Coastal Coffee Table Styling

The coffee table is the mantelpiece of the modern living room. It is the first thing you see when you sit down and the last thing you clear when the party ends, and — done right — it holds the whole vocabulary of the house in about four square feet. A tray to give the composition an edge. A stack of books to give it height. A single beautiful object to give it a subject. A bowl of something living, or nearly, to give it a heartbeat.

The formula I keep coming back to is a tray, a stack, a bloom, and a bowl. The tray is usually rattan or lacquered — something the size of a small placemat — and it catches everything: the coasters, the reading glasses, the remote you keep losing. The stack is three or four hardcovers, spines out, weighted with a piece of coral or a small blue-and-white jar. The bloom is a single arrangement, low and loose, that you can see over from the sofa. The bowl is optional and often the best part: sea glass, shells, matchbooks from restaurants you liked.

The pieces in this collection are chosen for exactly that composition. Beautiful lacquer and rattan trays. Coffee-table books about the island, about hydrangeas, about houses you'll never own but will look at forever. Coastal objects — coral, oyster plates, glass floats — with enough weight to anchor the arrangement. Style once, style well, and let the room quietly do the rest.