For the past two months, I’ve been looking at my barren coffee table that sits squarely in my living room.

I can hear it saying, “Help! Decorate me!” So for fun one day I tried placing a stack of books and a vase on top of it and – it looked very sad and unfinished. I knew I needed help. I had no idea how to style my coffee table.

Thankfully my favorite designer and dear friend, Michael Van Nort (also known as MVN), had a trip planned to visit us here in LA this week. On the second day of his visit, I watched him seemingly effortlessly decorate the table. I said “Wait!! Let’s document this so that other people might be able to try to stylishly decorate their own coffee tables at home.”

Michael agreed!  And he also agreed to answer questions and provide tips that might help you to create your own unique and personalized coffee table decor at home.

Items gathered and curated for the coffee table:

A collection of books.

RCG: Michael how do you know what types of books to purchase to style a coffee table?

MVN: Make it personal!  Shop for items and book titles that interest you.  Often I see the same coffee table book in various magazines – don’t be fooled into thinking you need a book if the subject matter does not interest you, just because you saw it in a magazine or home decorating TV show.

Collect accessories made from different materials for added interest.

Choose an odd number of items:

One final tip – shop vintage!