Courtney Warren is a Texas-based interior designer whose work has been featured in Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Apartment Therapy, and Today.com. She is a frequent consultant on Fox 4 TV’s Good Day program in Dallas, was ranked in the top 3 percent of interior designers in the US by Houzz.com, and starred in the Dallas episode of TLC’sFour Houses. She delights in helping overwhelmed clients create beautiful spaces—and will never turn down a warm chocolate chip cookie or Diet Dr Pepper.

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3 Styling Steps to a Better Coffee Table

Sure, they’re knee-bangers, but what would we do without coffee tables? There they sit, humbly awaiting our drinks, our remotes, our bookmarked pages, our sock-clad feet.

But just because they’re so useful doesn’t mean coffee tables can’t be a beautiful part of our decor as well. A good starting place for a winning coffee table top is a tray or bowl to hold your items so the arrangement feels intentional. Then the fun really begins.

Always add something living (or faux flowers or plants that mimic live) A few stacked books help create interest by varying the height of your grouping. (Do you love vintage books as much as I do?)

Work with items you have–wide bowls, lanterns, candleholders, baskets, plants–and move them around until you have a grouping that pleases you. (Bowls help corral remotes, too.)