Bold Blog at BoldRugs| How to Scale your Home’s Interior in a Few Easy Steps

How to Scale your Home’s Interior in a Few Easy Steps
February 18, 2008	0 Comments \| Leave a Comment
When I step into a client’s home to discuss redesigning a space one of the first things I notice is if the furniture and accessories are appropriately sized for each room. Usually it doesn’t take more than a two second glance to know when things are out of proportion. It just feels wrong and then I look around to find out exactly why it feels wrong. Scale has a powerful impact in a room and should always be thoroughly thought out before large purchases are made. Here are some tips for getting the right sizes for your home. Many of the newer homes built today come with a great room. A great room is a very large living room, sometimes with soaring ceilings and lots of large windows and often opens to an adjoining room. Great rooms are a challenge to decorate because they need to be filled up without getting cluttered. You can do that by paying close attention to scale. Buy couches and chairs that can become a focal point near the center of the room. Make sure that the coffee table is over sized and is about two-thirds the size of the couch length and is almost double in width what an average coffee table measures. So if you’re finding that most coffee tables measure 20” x 50” (more or less) try to find one that is around 40” x 60”. You just want to take the average dimensions and bump them up. Next, after buying and placing your furniture in the center of the room, the next item to scale would be an area rug. An area rug in a very large room is important because it breaks down the over sized scale into a smaller “room within a room”. A rug creates a subtle division within a room that helps to make the space more intimate. The best trick to use when trying to figure out the dimensions of an area rug is to take a roll of masking tape and map out a border that you think looks right under a collection of furniture. Live with your outline for a while as you come and go out of that room and see if you can get a sense if the outline is working. If not, try another dimension, and keep trying until you find one that feels right. Buy an area rug that will at least tuck under the front legs of your couch and chairs and extend at least 6 to 12 inches on either side of the couch and chairs. After the central furniture arrangement is completed with the rug, move next to the perimeter walls. Arrange the walls with furniture that really fills space such as bookcases (placing two or three in a row really makes a statement) or armoires (media cabinets). You want to get good “bone structure” for the room that will then make it easier then to accessorize. Good bone structure for a room means properly scaled furniture appropriately arranged so that the accessories (pictures, lamps, drapes, vases, baskets, etc.) fall naturally into place. Next you can fill in with large accessories: large ceramic lamps, large picture frames, extra large mirror, tall plants, chunky vases, long drapery panels on your windows, over sized basket/containers to disguise clutter, etc. The idea here is to continue keeping everything in the room large and “to scale” so that the room looks well planned and composed. Save smaller accessories that you love for your smaller rooms such as bedrooms or bathrooms. When you follow these suggestions for keeping scaled proportions in your home you will have an easier time executing your vision for your home’s interior, and making each room feel just right.
Posted in : Decorating