How to Style a Tray, a Vase and a Coffee-Table Book: The Details That Finish a Room

A room is finished by the last five centimetres, not the first five metres. The sofa, the rug and the coffee table get the budget; the tray, the vase and the stack of books are what make it look lived in. It is the question our showroom team is asked most in May — gift season, and the cheapest way to make a room feel new without moving a piece of furniture. Here is how we style a coffee table, a console and a bedside so they look considered rather than cluttered.

Start with the tray: it is the frame, not the decoration

A tray does one job nothing else on the table can do: it contains. Three objects loose on a coffee table look like they were left there; the same three on a tray look like a decision. That is the whole trick.

Scale it to the surface. A tray should sit inside the table with clear timber, marble or glass showing around it — roughly a third of the tabletop's width on a rectangular coffee table, never more than half. Our best-selling tray of the past year, the Eliza iron mirror tray, comes in four sizes for exactly this reason: the Square at 42cm by 38cm suits a compact coffee table or a wide side table; the Oval at 58.5cm by 34cm is our default for a standard rectangular coffee table; the Small at 57cm by 30cm works on a console; and the Large, 94cm long and only 25cm deep, is built for a long console, a buffet top or the centre of a dining table. Measure before you choose. If you are choosing the coffee table too, our coffee table size and height guide covers the table itself.

Round table, round tray. A rectangular tray on a round coffee table fights the shape. The Maison round marble-look tray set — 40cm and 35cm across, faux marble on a metal frame — is the pairing for a round or oval table, and the two sizes mean one can go on the coffee table and the other on a bedside.

The rule of three, and why heights matter more than objects

Almost every vignette that looks right has three elements at three different heights. Not three objects — three heights.

Tall. The vase, or the stems in it. It belongs at the back of the tray, and on a coffee table it should stay under about 35cm including stems, or it will sit between two people talking.

Medium. Books, stacked — two or three, largest at the bottom, spines facing the room. The stack is a plinth: it lifts the small thing on top of it into view.

Low. A candle, a small bowl, a sculptural object, or nothing but the mirrored base of the tray showing through. This is where most people overdo it. The small table décor collection is made up of pieces that stay under this line.

A vase and a few stems will carry the whole table

The most effective object on a coffee table is a vase with something in it. It does not need to be fresh flowers, and in a busy household it is usually better if it is not.

Choose the vase for its texture, not its colour. The Oscar is a rounded 25cm form in green glass covered in raised hobnail dimples that catch light from every angle — it holds its own empty on a console. The Tabby stands 27cm in fine vertical pleats of deeper green and frames tall stems particularly well. Together they give a tonal pairing at two heights. Both wipe clean with a soft dry cloth; hand-wash if you use fresh flowers.

Stems: fewer, taller. Three stems look intentional; a dozen look like a supermarket bunch. For the Tabby, a cluster of three or five willow branches — a warm brown stem dotted with soft white buds along its 80cm length — reads as foraged and sculptural against light and dark walls alike. For a floor vase in an entry, the 125cm cherry blossom stem in white or pink is the statement version, made for oversized arrangements where a shorter stem would disappear. On a coffee table, a single 49cm blossom stem is closer to the right scale. The ginger jars and vases collection and artificial plants and planters cover the rest. The honest caveat: artificial stems only convince when they are good quality and not overfilled.

Books as plinths: the designer faux book box

A stack of books is the medium height in almost every vignette we build, and the item our customers buy in the greatest numbers. The reason is practical as much as decorative: our designer faux décor book boxes look like high-fashion coffee-table books, and each opens to a concealed compartment for the things you would rather not see on the table — remotes, charging cables, keepsakes.

Stack by size. The Christian book box in black and white comes in three sizes — Large at 30cm by 21cm, Medium at 26cm by 17cm, Small at 21cm by 13cm — built from hardboard with a magnetic closure. Stacked largest to smallest they make a stepped plinth about 15cm high — enough to lift a small candle holder above the rim of a tray.

Match the palette, not the brand. The book boxes come in monochrome, gold-and-black, floral and orange. Choose the cover that picks up a colour already in the room — the gold of a lounge trim, the orange of a cushion — rather than the one you like most in isolation. A book box is a supporting actor.

Scent, and matching the metal to the lounge

One scent per room. A reed diffuser is the easier choice for a coffee table because it needs no attention; a candle is for the evening. The UTA reed diffuser is our best seller here — a slim 24cm bottle that takes almost no room on a tray and releases fragrance steadily through natural reeds, in five scents from the warm Be Loved to the tea-inspired Darjeeling. A diffuser on the coffee table and a different candle on the console is two rooms arguing: pick one fragrance for the living area and change it with the season. The candle holders and candles and diffusers collections carry crystal, gold and pyramid-lantern styles in three sizes each.

Look at your lounge legs before you choose a tray finish. Metal finishes in a room should agree, and many of our velvet suites carry a polished gold or a black metal trim on the legs or base. A gold tray beside a lounge with black legs looks like it arrived from a different room; a black Eliza beside the same lounge looks like it was bought with it. The Eliza comes in black, gold and silver metal so you can match it, and its mirrored base reflects whatever you place on it.

Mirror against matte. A mirrored tray is at its best on a timber or stone table. On a glass-topped table, choose the Maison's faux-marble surface so the eye has somewhere to rest.

Console, bedside and dressing table: same rules, different proportions

A coffee table is seen from above. A console is seen from the front, with a mirror behind it. A bedside is seen lying down. Each changes what the vignette should do.

The console. Go asymmetric. A tall vase at one end — the Tabby with willow, or a floor vase with the 125cm blossom standing beside the console rather than on it — balanced by a low tray and a stack of books at the other, with the mirror above doing the work of the centre. The Eliza Large, at 94cm, is the one tray in our range that runs the length of a standard console and turns the surface into a single composition. Start with console tables if you are building from scratch, and the mirror range for the piece above it.

The bedside. Three things, kept low, because the lamp is already the tall element. The smaller of the Eliza round tray set, at 30.5cm, holds a glass of water, a book and a diffuser. The Small Christian book box is made for this spot and hides the charging cable.

The dressing table. The beaded mirror tray — black, antique silver or country gold, with a 4cm beaded frame, in 30cm by 60cm or 30cm by 100cm — is a long narrow shape made for a vanity or dresser top, for jewellery, perfume and cosmetics. It is the tray we suggest most often as a gift for that reason.

Restraint, seasons and the gift that finishes someone else's room

Every vignette we build in the showroom ends the same way: we stand back and remove one thing. Almost always the table looks better. The mirrored base of a tray, the clear timber around it, the empty half of a console — these are part of the composition. Three heights, one scent, one metal finish, and space. That is the whole formula; the table décor collection is made of pieces that work alone as well as together.

Swap by season, not by shopping. The tray and the vase stay all year. What changes is the stem — blossom in spring, willow in winter — and the scent. If you are styling around a new sofa, our sofa buying guide explains which colours take every accent, and a cushion or throw is the fastest way to tie a new tray finish back to the lounge.

The Mother's Day answer. May is the month people ask us for something for their mother, and the tray is what we suggest most: the rare gift that is beautiful on its own and useful every day. A mirrored Eliza for a dressing table, a beaded tray for perfume and rings, a Maison pair for coffee table and bedside — add a diffuser and a stem or two, and the vignette arrives ready to place. Start with the home décor collection and the trays collection; for keeping metal, mirror, glass and faux marble looking new, our décor and accessories care guide has the specifics.

See it styled in the showroom

Every tray, vase and book box in this guide is styled in our showrooms on the coffee tables, consoles and bedsides we sell. Look at the vignette, then lift the tray off and see how the table changes — it is the fastest way to learn what works.

Visit us seven days a week at Braybrook, Dandenong South or Truganina in Melbourne, or Auburn in Sydney. Bring a photo of your coffee table and console, a note of their dimensions, and a photo of the lounge legs if you are matching a metal finish. Our team will build the vignette with you on the spot — and if your table needs a smaller tray than you had in mind, we will say so.