How to Style an Entryway Console Table

The entryway is the room people see first and think about last. Mine sat with nothing on it for months, and the fix turned out to be about six small things rather than one big purchase.

tart with the table. The Frontgate Regency console in black is narrow enough for a hallway and dark enough to hold its own against a light wall. Black is doing a lot of work here, it makes everything you put on top look more deliberate.

A round mirror over a rectangular console is the pairing that always works. The Pottery Barn Fleur softens all the straight lines the table brings, and a mirror by the door earns its keep because you’ll actually use it on the way out.

The CB2 Snake lamp in bronze is the piece I’d argue hardest for. An entryway with only overhead lighting feels like a hallway. A lamp turns it into a room. Bronze against black is warmer than brass would be here.

Trays are the trick nobody tells you. Without one, keys and mail become clutter. With one, they become a vignette. The CB2 Eadie in black and white bone resin is the more graphic option and the Napa Home and Garden Mavis is softer, so pick whichever suits your table.

Books give you height, which is what most console tables are missing. Live Beautiful and Architectural Digest at 100 are both worth reading rather than just stacking, and stacked together they lift whatever you set on top.

Then two small objects to finish it. The Pottery Barn marble chain link brings in a material nothing else here has, and the Anthropologie glass piece adds something unexpected. That’s the point of the last two things you put down. They’re not functional, they just make the whole thing look like someone lives there.

If you’re starting from nothing, buy the lamp and a tray first. Those two change the most.