How to Decorate a Buffet & Style Anything
5 handy tips to help you decorate a buffet without the guessing game.
Remember Betty White? No, not the actual person (although, she’s basically who I want to be when I grow up), but the buffet we made over and lovingly named “Betty White” a month-ish ago?
Up until this morning, she sat totally empty because I was totally stumped on how to style the top to prevent obscuring the big, collected antique mirror wall behind it.
But since we’ve been at home for oh… an eternity… I finally pondered this thing long enough and styled this beauty!
I scroll-shopped for probably hours trying to un-stump myself until I found the perfect in-between traditional and rustic vase with a blue and white print to tie in the other blue tones in our dining room.
And that was all she wrote. The whole thing came together after that.
If you’ve ever been lost about how to style a buffet, here are my go-to tips:
1. Start with your tallest item.
In my case, the pretty blue and white vase. I often prefer to put the tallest item on an end, not in the middle.
2. Create visual triangles.
When you look at a grouping of decor items, they should look like a triangle. Do you see it? It’s the most pleasing to the eye. (But hey, go nuts breaking rules once you learn that one though. It’s just a good “safe” zone.)
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3. Stick to the rule of three.
When you look at the buffet, style items into groups of three. So for instance, the vase and little black bowl on one end is a group. The pair of jugs and beads on the other end is a group. And the wooden bowl on the stack of books in the middle is a group.
Three groups stick to the rule of three to keep them visually pleasing.
4. Always have at least 1 fresh element.
It can be a bouquet of flowers, a potted plant, stems in a vase, or moss in a bowl, but no matter what, a little foliage makes a space come to life.
5. Vary your textures.
Try to incorporate 3-4 different types of materials: glass, stone, wood, metal, paper, basket weave, etc. In this case, I incorporated ceramic (vases), wood (beads and bowl), paper (books), and granite (black bowl) to add texture. I stuck to neutrals to keep it feeling earthy but punched it up some with the blue print to make it more of a focal point.
That’s it! Maybe that helps? It’s been way too long since I did a Simplified Decorating post, but I hope they come in handy for those little areas around your home when you feel kind of stuck and need some handy rules to rely on.
