I can't put much of anything on the coffee table (which isn't much of a coffee table - more of a rustic bench) in our LR because hubby will remove it immediately and put his feet up. The only thing ever allowed (by him) there are the remotes.

He lives on the couch, doncha know 😄

All of our coffee table books are on the bookshelves.

Mtn, lol about your New Yorker comment. I retired last year, and my retirement dream (unfulfilled thus far) was to read every one, cover to cover. I also have many coffee table books, but none of them are on my coffee table- they are on bookshelves, many bookshelves. Sometimes a few NY’ers make it onto the coffee table, though.

Lots of books all over my house including the coffee tables. My house, my choice😉

Can't vote for either extreme. I have a couple that appear depending on the time of year....nothing is static in my decor.

I have a few large format books on the coffee table. They change from time to time. They are generally art books. Some are hardback catalogs of exhibitions we’ve seen and loved. Occaisionally one may be the cookbook my club is currently working on so I can read the recipes. I had no idea my coffee table and its books were passe. There is also a brass bowl that is similar to the picture below. I don’t understand a non-functional bowl, but I like it. The decorator chose it.

This is our coffee table in our living room. I hadn’t gone back and put things correctly back in place on it (and everywhere else-but I love her anyway) after my cleaning lady left before taking this pic the other day, but you get the idea. Our sofa is white so I keep blankets on it until company comes over lol.

So, a couple of books in the wicker basket is all. But I have a stack of Cowboys and Indians AD sitting around in other areas.

I used to have the Tom Ford, Gucci, LV books a few years back on there, but they are put away in cabinet behind the two recliners. Got tired of them.

That's a beautiful room, Olliesmom!

I love my coffee table. It's not in the way. It's a place for magazines I cannot yet bear to toss, feet, drinks, dining table while sitting on the floor. It's round and something my parents bought around 1950. MCM is very much not my style, but I overlook that because of its usefulness.

Thank you Feathers! It's small, but we have surprisingly loved our cozy little house.

Like a lot of you, I don't pay much attention to what’s in or out of style, I decorate to make myself and DH happy, that’s all. Our coffee table in the family room usually just has a plant and candle basket (and our feet) on it. Sometimes, DH’s latest golf magazine he’s reading.

Our coffee table in the living room just has a tray holding a carved santo and a candle.

We both love to read, but with bookcases everywhere, I just tend to keep mine there. But, I do enjoy seeing books on coffee tables, too!

olliesmom - this is the second peak of your home and I now want to see more!

I will be happy to a little later ruby, I HAVE to get some things in order for our accountant that was due Friday UGH!

@Bunny sounds like we are living the same coffee table life. Mine was a hand-me-down from my MIL (who hates it and makes snarky comments about it when she visits). It's not really my style, but it's so incredibly functional that I haven't yet found a replacement. It's glass and I love how it's easy to clean and doesn't create a lot of visual weight. I thought I was the only one that liked to sit on the floor and use it as a dining table.

I don't have a pretty decorated cofee table like it appears some of you do. @OllieJane and @Jilly your coffee tables are so lovely! Mine usually has TV and stereo remotes, water bottles, and random things we are in the middle of working on. Right now it has a bunch of fabric samples for a potential new sectional.

I have both a coffee table and coffee table books in my “front room”. I found the complete set of MMA “Seminars in Art” and they are all so gorgeous. I rotate what’s on top and sometimes change out accessories. Almost everyone who sits here ends up spending time looking through. I tend to do the same thing if I see an interesting book put out at someone’s house.

Both of my coffee tables have a stack of coffee table books. The family room table also has a wooden tray with a stack of small books with small pottery bowl on top, a plant, and 4 heart shaped rocks we found on the beach.

In addition to books, the living room table has a silver tray with decanters and glasses. Sometimes it has a small vase with flowers.

PS My coffee table books do not act as a pedestal. And they are not there because of styling. They are there because my mother always had them there, plus a stack of AD. I switch the books out frequently.

I don’t think coffee table books are in or out of style…they are books. I think most coffee table books are works of art themselves, what with the gorgeous covers and pictures. Mine are stacked on various tables and also in the built in bookcases. My coffee table isn’t really set up the best for books on it…but I would do it in a heartbeat if it were set up differently (mine is rectangular…i think it works best on the square tables.)

I don’t have books for the sake of display or decor…we just happen to have books everywhere. Currently on the living room coffee table: two books that DH is reading, the NYT ”baking” insert from last weekend’s paper, and a tray corraling the remotes, a jar of pens/pencils, a candle, and decorative highlights like hand cream and reading glasses. On the sitting room coffee table (ottoman) are a few stacks of books pertaining to future travel plans and future gardening plans. Also a bowl with yarn and needles ie future knitting plans. Annnnd the upstairs den table is totally covered with crochet and embroidery books. The best thing about a hobby is accumulating the necessary books.

Ollie, love your house! Small maybe, but perfect!

Years ago I'd put a book or two on the coffee table, depending on season. Now I'll keep a few stacked on the sofa table or a table next to the wall. Just for decor mind you.

And then there are books on tripods.

This one from Taschen.

Ah, the modern version of Thomas Jefferson's bookstand:

I keep books, changed on occasion. Right now I have a large picture book of Norway I was recently gifted. Lived there for a few years and enjoy the book immensely. Also a book of treehouses throughout the world.

@teeda lovely room!

Just stunning, Ollie! Is it an older house? Did you remodel or anything? Beautiful, and thanks for sharing.

Very nice, Oillie! Your home is full of your personality, and looks very cozy.

Thanks for sharing your home with us Ollie! Love your collected style.

ETA: Your home deserves it's own thread :)

Ollies, wow, love it all! Beautiful style. My fav mixes … rustic, elegant, modern, traditional. And I’m so jealous of your saltillo tile!

I’m really impressed with how you’ve put it all together — if I went shopping at your house, I’d want everything. :D

Was that lovely wood trim in the room openings there already, or did you add it? It’s an awesome detail.

Thanks, Ollie! Great house!

Lovely house, Ollie!

Thank you all-so very nice!

Oakley, it was truly...I mean, truly the ugliest house on the street-and when we sold our previous large home almost 10 years ago now, I told my husband I have always wanted to live in a small house in town, on a large lot with lots of outdoor spaces to gather for entertaining and with him being a trim carpenter (and we remodel and have built new homes too) we took on this 1970 home and gutted it. So we decided to "try" living in a much smaller home. It had a wall between the formal dining and living area-they had it as two living areas and carpeted. We took out the entrances to each room and made them taller. In the formal dining room, he built out the wall and made the arched book shelves...I could go on and on...but it would bore you LOL

Allison, thank you for that-I like you said it reflects my personality!

ruby, yes I still have a few things I have had for years, and should last, style-wise over time. Thank you.

jinx, thank you so much for noticing all the mixes-I think that is what makes a decorated house, "homey" and interesting-which is very important to me. Not saying my house is that, but thank you for saying so. We have always had wood floors in our previous homes, and I have always wanted saltillo tile floors! When in California they were tearing it all out of their homes and putting in wood, I STILL wanted the Saltillo tile. In the beginning I was going to do a spanish-style home (you can see in pics the the Talavera tile stepping down to our living room in pics) but I changed my mind. I kept them there, in case I wanted that style later. Saltillo tiles, not being used in Oklahoma that much, I kind of had a hard time finding someone that knew how to lay it. And, regarding the "wood trim in the openings", my husband did that also-the original openings were very low and he took them as high as he could go.

I have been toying with the idea of our painters stripping the stain on the beams/openings and go more light now-but the painters are SO busy right now. But, I do still like the dark against the white walls-so not sure.

Olliesmom, looks like a magazine spread! Beautiful.

Very nice @OllieJane. I particularly like the large light fixtures (especially the one over the dining table) and happy to see someone else with houseplants. : )

It's always been just the two of us and we have never felt the need for a large home - not that ours is tiny, but it's well suited to us. We also enjoy our outdoor spaces. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks teeda!

Tina, thank you and most of the time I use bigger than expected light fixtures in homes in certain areas. My houseplants are a mixture of fake and real. My real plant that was in white planter in one pic just never looked good and healthy, even though it has that small window by it, it just never got enough light. I'm hoping the Crate & Barrel cactus looks real enough when I get it. I got this one below-on backorder. And, we have lots of friends with huge beautiful homes and I still like coming back to mine. I think maybe it could be, I have been there; done that. But, I have a small family too, so that plays into it.

https://www.crateandbarrel.com/faux-potted-cactus/s605127

olliesmom! Your home is fabulous!

Thank you, lynartist!

I love it! Beautiful and functional. Your accessories are stunning and I love how you have showcased them. You could edit a bit more but having “downsized” more than once now ourselves, I completely understand! These things have babies overnight! Well done!

I totally agree. Edit. A LOT. Half at least, maybe more.

Send it all to me, I’ll take care of it.

:D

(Kidding … it’s perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.)

I like the “stuff”😂. The not so big house with your sense of scale with large items is perfect! A lesson many could learn that is so well done here.

Gosh jinx, if you lived by me girl-I give away so much stuff! LOL Wait...you live in Texas, right? LOL

lynartist, very, very nice for you to say!

Funny thing, is the large Molcajete that is sitting in the shelf in the Formal Dining area-WAS NOT THERE a couple of days before I took the pics! My DH got that for Christmas from me and I guess he decided to put it there-I don't know what he was thinking putting it there and it's been gone since the pics LOL I had the other two peices by themselves on that shelf.

And, I think I stated somewhere that the big glass jars/candleholders on my Formal Dining was normally not there-I had set them on the table to put them outside in the outdoor kitchen and my cleaning lady put them IN the antlers. I see a Tom Ford candle that can be put away too. You can see a lot in pictures!

I really miss my big kitchen BAD, cannot lie.

Ollie, your husband is quite the craftsman! Wow! Great job!

Thanks, Oakley!

I was all ready to reply and got caught up in Olliesmom's house -- very warm and comfortable. Looks like a place you come to be relaxed and at ease -- a HOME. Now what were we talking about? Oh yes -- coffee table books.

I didn't answer either way because I have one coffee table in the living room and it sometimes has a couple of books on it and doesn't at other times. Right now, it has a couple of Kaffe Fassett books on it. I got two back at my birthday and Christmas and another that came with a painting we bought -- so actually, it is 3 books. They will be there to look at form time to time and then get put away and the table will be sans books until I have a reason to leave another out for a while. What they table does always have is a display underneath. The top is wood framed glass with a wood shelf below and I have my handmade artsy kaleidoscopes displayed on that shelf.

Thanks to all of you for giving me some unexpected delight for the day! I will probably be deleting pics soon, just thought I'd share for those who asked and I am glad I did! Thanks again!

@OllieJane Your house is gorgeous!! And it's giving me inspiration... we just bought a house with saltillo floors, Talavera tiles, and a sunken living room with the raised dining right next to it. I love your dining set. :) And all your decorations.

Coffee table?? Ours has a ton of books on the lower level, and my kid's iPad and a big laundry basket full of clean clothes that need folded on the top level. :P :P

@Emily R. Wow! Thanks Emily! Our houses sound so much alike and the saltillo tiles are so good with kids and dogs/animals. I actually have a big plant that I bring in every winter and when I water it the water runs out from underneath it and i just wipe it up-no saucer will fit under it. Cannot hurt the floor.

Have you looked for imprints in your saltillo tile yet-for dog/coyote paw prints and chicken feet prints? I’ve seen a few in mine and I love it. I understand, when they lay the formed tiles across the land to dry and cure in Mexico, the domestic and wild animals sometimes run across the wet tile, leaving their feet prints. Makes it kind of special to me.

Have fun decorating your new house!

How cool to have a surprise paw or chicken feet print in your tile!

I am also inspired by how you artfully fill a small space with so many personal pieces, Ollie-- I enjoy all your spaces but especially love the kitchen dining area. Everything looks intentional. I love the energy.

@OllieJane We've found one tile with a dog paw print! :) :)

Funky, "I love the energy" THANK YOU!

@Emily R. I think I have about five feet/paw prints, but I did ask when I bought the tile, if they found any to make sure and include them.

@lascatx, that is most important to me, is try to make houses and our house nicely decorated and a HOME. Thank you for noticing!