Styling Guides

Styling is the final ten percent that makes a room look finished — and the part most people skip. Knowing how to arrange a coffee table, a shelf, or a console is what separates a decorated room from a designed one.

Styling is where a well-furnished room becomes a designed one. Part of our décor and accessories collection, this category covers the how-to of arranging surfaces — the finishing techniques designers use on every project.

Most surface styling comes down to a few repeatable principles. Work in groupings of odd numbers (threes especially), and vary height, texture, and shape so the eye has somewhere to travel — a tall element (a stack of books, a lamp, a vase), something organic (a plant, branches), and something personal (an object, a piece of art). Use the tray or the stack to corral small items into a deliberate vignette rather than scattered clutter. Leave negative space — a styled surface needs breathing room, not every inch filled. And edit ruthlessly: the most common mistake is too much, not too little. These same rules scale from a coffee table to a console to a bookshelf to a mantel. Step-by-step guides for each surface are on the way; in the meantime, our décor collection covers the pieces that make styling easy.