I love them. I am a firm believer that it is the small details that make a house a home.

Luxury Item

Coffee table books are a sign of luxury associated with having the disposable income to buy beautiful things. If you have a coffee table book, it shows that you care about the details. It also showcases your love of books. They can also communicate that you are interested in whatever topic that coffee table book is about. 

Clutter?

On the other hand, many of us actually live in our houses and use our coffee tables. These can get cluttered and dusty. Trust me, I get it. But for the sake of this post, lets indulge ourselves by acting as if kids pick up after themselves and dust doesn’t exist.

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Many moons ago, my husband and I bought our first piece of furniture together – it was a coffee table. Not just any coffee table though, it was an apothecary table from Pottery Barn. Yes, that table, from Friends Season 6, Episode 11 when Rachel buys an apothecary table and tries to keep Phoebe from discovering it came from a chain store. 

I love that table. We still have it. On it you will find the usual mish-mash of coasters and remotes. However, when things are tidy, I love to display a few items. I change them out depending on my mood or the season. Often there are coffee table books and/or pretty wooden games. For example, below you’ll see it from the top down with a wooden solitaire game and puzzle, stack of three woodworking books, and a stack of leather storm trooper coasters. 

Next, let’s see how I got started on coffee table books…

Browsing a bookstore one day, I came across this book about butterflies, Butterfly by Thomas Marent. I’m not particularly into bugs, and while I have owned it for years I have never read more than a few pages of the book. I simply adored the photography. The images so close up, detailed, bright, and textured. I had to buy it.

I still have it. And it looks great on a coffee table. The book doesn’t really “go with” any other book that I own. In that sense it adds to the eclectic/boho vibe that I love so much. Here you can see it open, displayed on a vintage trunk.

The sky is the limit. Use books that you love (like these Shel Silverstein books) or books that complement the aesthetic of your home. Showcase things you are interested in. Some great ideas include travel books, art books, hobby books, books with beautiful covers, or photo-books. Maybe you just keep the next few books from your TBR pile right there. Here are a couple of other ideas for you to consider.

Another option is to use books that had a previous life. My textbook for a college class,  A World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum, has so many beautiful images. It makes a great coffee table book and conversation piece. Generally, if you have taken a class on a subject and kept the book, it must be something you are interested in. Find a way to show it off!

Pick up interesting old books from thrift shops, estate sales, swap meets, and antiques stores. Depending on what aesthetic draws your eye, these add a dash of something different to your space. For instance, home decor books from the 1970s strike a different pose than, say, 1950s school books.

I am fond of these old mail-order catalogs I picked up years ago, a  1902 Edition Of The Sears, Roebuck Catalogue and 1922 Montgomery Ward Catalogue. These are fun to flip through to see what kinds of things people ordered and the ways that they were described (feeds my inner marketer).

This is a little bit different spin on a traditional coffee table book, but I think that they can be both beautiful and fun. There are such a wide variety of adult coloring books these days, like Balance: Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders by Angie Grace pictured below. I’d stack a few favorites and top it with a pretty container of sharpened colored pencils (the artist in me recommends Prismacolor colored pencils). Bonus points if you actually use them!

Where does your sense of style fall on the minimalist to maximalist spectrum? In some cases, a single book alone on the table is plenty. Others prefer a small stack of books and an accessory or two. Yet other folks prefer to set up a whole scene.

Tips for planning your coffee table book arrangement:

• They are books, read them!
• Change them out seasonally to keep your space fresh.
• Consider whether you prefer the books with or without dust jackets.
• Stacks of 3-5 are generally enough to add visual interest, but keep the stack stable and accessible.
• Think about the color of the books and how that works with your overall aesthetic. 

Here are some inspiration photos from across the web and links to the pros who set them up.

While writing this post, I couldn’t help but remember the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer created a Coffee Table Book About Coffee Tables. Enjoy the clip and the miniature of his book available on Amazon. 

How do you feel about coffee table books? Love ’em or leave ’em? Let me know in the comments.

May your life be as full as your bookshelf and as long as your TBR list.

Happy Reading!