What to actually put on a console table

A console table is a difficult surface. It is long and shallow, you almost always see it from an angle rather than head on, and it collects post. Most end up with a lamp at one end, a plant at the other, and a gap in the middle that fills with keys.

The arrangement that works is not complicated, but it does follow rules.

Three heights, not three objects

The most common mistake is putting several things of similar height in a row. The eye reads that as a fence.

Work with a tall, a medium and a low, and let them overlap when seen from the front. Tall is roughly 35 cm and up, medium 15 to 30 cm, low under 15 cm. The overlap is what turns three separate objects into one arrangement.

• Tall: the Osaka carved drop vase, which is built around a single dried stem rather than an arrangement. The stem does the height, so the vase does not have to.
• Medium: the Shizuoka table mirror at 27 by 22 cm. A mirror on a console doubles whatever is in front of it and throws light back into a hallway that usually has none.
• Low: the Kanazawa incense burner, a travertine sphere that splits so the ash falls inside it instead of across the surface.

Then check the depth

Height gets all the attention and depth is what actually catches people out. A console is usually only 30 to 35 cm front to back, which is shallower than most people picture when they are buying for one.

Nothing should overhang the front edge. A wide bowl or a deep tray can look perfectly balanced head on and then clip your hip every time you walk past, which in a hallway is the difference between a piece you keep and a piece you move within a fortnight.

Measure the depth of the console before you buy anything to stand on it, and leave a couple of centimetres at the front clear.

Odd numbers, and one gap

Three or five objects, not four. Even numbers pair off and the arrangement reads as symmetrical, which on a long shallow surface looks staged.

Leave one clear stretch, ideally about a third of the length. That is not wasted space, it is what stops the console reading as a shelf. It is also where the post goes.

Give one object a job

A console that is purely decorative gets colonised within a week by keys, sunglasses and whatever came out of a coat pocket. The fix is to put something there that those things can go into, so the surface has a designated place to be untidy.

The Copenhagen rattan tray does this well: it corrals small objects into one defined area, so a scatter becomes a pile with an edge on it. The Helsinki basket is 12 cm tall and 33 cm across, low enough to sit on a shelf beneath the console for gloves and dog leads.

Repeat one material, once

An arrangement holds together when a material appears twice and no more. Two stone pieces and one ceramic reads as considered. Five different materials reads as a shelf in a gift shop.

If you have the Kanazawa burner in travertine, the Milan book holder in the same stone is the natural second note. Put them at opposite ends rather than side by side, so the eye travels between them.

Pairs, and when they work

The exception to the odd numbers rule is a deliberate pair that reads as one object. The Seto ring vases are sold as a pair in two sizes for exactly this: grouped together they read as a single sculptural mark, and the negative space inside the rings is the point.

They need room around them. Crowd them and the shape stops working, which is the whole argument for buying them.

What goes above it

If there is a wall light over the console, centre it over the outer third rather than the middle, so it lights the objects from the side and casts shadows across them. Light from directly above flattens everything.

The Verona works here because it reaches 19 cm out from the wall, which puts the light over the surface rather than behind it. Spacing and height for hallway fittings are covered in How to light a hallway or a stairwell.

Quick reference

• Heights: one tall, one medium, one low, overlapping from the front
• Depth: nothing overhangs the front edge, on a surface only 30 to 35 cm deep
• Count: three or five, never four
• Clear space: about a third of the length, left empty on purpose
• Materials: repeat one, twice, at opposite ends
• One object with a job: a tray or a bowl, or the keys win