How To Arrange And Style Coffee Table Books, According To Designers

Coffee table books (all books, really) have long been a decorating essential for interior designers. They’re a simple, accessible way to bring height, personality, color, and texture to a space, and there’s certainly no shortage of options. The question is, how do you make them look perfectly curated—eclectic, but also intentional? We tapped a few Southern designers for their tips, as well as their go-to book recs.

Read Them First

All books are, first and foremost, supposed to be read. And if you ask Amanda Khouri, founder of her namesake interior design firm in Nashville, Tennessee, coffee table books look best when it’s clear they’re being enjoyed regularly. “In stacks, dogeared, littered with post-its marking a favorite image or idea, and generally well-loved,” she describes.

Mix It Up

The latest and greatest have their place—and so do the vintage, lesser known, and more spontaneous finds. “I enjoy picking up much older books on decorating from estate sales and the like, and discovering work and images that are different from what is typically seen on Instagram,” Khouri says.

Book sales at your local library and your neighborhood Little Free Library can be goldmines too, as well as your local HomeGoods if you prefer to buy brand new. "I've uncovered high-value fashion fashion designer books at HomeGoods that I used to help style my daughter's college apartment," explains Jenny Reimold, interior designer and HomeGoods Style Expert from Crystal Beach, Florida.

Take Off The Dust Jackets

They say to not judge a book by its cover, but they should really tell you not to judge a book by its dust jacket. “Oftentimes, books are so much more beautiful minus the dust jacket, so don't be afraid to remove them,” Lauren Sullivan, founder and principal designer of Well x Design in Kingsport, Tennessee recommends. “My favorite coffee book lately is Eight Homes by Clements Design—the cover is a beautiful neutral linen material that feels as nice as it looks, but the contents of the book itself are the real prize.”

Rachel Little, owner and principal designer of Browne House Interior Design in Austin, Texas agrees with Sullivan, saying that “sometimes dust jackets can add a little too much background noise for a coffee table composition.” Also like Sullivan, she prefers to use neutral bound covers that tend to be more versatile, such as Perspective by Steven Gambrel, Home by D. Stanley Dixon, and AD at 100: A Century of Style by Architectural Digest. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Khouri, who uses jacket-less coffee table books to bring additional color, and sometimes even pattern, into a room.

Stack Them Up

It sounds simple, and it is, but there’s also an art to stacking. Sullivan starts with the largest book on the bottom, adding two or three more on top of it, ending with the smallest. The key, she says, is to “pay careful attention to color and material of the book, both with and without the dust jacket.” While they don’t necessarily have to match, they should complement each other enough—tonal hues, warm or cool tones, shades already in the room, etc. Reimold will also match the subjects: "I choose themes to keep the literary decor cohesive. For example, in my coastal home, I styled ocean- and beachy-themed books."

If you have some extra space to work with, take a cue from Reimold, who says "you can create visual interest by pairing vertical stacks adjacent to horizontal stacks." Alternatively, she also suggests incorporating vertical stacks in shelf styling "to use them as bookends for photo frames."

Create A Vignette

Little suggests you “consider the humble coffee book as an anchor in the hierarchy of other elements used to decorate a horizontal surface.” For example, she says, it can corral small decorative objects that would otherwise seem piece-y or scattered, or give weight when all you have is a vase of flowers to complement it. “It should be used to purposely punctuate or accentuate any accessory scheme,” she explains.

If you’re not sure how to do this, consider the rule of three: Place three decorative objects of varying heights on the book—the odd number and variance create automatic visual interest.