8 Places to Use a Tray Around Your Home
How do you decorate with a tray, and where are the best places to use a tray around your home? Here are a few ideas to get you started!
Images: (clockwise from top left) Lifeisaparty, Inspirationformoms, Shabbyfufu, El Mueble (links below)
The Kitchen Counter Tray
If you need a place to stash the salt and pepper, cooking utensils and herbs and spices, a kitchen counter tray is the perfect solution.
Use a small rectangular tray if you have limited space – it doesn’t take up too much room and it keeps your counter tops looking clean and organised.
If you have a big kitchen, you could use a round serving tray with Lazy Susan hardware attached underneath. Load up the tray with your secret sauces and keep it within arm’s reach of the cooktop. It definitely beats scrounging around the back of the pantry when you’re conjuring up a culinary masterpiece!
Kitchen trays are vulnerable to food spills, so look for something that can be washed or wiped clean. Better still, buy a tray that’s dishwasher safe.
The Coffee Table Tray
Coffee table trays add a tonne of personality to your space. They’re the perfect place to put a few decorative items or conversation starters, and they look amazing with a few sprigs of greenery or a fresh bunch of blooms.
But coffee table trays aren’t just for decoration! They also play a functional role, holding all the practical stuff like TV remotes and drink coasters. Things always look better when they’re gathered together in one place, and a tray is the perfect way to make that happen.
A coffee table tray is easy to re-style if you’re craving a new look, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to create a happy vignette. Grab a few shells, some interesting finds from a nature walk, or a vase from a thrift store and you’ve got a gorgeous new piece of home décor to enjoy.
via Shabbyfufu
via El Mueble
Some of the best options for coffee table trays are mirror trays, wicker trays, brass trays (ultra-luxe!), serving trays with handles, and wooden trays. Or how about a black tray? Black trays are super-hot right now and they’re available in lots of different materials from bamboo and leather to ceramic and birch wood.
More coffee table inspo: ‘Coffee Table Trays: Get the Look You Love!’
The Entry Table Tray
How many times do you open the front door and think “I NEED SOMETHING TO PUT MY KEYS ON!”.
Trays are the best way to organise all the things you need to use on a daily basis, including your keys. They’re also good for holding mail and sunglasses, loose change and phone chargers. Entry table trays are often called “catchall trays” for this very reason – they catch all the stuff that floats around the front door (you know, all the bits and pieces that usually end up getting lost!).
Styling your entry table tray can help you set the scene for the rest of your home. It’s like the first chapter of a book. Everybody loves an entry area that feels welcoming and well-organised, and it’s easy to create a good first impression using a decorative catchall tray and a few well-chosen pieces.
First, assemble your supplies - a pot plant, a scented candle, a stack of books, and maybe a photo or two.
Next, find a tray that reflects your décor and personal style. You could use a metal tray with handles, a stylish rattan tray, a silver tray, or something funky like a vintage melamine tray from the 1970s.
Finally, put it altogether, leaving room for all the practical things like the keys.
If you hit a styling roadblock, you could try one of these items on your tray: fresh flowers, a fish bowl, a lantern, a terrarium, a jar of vintage buttons, some potted herbs, a paper weight, a clock, a mini sculpture, a trinket box, a decorative planter (this one always makes us smile), a bonsai plant, or a string of decorative wooden beads. Once you start brainstorming the real challenge will be paring everything back!
The Bathroom Vanity Tray
via Bondi Girl Glam
Bathroom vanity trays are one of the easiest ways to give your home a luxury hotel vibe.
Skip the rolled-up face washer and mini shampoo bottles, and use your tray to display a few pretty accessories and sweet smelling goodies instead.
Bathroom vanity trays are the perfect place to show off a cute tealight holder (something in beech wood or copper would be gorgeous), a reed diffuser, a perfume bottle (or two), and a range of soaps and lotions.
Marble bathroom vanity trays are a popular choice, but natural stone can be difficult to care for. A mirror tray is a good alternative, or take a look at our Dutch Blue Landscape tray - we’re a bit biased but this little stunner is our Number One bathroom vanity pick 😊
More bathroom tray inspo: ‘Shop This Tray: The Beautiful Bathroom Edit’
The Bedside Table Tray
According to The Spruce (‘Nightstand Essentials for Every Bedroom’) “every nightstand deserves to be stocked with the essentials that make bedtime easier and more enjoyable”. These essentials include an alarm clock, pen and paper (for night time flashes of inspiration), some moisturiser, an E-reader (or paperback), and a photo or two. If you add a phone, a glass of water and a box of tissues, it can get pretty crowded in that space!
A tray can bring everything together, making your bedside table look cleaner and neater. A large round tray made of birch, bamboo or rattan can be ideal for this task. Choose something that puts a smile on your face because it will probably be one of the last things you see before you go to sleep, and one of the first things you see when you wake up.
Note: If you’re styling a beside table to sell your house (or impress a visitor 😉), check out ‘How to Style Bedside Tables like a Professional’ by TLC Interiors.
The Bedroom Dresser Tray
The bedroom dresser (or chest of drawers) is the perfect place for a trinket tray. Trinket trays are best known for storing jewellery, but they’re also great for holding knick-knacks, healing crystals, night creams and hair accessories.
If you’re looking for a way to increase the elegance factor, pick a trinket tray made of crystal or silver. Or, for a modern look, choose a tray made from birch wood, leather, concrete, or clay.
Trinket trays are a good opportunity to add a pop of colour to your bedroom. There are so many trinket trays with fun patterns, interesting shapes and gorgeous colour combinations, it’s easy to find something that suits your needs and décor.
via Laineandlayne
Another type of tray you could use on your bedroom dresser is a perfume tray. A beautiful collection of perfumes is the ultimate luxury. Nothing beats a little bit of Tom Ford ‘Rose D’Amalfi’ or Versace ‘Pour Homme’, and as Coco Chanel says “No elegance is possible without perfume. It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory”.
A mirror tray works beautifully with a collection of perfumes, and it’s easily wiped cleaned if you have any spills.
The Home Office Tray
Here’s a question for you: have you ever heard of Marie Kondo? What about KonMari or ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up’?
Marie Kondo is a “tidying consultant” and star of the Netflix Show ‘Tidying Up With Marie Kondo’. She also created a system called the KonMari Method™ which is a mindful approach to tidying up that encourages us to focus on things that bring us joy.
One of my favourite Marie Kondo quotes is “Putting your house in order is the magic that creates a vibrant and happy life”. You could easily go one step further and say “Putting your home office in order is the magic that creates a vibrant and happy work life”.
If organising your WHOLE home office sounds overwhelming, start by organising your desk with a simple desk tray. Grab your pens, paperclips, staplers and notepads, and add a few personal trinkets that create a little moment of joy. Maybe you have a memento from a trip abroad, a Yoda with a bobbing head, or something that you won back at school. Whatever it is, add it to your desk tray collection and enjoy the pleasure it brings each time you start a new day of work.
Almost any tray can be used for home office purposes. Choose one that suits your needs and personal style. If you like a layered look you could try a tiered tray, or you could use several trays at once. As Kelley Nan says “layering bowls, dishes and smaller trays inside [an] oversized tray keeps things looking tidy and collected”.
The key to finding the right look is experimenting. Play around with different layouts until you find the look that feels “just right”.
The Wall Décor Tray
Over the past few years one of the biggest trends in home décor has been hangable baskets (rattan trays that you hang on the wall). Hangable baskets are usually sold in sets of three or more, and look great in lounge rooms, bedrooms and dining spaces. Just like macramé wall hangings, hangable baskets create a relaxed, organic vibe that’s perfect for Modern, Boho, and Ethnic decorating styles.
via Life is a Party
Rattan trays are probably the most common type of trays used in wall decoration but trays in other materials can also work provided there’s a unifying theme to the collection (such as a particular motif or common shape or colour).
A set of vintage trays can look gorgeous in a kitchen (#11 in this list is proof), and when you hang your trays using removable hooks or invisible plate hanging discs, you can enjoy the beauty of your collection without sacrificing all the practicality. If you need to use one of your trays, just take it off the wall and rehang it when you’re done!
This list of places to use a tray really only scratches the surface.
There are so many interesting ways to use a tray around your home, and once you fall in love with the versatility of serving trays you’ll want to use them everywhere!
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