Add Instant Elegance To Your Living Space With Jenn Todryk's Simple Decor Trick

HGTV's Jenn Todryk is known for her excellent style, embodied by low-cost and low-labor transformations seen on her popular series "No Demo Reno." Sometimes, the most simple additions to a space can be some of its most impactful, including décor accents and accessories that add a lot of personality to a room. For Todryk, one of these additions is coffee table books, often identified by their oversized bindings and beautiful images. These chunky books can help form the identity of any room in a number of ways, serving as a great way to add a personal touch, visual interest, and texture to a room. 

Todryk says in a recent blog at The Rambling Redhead, "I love decorating with these beautiful books. I have them on coffee tables, pianos, and mantles... 'Down to Earth' is my FAV!"  She shows off a collection of her favorite coffee table design books, including "Monochrome Home" and "Elements of Style: Designing a Home & Life," which feature tips and images of beautifully designed homes that serve as inspirations and aspirations for the designer. Coffee table books can also be an affordable way to decorate, particularly if you find them at thrift stores or second-hand bookshops.

Coffee table books, like artwork, are one the best ways to both express your design sense and what you hold important, including travel, photography, food, and more. They also help form the feel of a room. For minimalists, it may be a sleek stack of books with blank bindings in a single color. For maximalists, it may be a stack of colorful and varied art books on a table. A stack of Mediterranean-themed travel books can instantly make a space seem more worldly while a thick stack of woodland-themed books can similarly meld a room to seem rustic and cozy.

A stack of books on your coffee table becomes an interactive art exhibit you or our guests can explore. Try leaving your favorites open to a page that you love and want to share with others, or use a book stand for display. Jenn Todryk tells CNN, "I love [the 'ESV Psalms, Photography Edition'] coffee-table books because they are so simple and elegant but have beautiful pictures on the inside. I leave it open on my coffee table. This hardcover book pairs each psalm from the Bible alongside stunning photography of the Irish countryside."

Because they are large and visually interesting, coffee table books are also ideal for more practical reasons like taking up and manipulating space. Use them to fill up otherwise empty built-ins. create a stack on a décor shelf, entertainment console, or table. Use books as risers for other decorative items like vases and candles. Assemble a stack of holiday books on a mantel as part of your seasonal décor or a stack of pretty gourmet books as a platform for other items like utensils and dishware in your kitchen.

Also, due to their size, coffee table books are also great for actual use as furniture. Use a stack of books as a stylish side table in the living room or as a DIY nightstand made of books next to your bed. Create several large stacks along a wall as an alternative to bookshelves or use them in unexpected sculptural ways to create a cool and literary holiday tree.