Here’s at Hunter & Co we’re big believers in not feeling like you have to completely redecorate a room to revitalise it. With the new season here, it could be a simple change up of your cushions, investing in some new artwork or moving furniture around to make the space flow better.
One quick and easy way you can refresh your living room is by styling your coffee table. Not only does it create a focal point in the room, it’s a super easy update to your home with the arrival of a new season or holiday.
Today we’re sharing five essentials you need for creating a stylish coffee table vignette. But what’s a vignette you ask? Pronounced “vee-nyet”, it’s a collection of decorative items, normally found on a table, shelf or console. The key is letting the items breathe – meaning don’t pack them in tightly together, feeling free to style and restyle again as you look at the space (a bad habit of mine!), and giving it a large chunk of personality.
With that said, here’s how we like to style our coffee table…
Take Height into Consideration
The key to a successful vignette is having varying heights. Stacking beautiful coffee books is a great way to add height, as well as giving a hint to your personality with the titles you choose to showcase. Having a variation of heights allows the eye to move freely across the coffee table, instead of scanning something all on one level. Check out coffee table books we love by design, food, fashion and travel, if you're looking for a bit of inspo!
Throw in Some Character
Whether it be a sculpture, a trinket you found on your travels, or a framed picture, adding something unusual to the space shows off your character.The great thing about creating a coffee table vignette is that pretty much anything goes – it’s your home, and your chance to embrace your personality and show it off. Think of it as a conversation starter when people come to your house – what do you have in the house already that has a great story behind it?
Add Plants or Flowers
Adding flowers and greenery to the space literally adds life to a vignette. We love the thought of adding flowers to ginger jars or greenery in vases, varying in height. Just remember the rule of threes in this case – the odder the number, the better the arrangement is to the eye. We love peonies, baby’s breath, dahlia’s or even a single stem of eucalyptus, and don’t be afraid to mix and match floral arrangements. A few blogposts ago, we shared our top places to buy fresh and faux florals and botanicals, you can check out our favourites here.
Consider your colour palette
With larger vignettes – think sideboards or console tables, for example – it pays to not be too matchy-matchy. But with a coffee table, we’d recommend staying within the same tonal colour palette you have in the room. For example, with the grey-blue sofa as you can see here at one of our customer's home, we’ve stuck to complementing shades of navy, indigo and turquoise. If you have a neutral room, however, think about using metallics and texture to add interest, instead of relying on colour to make it pop.
Light it Up
Using a candle will not only add a beautiful scent throughout the space, but it also creates the perfect, cosy ambiance when the sun goes down. We like to change candles up as the season’s change, and the autumnal scents we’re lusting after right now include cinnamon, ginger and juniper. Two that we are totally loving at the moment are the Genevrier / Juniper and Eucalyptus scented candles by Diptyque - hmmm!
So, there you have it – styling your coffee table vignette in five easy ways. Are you a fan of creating vignettes like this around your home? What’s your coffee table must-have? We would love to hear what you think!