Coffee Table Tray Decor Ideas for Fall

A coffee table tray or an ottoman tray is a great staple to have out all year long because you can change it up with seasonal decor. Whether you're using pumpkins, candles, or fall florals, fall is the most popular time to decorate your coffee table tray so let's explore some tray decor ideas for the autumn season.

There's no one way to decorate a tray for fall. People all have different tastes and preferences so the important thing to keep in mind is to do what makes you happy and what makes your home feel cozy! If you don't know where to start, don't worry! We've laid out five tips that you can apply to your own fall decor tray to get yourself started.

1. Decide on what kind of tray you want to decorate.

The first thing you need to have in order to come up with tray decor ideas is what kind of tray you'd like to decorate! A popular choice is the tiered tray, but you can also go with a more simple option that is ideal for your coffee table or ottoman like what we did here.

We chose a natural wood tray with black metal handles. The neutral color of the natural wood allows this tray to mesh with any decor while the black metal handles add a bit of modern farmhouse flair. The tray is also on short legs that give it a bit of a lift off of the coffee table for a more elevated look.

 **The tray featured here is currently out of stock but we will be restocking it soon!

2. What decor items do you have to work with?

After endlessly scrolling through instagram looking at perfectly styled fall decor, it's easy to get overwhelmed. You can't help but feel like you need to go out and buy all the pumpkins, throw pillows, and candles you see. But you don't need to do all that! Take a look around your home and see what you have on hand first. As you can see, we chose a simple yet effective fall look for our coffee table tray. We actually only had to buy two new items to complete this simple tray decor.

We already had our tray, vase, wick trimmers, and looped farmhouse garland. All we needed to complete the look was a delicious fall candle and some fall floral picks.

3. Keep with the tone of the rest of your space.

Remember to keep things cohesive with the rest of your home decor. If your home has a modern farmhouse decor style, keep that same feel within the tray decor that you choose. By sticking with the same decor style across all of your seasonal decor, your home will feel like it is right out of a catalog!

4. Mix in different textures.

In interior design, texture makes all the difference. When different textures come together to create one cohesive style, it's truly a designers dream! The same notion applies to your tray decor. As you can see in our coffee table tray, we combined the warmth that the wood and jute of the wood bead garland provides with the contrast of the white ceramic candle jar and matte black wick trimmer. The result is a lovely soft yet rustic appeal!

5. Don't forget a floral touch!

Floral picks provide two things when it comes to tray decor: height and color. Without our fall floral picks, this tray would have been a pretty flat and lackluster display. So we chose to add a vase and a few floral picks to elevate the tray and add in the pop of color that it needs. For the vase, we chose a simple recycled glass piece that is just big enough to fill the empty space but not overpowering to where it steals the show. Every piece on your tray has to be a team player.

The final touch for this fall tray decor is just a couple floral picks. We picked these up at Hobby Lobby for just a few dollars each. The floral picks provide both the height and pop of color this fall coffee table tray was looking for.

How to start decorating a coffee table tray?

So now that you know the ins and outs of decorating a tray for your coffee table or ottoman, how do you begin? We don't believe there's a right or a wrong way to do this so our advice is to just start! You're not going to get it right the first time and you shouldn't expect to because, as we said before, there's no right or wrong way to decorate. Just do what feels right! 

We started by placing our larger items like the vase and the candle on the tray first. Once we liked the position of those two items we started adding the smaller pieces like the looped garland, wick trimmers, and floral picks. Once we were happy with how it looked we took a step back and admired the warmth that it brings to the space.

Keep it simple!

It's very easy to get overwhelmed and feel like you have to have tons of items to make your fall decor nice. Keep it simple and work with what you have first. You can always add more later but sometimes simple is best! This simple fall coffee table tray consists of just 7 items including the tray. But it still adds that fall warmth that we all crave at this time of year!

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