What To Use To Style Or Fill Decorative Bowls! — DESIGNED (2024)

Have you ever wondered what to use to style your decorative bowls or platters that sit on your coffee tables, consoles, bookshelves, or other surfaces in your home?

I’m here to share some ideas here today, as I’ve seen some interesting styling options out and about at antique shows, showhouses, markets, and just styling my own photoshoots and home.

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Fill Decorative Bowls With These Items

1. Natural Objects

2. Antique or Vintage Items

3. Purposefully Purchased Decorative Items

4. Live or Faux Greenery or Plants

1) Natural objects

Pinecones, seashells, unusual seed pods, dried berries, driftwood, and more make wonderful FREE filler for decorative bowls, platters and vases. I’ve always displayed these shells that we collected on a beach in Tasmania years ago in a glass vase, so I can see their colors and textures.

These dried berries, below, provide a nice colorful texture in a white bowl in a shop in Venice, CA.

Mini pinecones in concrete bowls added some natural texture to a tabletop I did one Christmas.

More mini pinecones in an onyx bowl that was purchased at Round Top. I change the items in this bowl out seasonally in my living room.

Loving these dried gourds in a big bowl seen at Round Top Antique Fair.

This bookshelf styling had a rustic look and the horn bowl with pieces of driftwood contributed to that style.

Cinnamon sticks make for an interesting bowl filler here, seen at Highpoint Market.

I found these giant sugar pine cones one year in a forest where we stopped for a picnic. I felt like I found decorating gold!

I lived in Australia for two years and my yard there had these gumnuts that would fall from the trees. I collected them and brought back a sack full, just to decorate with. I recently saw these bunched en masse in a huge bowl at Dallas Market, both in their natural state and then whitewashed.

They look amazing displayed this way!

2) Antique or vintage Items

I have lots of rather odd items that have ended up in my home over the years, mostly handed down from my husband’s grandmother and mother. They both collected things on their travels and loved finding unusual antiques. They always had an interesting assortment of oddities that I didn’t want to see taken out of the family and sold or given away online.

I collected a few items in a rustic wooden bowl and you’d be surprised how many people pick these up and examine them when visiting my home. Some ornate brass spoons from Thailand, a vintage gun with a gunpowder case, an old commemorative coin and that huge oyster shell make for an oddly interesting combination.

Vintage billiard balls are perfect for adding some patina and a bit of a “story” to an interior tablescape.

One of my clients had a collection of these antique textile brushes and grouped them together beautifully in an oblong bowl.

I purchased a whole bag of these antique textile bobbins several years ago and keep them for photo styling or using to fill containers on my projects. In the photo below, I stood some up in an antique marble pot, found at Round Top. They are just a bit unexpected but I liked the touch of wood on this console.

I have a few of these antique bells I inherited from my MIL. I saw some similar ones recently at market filling a decorative bowl.

I have a few friends that collect old buttons. I saw this display at a showroom at Highpoint Market and think it is a great use for that collection.

3) Purposefully Purchased Decorative Items

These fabulous balls were purchased for my client’s dining table. The white ones are selenite that I carried out of Dallas market in a bag (heavy!) and the metal ones from a local showroom. I think the mix made for a nice combination in the brass bowl.

I have some beautiful hand blown glass balls I’ve collected over many years, that sit out on my dining table. I recently purchased this large chunky white ceramic bowl to hold them so that the color would show up nicely.

I love these little stone hearts seen at Dallas Market in a showroom. What a lovely bowl filler material. (Nice Valentine’s gift too!)

I purchased these large seed pods for a bowl in a client’s entry hall. There are lots of these types of bowl filler available. I like the larger and the more unusual.

Since I’m so close to Round Top, I try to get out there for the shows in the spring and fall if for nothing else than stocking up on my recycled glass beads for styling projects.

I found one random vendor there a few years ago and he has a pretty good selection for much less than I can find at markets. I get lots of colors and just keep them in my storage unit for photo shoots and styling at the end of jobs.

I also like to find accessories at the Cash and Carry or Temps section of Dallas market. That way there is no minimum and I can just take it with me without paying for shipping since I drive there.

It’s also nice to see the items in person while thinking of a specific project, rather than just projecting what you might use on down the road.

4) Live or Faux Greenery or Plants

This is an obvious choice, plants! However, I love how these are a bit more special and different.

This low, dense, finely textured plant material works so well in the contemporary home designed by Assembledge+, seen on my Dwell on Design tour a few years ago.

I’m loving moss in pretty bowls and platters too. I saw such cool ones in Round Top several years ago and it is a great way to bring in greenery without looking too “faux”. Best of all, it is carefree!

I love the combination of moss with some decorative accessories, like seen in this showroom’s display, below. The moss wrapped plants are a good idea too.

Shop Bowl Filler Material Below

I have a sampling of some bowl filler material below, for you to shop for yourself. And remember, keep small objects out of reach of young children!

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