As one of the most versatile decor pieces, these are simple ways to decorate with trays around your home. From a coffee table and nightstands to kitchens and baths, you can easily style any room in your home with a pretty tray.
Your home can look elevated and more functional with very little effort, yet a big impact, simply by incorporating a tray. This will show you how to stylishly add one practically anywhere you want.
Read on for the best tray decorating ideas for styling around your home!
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Why Decorate with Trays
Trays not only look stylish, but they are highly versatile. Trays help organize all the little things that we need throughout the day.
Trays make pretty perfume bottles look put together on a bathroom vanity, they complete gorgeous vignettes with decor pieces that make a statement, and they do so all while being completely functional to daily routines.
I love decorating with trays around our home. You will easily find a tray in nearly every room of our home as well as inside at least a closet or two. Part of why I love styling with trays is because of how effortlessly they organize items together.
Think about an area of your home right now that looks a little cluttered. Try placing all or some of the items on a tray and you'll see what a difference it makes.
Don't forget about seasonal decorating. Trays open up a whole new way of styling your home with seasonal decor. Picture a tray on a kitchen island in the fall decorated with a candle in a signature scent of cinnamon spice, a vase overflowing with stems in fall hues of burgundy and burnt sienna, and brass pepper and salt mills ready for gatherings.
How delightfully cozy!
Shop the Photo: Return to Pretty book | Beautiful: All American Decorating and Timeless Style book | Made for Living book
Choosing a Tray to Decorate
With so many different types and styles of trays out there, it can be overwhelming to decide what you want. Choosing a tray is easier if you stick to what you love, while paying attention to what you plan to place the tray on.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are no hard rules. That said, I can offer a few key tips to help you choose a great tray for your home.
Size
This is the most controversial aspect of trays, in my opinion. Some designers will tell you not to let a tray take up more than a certain percentage of a surface. However, I have seen this rule broken over and over and over again. I have come across many coffee tables styled by interior designers with a very large tray in proportion to the table. Sometimes the tray is nearly the size of the table and they call it chic.
Shop the Photo: Large vase | Beige pink faux peonies | Interiors for A Life in Good Taste book | Design the Home You Love book
Above, I styled a lovely caramel fabric lined tray on our ottoman. The tray size is perfect in proportion to the ottoman. It is not overpowering and gives a subtle texture, while providing a neutral backdrop for books and decorative items placed in it.
Go with a smaller tray if you want it to take up less surface area, and vice versa for a large tray.
Or choose a tray somewhere in the middle. At the end of the day, it's your space. You'll know what works best after trying various tray sizes.
Shape
I think round trays look great on round surfaces, such as a round tray on a round coffee table, but it doesn't have to be that way. A square tray would look just as lovely on a round table as well.
Try different shapes to see how they look and go with what you like. A small rectangular tray looks lovely on our square ottoman.
Shop the Photo: Suzanne Kasler Edited Style book | Interiors for A Life in Good Taste book | Elements of Timeless Style book | Braided bone inlay box (alternative, larger)
Color and Material
When it comes to color or finish, choose a tray that does not blend in with the color/finish of the surface it will set on. You can go tonal with a variation in the color of the tray to the surface, but varying the color provides interest when it is not too matchy-matchy.
Below, I used a bone inlay tray on one of our white painted wood nightstands. I stayed within a cream and white palette to maintain a calm feeling in the room. The tray does not blend in, while the texture further provides sophisticated intrigue against the smooth white wood.
Try a tray made of a different material. For instance, try a fabric or leather tray on a wood entry console table, or a woven rattan tray on a linen covered ottoman.
If you want wood-on-wood, make sure the tray is a different wood tone so it doesn't blend in, unless that is the look you are going for.
Everyone has a design style they are drawn to. Think about your own design preferences. Do you lean farmhouse? Glam? Coastal? The Nancy Meyers feel? I wrote about How to Get the Nancy Meyers Style in your own home if you're looking for tips.
Trays come in every design style imaginable that you can pair with other decor in your home for a lived-in, collected feel.
Consider marble as well as other natural materials. I found a stunning fluted marble tray (alternative) that I use in my office. I have styled it on one of our nightstands as well as our home office built-ins before too. It's a truly versatile piece that I move around our home.
Shop the Photo: The Kinfolk Home book | Gather at Home book | Pink gingham notebook | Grey mini lamp
Where to Style with Trays
Trays are truly one of the most versatile items you can use around your home. Beyond looking beautiful in a room, trays corral things together for a much more organized presentation. This is especially true when it comes to many smaller items that can look like clutter, but style those same items on a tray and they look put together.
You can use trays practically anywhere in your home. Here are several places to style your home with a tray.
Entry Console Table
Whether a drop zone for keys or sunglasses, having a tray on an entryway table is a great way to keep a tidy entry to your home. Style a tray with boxes to conceal things like keys, or a bowl to store anything you grab routinely before you leave the house.
Shelves
I have talked before about using trays for shelf styling and it is still one of my favorite places to do so. A nice travertine tray holds decor pieces on a shelf that flanks our fireplace.
When I decorated our home office built-ins, I layered decor in a stunning bone inlay tray. I placed it on a lower shelf, bringing together a few pieces in an organized manner.
Nightstand
Don't forget about using a tray on nightstands. Sometimes what you need nearby each night just piles up on top. Place what you need on a tray and maybe even sleep better knowing you have organized one area of your home.
I use a medium size bone inlay tray to store a couple interior design books on a nightstand shelf. Don't you just love how the colors look soothing for a calm bedroom?
Coffee Table
Probably one of the more popular places to style with a tray is on a coffee table, which I mention in the How to Decorate a Coffee Table post. Surrounded by books, a small fabric lined tray organizes decor on our ottoman.
Kitchen
A highly functional space to use a tray is in a kitchen. A countertop, island, pantry, or open shelf are great places to decorate with a tray. Next to the stove comes to mind, because cooking supplies you need can be corralled on a tray.
On a kitchen island, use a mix of decor and functional items, like salt and pepper mills, in a tray.
Pantry shelves become organized in the blink of an eye when you use a tray. For organizing condiments in our pantry, I use a lazy Susan tray. You can read about how I completed an Easy Wood Lazy Susan Makeover with just white paint.
Dressers and Desks
Both desks and the tops of dressers tend to become messy over time. Maybe jewelry and accessories have taken over. Perhaps decor pieces pile up across the top. Whatever the situation, add a tray to your dresser to keep things tidy.
A gorgeous fluted marble tray holds pretty home office essentials on my desk.
Bathroom Vanity and Closet
From perfume bottles to skincare and everything you need to get ready for the day, a bathroom tray can be a timesaver. You always know where things are and, with a little effort, everyday things look good too.
I use a fairly small pretty rattan cane tray (alternative, set of 2 sizes) in our bathroom closet that I just adore. It keeps smaller bath products organized so I know right where they are.
Read more Bathroom Closet Organization Ideas.
How to Decorate a Tray
Decorating a tray isn't all that different from other areas in your home. In fact, you can read my Timeless Shelf Styling Ideas and How to Style a Console Table for tips.
A tray is more constrained, to be certain. However, styling a tray follows the same overarching decorating principles when trying to achieve a balanced look. The following tips should help give you a better sense of how to decorate a tray.
Vary Height
Similar to shelf styling, you want to vary the height of items in the tray. Aiming for at least one taller piece and a few smaller items will give your tray a more interesting look than if everything is the same height.
In a tray on our ottoman, I placed a decorative alabaster box on top of a couple books, next to a bone inlay box and this small marble dish with lid (alternative). Then, I added my favorite reed diffuser for height.
Placing an object atop a stack of books also adds a little height, but the reed diffuser stands out, bringing your eye up.
You can add height with a vase, floral stems, or a couple tall taper candle holders, to name a few ideas.
Use Boxes or Bowls
In a living room, there may be everyday items you need at hand that don't look great sitting out. You can easily conceal things like TV remotes and earbuds with decorative boxes or bowls on a tray.
The small alabaster box I mentioned holds ribbons that I use as bookmarkers, while the braided bone box holds earbuds.
On my nightstand, I use a small marble trinket tray to hold a silk scrunchie. Together, they look like intentional decor while being functional at the same time, a winning combination!
Add Greenery
No matter where you choose to style with a tray, adding greenery or florals (real or faux) can bring life into a space.
A tray with a little bud vase and a few stems helps add life to a tray of ribbons I sometimes keep on a dresser.
Include a Scent
Bring in a captivating scent with a candle or diffuser. If you have a signature scent you like to decorate with that you can add to the tray, do so! Not only are you appealing to sight, but the sense of smell as well, and that makes a home feel cozy and inviting.
The diffuser I incorporated in the ottoman tray not only lends much needed height to the vignette, it is also the most warm, captivating scent for a living room, or any room for that matter.
Candles work very well as decor to style on a tray. You could even place a pretty candle snuffer like the one I have (or this alternative candle snuffer) nearby, such as on a book, as part of an overall styling moment.
Stack a Book (or Two)
Styling a tray with books adds height and possibly color. Depending on the size of your tray, add a book or stack two together. You could also place an object, like a small bowl or decorative box, on top of the books.
Layer Smaller Objects and Decor
Now is the time to layer in smaller decor pieces. You may want to try leaving some open space, also known as negative space, in the tray. Too many objects and things together, even on a tray, may appear cluttered.
Layer smaller objects and decor pieces around larger items. Also, keep in mind three objects arranged together look more pleasing to the eye than one or two items. In design it's referred to as the rule of three.
Styling trays around your home offers so many possibilities to elevate your home interior. From kitchen islands to entry tables, a tray looks great anywhere.
How do you decorate with trays around your home? Leave a comment below!
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