How To Decorate A Bedside Table

It might be small compared to the rest of your bedroom furniture, but it’s still important to know how to decorate your bedside table! It can be the crucial last step to really bring your bedroom aesthetic together.

You’ve got your bedding perfectly styled for the season, your furniture matching (or playfully mixing it up) and just the right mirror on your bedroom wall. But you might be overlooking one important detail when it comes to bedroom design: your bedside table!

As well as being subtly but undeniably functional, your bedside table is another opportunity to contribute to your bedroom’s overall style. And even small changes, like adjusting what you keep on top of it, can affect how this important part of your bedroom looks and feels. We’ll go through some of our ideas for how to style your bedside table, so you can get inspired to make this small but important space feel like your own.

12 Ideas For Styling Your Bedside Table

1. The Classic Bedside Lamp

Naturally, the classic setup of having a lamp on your bedside table is a tried and tested design that simply works. It’s convenient if your bedroom wall or ceiling lights are too bright for when you’re relaxing in bed or the switches are too far away to reach comfortably once you’re settled in for the night.

Plus, a table lamp can easily add some height and presence to your bedside table, which will be especially effective if your bedside table is currently a little hidden by a tall bed. You can add some creative flair with an interesting lamp design, whether that’s the base, like the woven design on the lamp above paired with the Copenhagen Wooden Bedside Table, or the shade.

2. Casual Book Storage

While you might want a bookshelf for the bulk of your book storage, leaving a few books out on your bedside table can actually be an intentional design choice. It creates a cosy, comfy, ‘lived in’ feel for that intimate space by your bed, as well as being handy for your evening or night-time reading time.

Of course, too many books piling up on top of your bedside table will quickly get unwieldy and start to look more chaotic than casual, so keep it to just two or three books that you’d like to have close to hand.

3. Add Some Greenery

Putting a plant, whether it’s a real house plant or a faux plant, on your bedside table can help with creating a relaxing vibe in your bedroom. Waking up to a splash of nature every morning is a great way to start the day, and you can add some style with the plant’s vase too. For example, the white, fluted vase on top of the Freya Wooden 2 Drawer Bedside Table is subtle but visually interesting and adds to the lightness of the bedroom aesthetic.

If you decide to go with a real plant, just be aware of where your bedside table is positioned in terms of how much sunlight will be able to get to it. If the windows in your bedroom won’t be able to provide the plant with a lot of light, then it may be best to go with a plant that can thrive in the shade, or low-light conditions.

4. Cohesive Bedside Table & Bed Frame

A simple way to ensure you’ve got a cohesive style across both your bed and your bedside table is to pick both pieces from the same collection. The Amelie Solid Wood Bedside Table above has been matched with the Amelie Solid Wood Upholstered Bed, as they both have a limed oak look and French-inspired design. 

Even if you can’t get a bedside table in the same exact style as your bed frame, picking matching or complementing materials and shades can make a huge difference to how cohesive your bedroom feels.

5. Keep Framed Memories Close

Placing a framed picture on your bedside table can be a sweet way to keep loved ones close, or a fun way to display artwork. Just be careful with the size of the picture frame, as you don’t want it to be so large that it doesn’t fit comfortably on the bedside table, and also be mindful of what is in front of it. If you crowd your bedside table too much, then you risk covering up your picture frame!

6. Tuck In A Storage Basket

Depending on the style of your bedside table, you may be able to fit a woven storage basket snugly between its legs. It’s perfect for adding a rustic detail to your bedroom’s aesthetic, which would look right at home in a farmhouse bedroom design. With the extra storage, this option is not only stylish but also practical, so you’re less likely to cover the top of the bedside table with clutter.

7. Subtle Traditional Lighting

Bring a literal glow to your bedroom by placing a candle on top of your bedside table. Go with a flameless, LED candle for some extra peace of mind, especially if you want to pair the candle with flammable decorations like books, while still keeping that traditional look.

But you could also go with a real candle to add a stronger sense of atmosphere to your bedroom, as well as the versatility of being able to choose a specific scent. Of course, real candles are a little more of a fuss to maintain than flameless candles, and you may have to replace them regularly depending on your usage. However, if having ‘the real thing’ is important to you, then it might be worth it!

Consider upgrading your bedside table setup with a candle holder, as well. You could match a brass candle holder with an accompanying vase, as seen above, for a rather impressive, regal aesthetic.

8. What’s The Time?

Another bedside table option that looks good and is incredibly useful is the traditional bedside clock. You might find that keeping your phone further away than the bedside table (or perhaps even out of the bedroom entirely) while sleeping makes it a bit easier to unwind. That’s where a bedside clock can be helpful for being able to set your alarm without relying on your phone, as well as generally telling the time.

Try to match the style of the clock with your room’s design. For example, a light wood clock might complement a bed frame in the same shade. However, it could also get a little lost on a light wood bedside table without some sort of visual barrier, like a short stack of books. 

9. The Book & Plant Combo

By combining two of our previous bedside table styling ideas, you can go for a casual look that brings in a little bit of nature as well. Simply stack up two or three books, but this time, try to choose ones that you won’t want to pick up every night. That way, you won’t have to move the plant too often.

10. Mini Bookshelf

If your bedside table has a shelf, like this Eden Wooden Bedside Table, then you could make use of it as a mini bookshelf. This is a great option if you want to keep more than just one or two books on your bedside table, and it has a more organised feel than the more casual book storage options.

You’ll also be leaving more space free on top of the bedside table, which is great for doubling up on styling options. Pair this style with a table lamp or house plant to really maximise the aesthetic potential of your bedside table.

11. Match With An Over Bed Shelf

If you’ve got an over bed shelf in your bedroom, then that’s a great opportunity to introduce some cohesion with your bedside table. It’s a little bit more subtle than matching your bedside table to your bed frame, but it adds a polished feel to your whole bedroom aesthetic, and it can be as simple as going with pieces that are made from the same material in the same colour, like the dark wood theme above.

12. Co-ordinate With Your Bedding

For a more striking look, you could use a matching theme across two bedside tables and your bedding. For example, the striped look above is shared between the lamp shades on each bedside table, the duvet cover, the pillowcases, and even the wall decoration above the bed. It’s a bold and dramatic visual that easily commands the room.

You can take a more subtle approach with this style. Just use one matching lamp shade, like the olive green one on the Clarise Table Lamp above that pairs with the Austell Velvet Bedspread, for a gentler version. As a bonus, if you do match up a green shade, you can add in a leafy house plant to keep the theme going with a natural twist.

It’s Time To Decorate Your Bedside Table!

As long as you’re being mindful of not overcrowding your bedside table, there’s really no ‘wrong’ way to style it; it should reflect what you need in the evening and at bedtime, and your interior design style.

If you’ve decided to include a fake plant in your bedside table decor, then you might want to learn a little about how to clean it. And if you’ve realised that you have too many books and not enough space, then don’t worry, because we have a guide for that too!