Surface Series: Coffee Tables
beauty + function can be friends
We all have them, and we all look at them every day. A common area that is constantly in flux but still expected to look presentable. You can easily find inspiration and professional advice for a perfectly styled coffee table. It’s really just a matter of scale and varying textures, heights, etc. I will touch on that as well. But what I really want to convey is the fact that these working surfaces throughout our homes can be both beautiful and functional.
That they should be both.
I am uninterested in a perfectly styled coffee table that no one is allowed to touch or that is only styled “when company is coming over.” I am also uninterested in a coffee table only filled with children’s things or generic decor objects that possess no meaning and are easily replaced.
Travel and beautiful destinations are wonderful, but I want the spaces in which I spend 80% of my life to also be lovely and inspiring. I want our children to feel comfortable in their home, but I also want them to grow up looking at interesting things or learning how to make a bad day feel better through simple changes in their surroundings. The industry has so commercialized a magical childhood that we sometimes forget the most wonder-filled moments have nothing to do with favorite characters or new objects. There is much value in learning early in life to never lose curiosity about the world around us, to respect our surroundings, to be delicate with fragile things. It is not too much for us to want both a functional space for our families to live and a beautiful environment to enjoy. Below, I’m outlining out how I make those two things happen simultaneously in our home.
I always begin any styling work by considering the purpose of the space and what is actually happening there.
