A console is the hardest surface in a home to get right. It is narrow, it sits at eye level, and it is usually the first thing anyone sees when they walk in. Most people solve it by adding, which is exactly the wrong instinct.
Three objects, three heights
The reliable structure is three pieces at clearly different heights: something tall, something mid, something low and horizontal. The eye reads the triangle and stops looking for order.
Tall can be a vase at 40 cm or more, or a table lamp. Mid is usually a sculptural object at 25 to 30 cm. Low is a stack of books, a tray, or a small vessel lying flat.
Leave a third of it empty
The most common mistake is filling the full width. Aim to leave roughly a third of the console clear, ideally at one end. Empty surface is what makes the occupied surface look deliberate rather than accumulated.
Work with one finish family, then break it once
Pieces that share a finish family, warm metals or matte ceramics or clear glass, read as a collection rather than a pile. Then break it deliberately, once. A single object in a contrasting material stops the group looking like a set that arrived in one box.
Check it at the right height
A console is seen standing up, not from the sofa. Style it, then walk past it at normal speed. If a piece disappears at that distance, it is too small for the surface. If the group still reads as one shape, it works.
The wall above it
Leave it bare, or commit to it. A single piece of wall art hung so its lower edge sits roughly 20 to 25 cm above the console will read as part of the arrangement. Much higher and the two stop speaking to each other.
One last pass
Take one thing away. Almost every console is improved by it, and the piece you hesitate over is usually the one that should go.
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