How to Decorate a Tiered Tray

Learn how to decorate a tiered tray for any season. Styling a tiered tray is fun and easy with just a few simple steps to get started. Whether you have bought or made your own tiered tray decorating it can be a fun experience.

Two tiered tray in a Valentine's Day theme with paper hearts, birds, flowers and candles.

This is a tiered tray I made with parts from a vintage store. You can usually find tiered trays online for around $30 - $50. My upcycled version was more like $10.

This one is all decorated for Valentine's Day however, you can create one easily for any theme, even an everyday tray for those in-between days.

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How to Decorate a Tiered Tray

Choose an Overall Theme

Even if your theme is "no theme" it helps to have an overall theme in mind when decorating your tiered tray. In my case, I had Valentine's Day in mind.

Choose a Color Theme

One or two dominant colors is another great aspect to consider when decorating your trays. Since I was working with Valentine's Day I wanted to stay in the pink and shades of red color scheme. The other colors should mostly remain neutral. By the way, I consider greenery neutral.

Faux greenery, paper flowers, candles, ceramic birds, a cup, flower and vase.

Collect Items to Use

Scour the house and find items that will work with your overall theme and the colors you want. They can be anything including artificial flowers, candles, cups, pottery, or other little knick-knacks. Try to include different sizes, shapes, and textures.

Side view of decorated two tiered tray with wood block with a paper flower heart, faux peony, floral cup and herbarium bottle.

Place the Largest Anchor Pieces

Start with a large focal piece if you can. I'm using my rolled paper flower heart art on a wood block that is perfect for Valentine's Day. Then add in a few other larger pieces to anchor the trays. Here I've used a faux pink peony, dried flower herbarium bottle, and a pretty floral mug.

Two tiered tray with ceramic birds, wood block with a paper flower heart, pink and white vase,, floral cup and herbarium bottle.

Add in Mid-Size and Smaller Pieces

Next, I added in a small pink vase, a few wooden coasters, a few small white glass candles, and some ceramic birds.

Decorate a tiered tray with faux greenery, wood block with a paper flower heart, faux peony, floral cup and herbarium bottle.

Add in Filler

Finally, add in some greenery or other smaller items as filler. I used some artificial greenery pieces, dried seeded eucalyptus, and a few extra rolled paper flowers.

Things to Keep in Mind

Texture - Think, fabric, metal, glass, wood. A little bit of several textures makes the overall decor more interesting.
Stacking - Combine a couple of smaller pieces together by stacking them on top of each other.
Edit - Feel free to step back and remove or replace items at the end.
Front View vs Sides - Make sure the tiered tray looks good from all viewing angles.

Valentine's day two tiered tray, red candle and large resin pineapple on a foyer chest.

Having a tiered tray is a fun way to enjoy decorating for each season or holiday on a small scale. This one is on a chest in our foyer for everyone to see as they enter the house. However, the great thing about tiered trays is that they work anyplace in the home.