Tips / Guidelines for Styling a Tier Tray

Tier trays have become all the rage in Farmhouse décor.  I’ve been admiring them for awhile, but hadn’t yet put one together for myself.  When I found this darling tier tray for the Shoppe, I was excited to finally put one together.  With a little bit of  internet inspiration and trial and error in creating my tray, I put together some tips for you as you style your own tiered tray. 

Tip 1 -  Decide a color scheme and/or theme.  Anytime you decorate, know what you are going towards.  Choosing a theme (like Halloween, farmhouse kitchen, lemonade, etc.) will help your decor to look well thought out and just make it pretty!  Decide on two to three colors and try to stick mainly to them.  It is okay if a touch of other color sneaks in, just make sure it isn’t distracting to your design. 

You can see I chose a Halloween theme for this tier tray.  I stuck with orange, black and white as my color scheme. 

Tip 2 - Add greenery.  Greenery will give life to any decor set up.  This is definitely the case with a tier tray.   You can use real or faux greenery, but be sure to add some!  I chose to create pots of greenery so they would be easy to reuse in future tray stylings.  You can use pots, stems, or even cut a garland into pieces...it could be pretty to have some greenery spilling over the tray edge!  

You want to be able to add greenery to each level of your tray.  Notice that I staggered my greenery, starting on the left side on the bottom tray, going to the right in the middle tray and then finishing again on the left on the top tray.  Keep visual balance as you add your greenery.  

Tip 3 - Think about an anchor piece(s).   Typically, I would say look for one anchor piece to start your tray décor around.  This would be the one larger decorative piece that you are centering your style or them around.  Your additional pieces will relate to this.  With a smaller tray, you will likely just have one piece.  I would say my anchor piece is the countdown piece. However, this tier tray from the Shoppe is so large that I felt like it wasn’t large enough on it’s own, so I chose an “anchor piece” on each level.   I used the square pumpkin sign on the middle and the witch’s hat on the top. If you are focusing on a theme for your tray, make sure your anchor piece(s) reflect that. 

Tip 4 - Add in medium sized cohesive items.  This step is where you really start to have some fun with your tier tray.  Add in items that aren’t tiny, but are smaller than your anchor pieces.   This is a great time to add miniature models and stackable items.   Remember as you add medium sized items to keep the consistency with the feel/theme you are creating and repeat the items on opposing sides to keep that visual balance.

This is where I added my larger black and white gingham pumpkins in as well as the smaller painted pumpkins. I added my bead garland here too. Quite honestly, I wish I had more stackable items in this tray because it can be a lot of fun.  

Tip 5 - Add height variation.    As you begin putting your tray together, you want to add differing heights to give your tray visual interest.  If your tray has an edge, you will especially notice that you want to lift some pieces higher so they can be visible.  Items suited to the style of the tray that you don’t mind being seen, like old books, wood word blocks, etc. can be great to stack on.  You can also cut or buy small wood blocks or flat pieces to discreetly lift items and add differing heights. (I did a lot of this.) You can even get creative and just use items around your home… Styrofoam, kids blocks, or coins.  Just keep them discreetly hidden as you add that height variation. .  

Tip 6 -  Add fillers.  Your tray is almost done!  Finish if up by filling in empty spaces with small items.  In this step I added in final touches with a few small orange pumpkins and some spider accents. 

Your tray is now complete… until the next season and you can do this fun all over again!   Want to see a 1 minute video tutorial of how I decorated mine?  Follow us on Instagram @lemondropsnlilies and find it in my highlights!  

 Candace (:

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