Whether the centrepiece of your living room, the epicentre of an industrial loft’s open-plan space or the focal point of an elegant spring conservatory, your coffee table is far more than a practical surface that becomes the home of tea breaks, huge books and television remotes.

With our 15 years of experience working with reclaimed industrial scaffold materials, we understand that a coffee table needs to be not only extremely stylish and filled with personality and character, but also very hard-working and able to keep a cup or mug within easy reach.

It is part of the reason why we believe that our rustic coffee table made from reclaimed wood is one of our most popular pieces of scaffold board furniture; it has enough character to be stylish, but is also so robust that it can be used every day without a second thought.

Unlike other accents and showpieces, such as accent walls or statement lighting fixtures, coffee tables also need to be practical, which can not only make choosing the right table more complex than you might expect, but also make styling it difficult as well.

With that in mind, we want you to enjoy your new coffee table as much as possible, and with that in mind, we have ten styling tips to make the most of it and ensure that it is the perfect fit for your home.

The first step to styling your coffee table begins with a tray, or alternatively, a beautiful charcuterie board with smaller knick-knacks and curios arranged onto it.

The biggest reason for this is that the best way to arrange a coffee table is to start with your largest pieces to add structure to your design style, before you add smaller details later to ensure they do not get lost on the table as a whole.

You can also use the tray as the design centrepiece of your coffee table, allowing for the rest to be utilised more practically. It also stops the temptation to overly clutter your coffee table.

There is an almost limitless number of options when it comes to choosing the tray itself, but the most effective options maximise their contrast with the table itself.

More of an aesthetic philosophy than a style tip, the core to any interior design decision is to create art you can live in; whilst it is important to design a beautiful space, it also has to be one you can enjoy every day without compromise.

Choosing a coffee table, as is the case when you choose any other furniture made from reclaimed wood, speaks volumes about your personal taste and what you value from your furniture and your living room.

Ultimately, choose your coffee table and the elements you wish to add to it based on both what you need and what you like to see.

Oscar Wilde once famously noted that life imitates art more than art imitates life, but you should always make sure that your living room accommodates both.

As an anchor point for the rest of the room, your coffee table’s styling will be inherently shaped by the rest of the room it is in, and your coffee table and any table dressing should balance out the rest of the room and invite people to sit around it.

Choosing furniture made with the character and versatility that comes with reclaimed scaffold board helps a lot; the rustic industrial character of reclaimed wood allows it to fit in practically any setting, from painfully modern and minimalist to outright cottegecore maximalist.

Your tray, coffee table books and larger decorative elements will complement the table no matter what, but they will have the extra job of building the ambience of the room itself.

In general, styling a coffee table means starting with your largest decorative elements and layering from there.

Usually this means starting with your table tray, then moving onto your coffee table books, using an eclectic mix of textures, colours and subjects to showcase your personality best.

Feel free to be selective; if you have a lot of books, our robust rustic wooden shelf kits are more than strong enough to take the weight of even the bulkiest folio.

Finally, add a few personal effects, sculptures, a vase or other items that cannot help but start a conversation.

A coffee table needs to be practical, or there is little benefit to using materials as strong as reclaimed scaffold board to make it.

Inevitably, there will be some items you need to store on or around a coffee table, but that does not mean they have to be a blemish to your design vision.

Use a box, basket, hamper or large stylish bowl to keep items you need to have around, such as keys, chargers, matchsticks, batteries or anything else.

The easiest way to style your table is to divide it into three stylistic zones:

• The tray with its own decorations.
• A stack of coffee table books topped with an ornament which speaks of you and your personality.
• A floral arrangement, plant, succulent or other greenery.

It is a very loose set of rules, but it allows for plenty of scope to express yourself.

We have covered the three-five-seven rule extensively in the past, but the concept of relying on odd rules, asymmetry and working on multiple levels works just as well on a space as small as a coffee table as it does extrapolated to a whole room.

Sometimes, the best use of leftover space on a coffee table is to leave it empty.

Beyond needing room for coasters and mugs, the more space you leave on the coffee table, the more intentional and deliberate your stylistic choices will look and become.

The beauty of life is asymmetry and motion. This is why we love the knurls and ridges in the grain of a scaffold board; it is proof of a full existence in the same way that wrinkles are a sign that you spent your life so far feeling and smiling.

A flower arrangement in a delightfully understated vase is perfect for this, but alternatively, a candleholder and flickering tea light or a centrepiece made of bamboo or rattan helps add that sense of movement.

Ultimately, this is your home, and your coffee table is one of the biggest expressions of your domestic life. A natural look will be far more appealing than an overly staged showhome effect.

Make sure you have plenty of coasters, feel free to put down a newspaper or magazine alongside your books and enjoy your table and your living space to the fullest.

Ready to style a coffee table that brings an authentic industrial character to your space? Explore this and our collection of reclaimed and new scaffold board furniture, and use its robust character as the start of your inspiration.