TIPS FOR HOW TO STYLE A BEDROOM SIDE TABLE

Aside from the chapstick, vitamins, and lotion you most likely have sprawled out on your bedside table (same here, no judgement), there are a few simple decor items everyone should have. I’ll share my tips for how to beautifully style and elevate your bedside table game with a few functional decor pieces. Just like most surfaces in my house, I follow the same formula for styling my nightstand.

My formula? Decorative tray, flowers, candle. It’s as simple as that. I would use some stacked coffee table books as well if I had the space. FYI, I certainly don’t have flowers on hand all the time (in fact, it’s quite rare that I have flowers on my bedside), but I would love to wake up next to them every day if I could.

In my case, I also needed a table lamp because our overhead lighting is quite dim. Lamps can serve as a beautiful design component as well. Now I’m not in love with our bedside lamps, but the simple design and neutral color scheme goes well with the rest of our room and the lamp only costs $17 at Target (including the shade). It gets the job done. If you want more of a statement, Target has the CUTEST gold globe lamp that I think is reasonably priced for what it is. If budget were no object, I would 100% without a doubt invest in this stunning Kelly Wearstler lamp. It is a show stopper for sure.

Arguably, everyone needs a tray on their bedside table to organize all their little essentials. I use mine for my most worn jewelry pieces and blue light glasses. I found my glass tray at Goodwill actually, which was the most pleasant surprise. I think I only paid $2.99 for it, which is one of the many perks to buying second-hand. I definitely suggest checking out your local Goodwill, but if you want to shop cute alternatives now, I found a mirrored tray with gold trim on Amazon for under $20. I also found a two pack mirrored tray option for under $20 with a pretty ridged side detail. That’s a great deal and it ships free with Amazon prime 😉 If you don’t like the mirrored look, I found a simple acrylic tray from Target for only $16. It’s very similar to the lucite tray I have in my living room from Homegoods. It’s elegant and will easily match anyone’s space. Check out my best decorative trays blog post for more of my favorites!

I sound like a broken record, but obviously you need a candle on your bedside too. Cozy, romantic, looks great, and smells even better. I have my trusty Narguilé Diptyque candle, which is my all time favorite Diptyque scent. It’s silly expensive but a great splurge if you’re looking to treat yourself. It would also make for the perfect hostess gift or birthday gift.

If you’re wanting inspiration on how to style a more masculine side table arrangement, here is my man’s. Full disclosure: it doesn’t usually look like this, but for the sake of this blog post it does 😉

He has an identical table lamp and glass decorative tray. He has an alarm clock (that we never use – linked similar Amazon dupe), Tom Ford Black Orchid cologne (smells awesome by the way), a little black trinket jar, and a marble coaster (from Homegoods but linked similar Amazon option). The trinket jar is years old, but I found a cute black marble canister that could serve the same purpose. I also found a gorgeous handmade black lidded jar on Etsy. I love the organic shape and the idea of supporting a small business!

If you’re curious about the black metal side tables themselves, we bought them for UNDER $20 at Ikea. We wanted something simple and affordable, and these certainly fit the bill. They were super easy to assemble as well, which is a huge win because you’re always taking a gamble on Ikea furniture lol. We’ve been happy with them overall, but I don’t like the lack of storage. You don’t realize how much random crap you have until you don’t have a drawer to shove it in. So, I would not recommend purchasing these as your bedroom side table, but they’d probably work well in a living room (depending on the size of your other furniture) or even a guest bedroom since they most likely won’t need much storage. They’ve served us well for the price, and we don’t plan on replacing them soon, but we probably would’ve done something different in hindsight. FYI they do scratch easily, so be mindful of that.

I’ll do a separate blog post with a curated list of my favorite side table options.

I hope you and enjoyed! Make sure to leave a comment below with any thoughts or questions.