If you’re anything like us, the heart of your home may be the kitchen, but the soul is in the living room! It’s our gathering place… it’s where we laugh and chat with friends and family, and it also happens to be where some of the biggest ‘fish tales’ are told. A well-styled coastal coffee table doesn’t just add to the ambiance, it reflects your unique personal style and centers the whole space!

So, how do you achieve that polished, seaside vibe? You don’t have to be an interior designer to curate a lovely, unique centerpiece for your family room. Here are Saltsy’s 6 steps to coastal coffee table perfection:

Collage of products to decorate a coastal themed coffee table

Create a Beautiful Coastal Coffee Table with These Styling Ideas

The first step is to find your table! The perfect coastal coffee tables are made of natural materials. Choose one with a beachy texture, like seagrass, hammered metal, light-colored solid wood, or washed with white paint — keeping in mind if you’ll need storage or something more petite to accommodate small spaces. A driftwood table is a particularly excellent choice. It’s warm and earthy enough to ground a space, plus it’s sturdy enough for kicking up your flip flops after a long day! The Ishan Round coffee table from World Market is one of our favorite coffee tables. It has a look that fits a variety of tastes, from coastal farmhouse to a more modern look, while also offering plenty of room for decorative items on top.
Bring the tropics indoors with a touch of greenery. Clippings from interesting trees, bushes, or even an arrangement of driftwood can be an eye-catching way to bring natural elements indoors. Plus, greenery is one of the best ways to add height to your decor! Keep a faux option on-hand when you’re between fresh bouquets, like this brass vase and tropical philodendron stems from Target.
Toss in a few touches of unique “sea”nery to up the beach house vibe. One of the general rules of thumb for maintaining a clean, uncluttered look on your table top is to be thoughtful about the placement of your decorative objects. Drape your glass or wood beads out of a decorative bowl, or place a pretty shell atop a stack of books. A great idea is to keep just two to three of these trinkets out at a time, and swap between them seasonally or anytime you change up your color scheme! To start, we adore these versatile vintage sea glass beads from Cailini Coastal as well as this gorgeous glass starfish from Carly Avenue Home.
Keep conversations rolling with some engaging and beautiful coffee table books. A local book shop or thrift store will often have interesting finds, and there’s quite literally a sea of ocean-themed books like those pictured here on Amazon. If you have more space, or perhaps a lower shelf, then another option to consider is a small collection of board games. This is a great way to add a dash of fun to your family room. We adore these Vintage Bookshelf Games by the WS Game Company.
Nothing enhances the coziness of your space quite like a beautiful candle, and one with an aquatic scent is especially enticing. The Voluspa Candles Casa Pacifica candle is as lovely for the eyes as it is the nose! We also love candles because they’re great objects to help you achieve the ‘decorating rule of 3s’: when in doubt, place three items of varying heights together. On this table, the vase, candle, and sea glass beads are a perfect ingredients for a striking center piece — spoiler alert: they’re especially impactful when they’re arranged atop a nifty tray…
A unique tray is the finishing touch that will pull together your coastal look in a tidy, cohesive way. It will prevent your finds from looking cluttered by giving them a little separation on your tabletop, and give your guests a place to set their cocktail glass while they flip through your library! (Bonus: It’ll also give you a place to neatly store those remote controls!) The Saltsy Blackfin Tuna Acrylic Tray is a statement piece that’ll be a conversation piece in its own right.