp or two. And don’t forget about the top of the bookshelf. If you can reach it, that’s the best place to get experimental. That’s what Lewis did: “It never fails to make great conversation with guests who are always inquiring about at least one of the many things atop the surfaces!”
Now, we know we advised against buying things just for the sake of having something to put on a table, but if you happen to discover something that really speaks to you, snap it up before it’s gone forever. Trust us; you’ll never regret buying the thing that moved you in some way, so go ahead and take a peek at our personal picks for styling tables.
