19 Aug Playing with Scale in Interior Design
Scale in interior design is how an item relates to the size of a room. ‘Proportion’ is sometimes used interchangeably with scale, though its true definition is how one item relates to other items near it. You need to pay attention to both in order to create inviting room settings in your home.
Though I have general principles of good design guiding me, the fun thing about design today is that you can mix things up all the time. That’s the plus of working with a professional designer—we are able to play with scale and proportion to make a more unique look for each client, breaking rules successfully to create something new. In general, I look at the scale of the room to determine the scale of the furnishings. Larger rooms need larger furniture, and smaller rooms need smaller pieces. The height of the ceiling gives away the appropriate scale—high ceilings hold tall chairs and tables better than short ceilings, which need low furniture items. Otherwise, a small room can be cramped by giant furniture, and a large room can look awkward with tiny furniture. An exception to this rule is in modern designs, where low couches and chairs actually look sleek and appropriate in large rooms. Generally, I find over-sized furniture looks worse than undersized.
Another factor essential in scale and proportion is space, sometimes referred to as white space or negative space. It’s important to leave room above and around items, so that you are not filling up every inch. The eye has a place to rest when there is a break between things, allowing it to move from one item to the next in a nice even flow. It’s perfectly fine to have a blank wall, a coffee table with an orchid on it and nothing else, a half-empty bookshelf. Space allows you to pick out individual items and points of interest instead of being overwhelmed. In order to avoid crammed rooms, l start choosing and placing the biggest pieces first. These essential items establish the scale for the rest of the room. Next, I begin layering with other furniture—tables, chairs, rugs, window treatments and artwork—and I can stop when I see I’ve reached a well-balanced room. Size isn’t the only scale to pay attention to. The patterns in your fabrics and accent pieces should also follow the general rule of small room-small scale, large room-large scale. But, if you want to create interest by adding a larger scale-patterned pillow or accent piece in a smaller room, you can, just in a small amount.
In this condo living room, I added red pillows with a large-scaled floral pattern to echo the tones in the rug, and used the blue pillows with a smaller-scaled geometric pattern as contrast. Those red pillows really pop out, but also tie into what else is in the room, so they don’t stand alone.
Proportion really comes into play with repeating motifs. If you pick a particular motif like squares or circles, it’s good to stick with those throughout the whole room, relating different objects to each other. If you’ve got a lovely square coffee table, try and find other ways to add that shape somewhere else in the room, perhaps in a vase or art frame, so that the coffee table isn’t just hanging out by itself.
In this modern-rustic living room, the primary shape is rectangles—in the window and linear-stone fireplace, the low rectangular couch, square-ish ottoman, and the square-framed art. This repetition of quadrangle elements creates a cohesive sense of proportion that lays a path for the eye to flow along. If you have items in a room that aren’t like each other in shape, color or what have you, the overall look is disjointed; the eye has to start and stop a lot in those environments, and leaves you with a jarring feeling.
In this farm-styled kitchen, the principle of varying proportion keeps the room interesting and three-dimensional. The tiny mosaic back splash tiles counterbalance the large, flat shapes of the cabinets and long paneling on the ceiling. The detailed pattern on the bar stools and light fixtures tie into the movement on the counter top. Without small items or patterns to break up the large pieces, the room could feel flat, the principle here being if everything is the same size, nothing stands out.
Understanding scale and proportion keeps your rooms comfortable and fun to look at. The best designs incorporate appropriately scaled furniture, while still being able to play with the rules and make bold choices. I love to create designs that hold surprises and twists, while still providing my clients with a perfectly comfortable, pleasing space.
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