A beautiful home is not just a pile of expensive furniture and designer bits. You can have a living room full of the most luxurious of furnishings and it can still feel awkward, unbalanced and quite frankly, incomplete. On the other hand you can have a room with a very pared down collection of items and it can be absolutely stunning.
The difference usually comes down to how each element relates to the space around it.
Furniture has to work with the room itself in terms of its size, its architecture, its circulation paths and the other furniture. A sofa that looks absolutely stunning in a showroom may in fact be a bit much for a small living room. A designer dining table may well be out of place in a room if its size, shape and placement aren’t considered in the right way.
Understanding those relationships is absolutely fundamental if you’re going to create an interior that feels considered rather than just posh.
1. Furniture Scale: When the Size Is Wrong
One of the most common interior design errors is selecting furniture purely on the basis of how it looks, without any regard for its actual size.
A big sectional sofa may look very appealing in a large showroom, but in a smaller apartment it can quite easily end up taking over the whole of the living area. The same applies to a very small coffee table placed in front of a large sofa which will just look tiny and the whole thing will seem rather incomplete.
The aim isn’t to go for the smallest possible furniture or to cram every inch of space with stuff. It’s about getting the right relationship between the furniture and the room.
Before you go and buy any major piece, measure the space you have and think about the width, the depth, the height and the visual weight of the item. It’s often useful to simply mark out the footprint of the piece on the floor with some masking tape to get a real feel for how much space it will actually take up.
It’s also worth considering the surrounding elements. A very tall sofa back under a low window for instance could break the line of sight and make the arrangement look rather awkward.
Design tip: assess the furniture in the context of the room as a whole rather than in isolation.
2. Proportion: How furniture relates to other elements
Scale is the size of the object in relation to the room, proportion is the relationship between the various dimensions and elements.
A dining table may well fit in a room but still look rather wrong next to chairs that are too chunky or too delicate. A big piece of art above a very narrow console can create an unbalanced effect even if both the console and the art are perfectly good pieces in themselves.
Proportion also has an effect on how we perceive the various architectural features.
Low profile furniture works well in a room with big windows as it doesn’t interfere with the view and keeps the line of sight open. In a room with high ceilings you can use taller furniture, some significant artwork or a good use of the architecture to make the space feel more integrated and less ’empty’.
There is no one proportion that will work in every interior. The right proportion is going to be very much dictated by the architecture of the room, the feel you’re after and the way the various elements of the room relate to each other.
A useful approach is to think of the room as a composition. Each piece should be there to contribute to the overall composition rather than be in competition with all the other pieces.
3. Visual weight: why some rooms can feel overcrowded
Furniture doesn’t just take up space in terms of its physical footprint. It also has visual weight.
Dark colors, solid forms, heavy upholstery, bold patterns and thick frames can all give an object the impression of being more dominant. Light colours, slim legs, transparent materials and an open structure will tend to make an object look lighter.
Imagine a living room with a dark leather sofa, a substantial wooden coffee table, large armchairs and a big cabinet. Even if all the pieces would fit in the room, the sheer visual bulk of them may make it feel quite cluttered.
Replacing one or two of the solid pieces with something lighter can achieve a much better balance without in any way compromising on comfort or character.
Glass tables, open legged furniture, slimmer side tables and furniture which has actual space underneath it can all help to maintain the feeling of openness.
However using just lightweight furniture isn’t necessarily the answer. A room full of light objects can quite easily lack definition. On occasion you actually do need a substantial sofa or a real architectural piece.
The key is contrast. A heavy visual element is all the more effective if the rest of the composition provides it with space to stand out.
4. Layout matters more than the number of furniture pieces
Even perfectly proportioned furniture can look out of place if the layout doesn’t take into account the way people actually use the room.
A very common error is to have every piece of furniture positioned right up against the walls in the hope of making the room appear bigger. In certain rooms this can actually create a dead space in the middle and make conversation in that area rather awkward.
In others a large sofa in the center of the room would be quite likely to impede movement or create an awkward division of the space.
A good layout takes into account both function and appearance.
Start by working out what the room is for. Is it for entertaining? Is it for the family to just relax in? Is it for watching TV? Or a mix of all of the above? Then work out what the key feature of the room is. Is it a window? A fireplace? A piece of art? A TV?
Arrange the furniture around that focal point, whilst maintaining comfortable walking routes.
As a general guide a main circulation route of around 90cm will be quite adequate in many homes. The correct width will of course depend on the layout, accessibility requirements and local building standards. Furniture groupings will also need to allow for people to sit down, stand up and move between the pieces without difficulty.
A room shouldn’t just look good in a photograph. It should work in real life.
5. Mixing furniture styles without losing harmony
A room doesn’t have to be one single furniture style to be cohesive.
Contemporary interiors can be the marriage of traditional craftsmanship with vintage pieces, modern silhouettes and sculptural furniture. The difficulty lies in getting the various elements to work in relation to each other.
If every piece is a different shape, a different finish, a different color and a different design language then the room can end up feeling quite disjointed. Conversely buying a complete matching furniture suite can of course make the room feel very predictable.
A better approach is to establish a common thread.
This could be a shared material, a repeated form, a consistent color family or a similar degree of visual simplicity.
A modern sofa can be perfectly at home alongside a vintage wooden cabinet (the wood tone will of course need to suit the other elements in the room). A sculptural armchair can be the feature piece in the room if its form is quite different to the more linear furniture around it.
The aim isn’t to make everything the same. It’s to make the differences feel purposeful.
6. The relationship between furniture and architecture
Furniture should respond to the architecture of the room rather than just ignore it.
Ceiling height, window positions, wall lengths, door openings, columns and any built ins will all have an effect on which pieces will work.
In a room with big windows, furniture that obstructs the view is going to be a real shame. In a narrow living room a deep sofa with large armchairs is going to be very much the wrong thing to do and will make the flow of the room feel quite cramped.
Architectural details also affect where you put furniture.
A big piece of art may well require a wall with plenty of visual breathing space. A dining table may be more effective if it’s positioned in relation to the kitchen rather than simply centered underneath a decorative light.
Before you go any further and start looking at furniture, take a good look at the room itself.
Identify its key architectural features, decide which of these are the ones you really want to focus on and then see how the furniture can enhance and support those features. That’s the way to achieve an interior which has been designed for that particular property rather than just a collection of bits and pieces plucked from the showroom floor.
7. Why empty space is an important design element
One of the most neglected aspects of interior design is the sheer value of leaving some areas completely empty.
Every available corner doesn’t need a chair, a plant, a table or some other kind of decorative object. If there are too many things vying for attention then the individual items lose their impact and the room becomes visually overwhelming.
Negative space (the space left around an object) gives the eye a break and helps to make the key features stand out.
A sculptural armchair can be a very striking piece indeed if it has sufficient space around it. A beautiful console can quite easily become the focal point of a room without any of the trappings of decorative objects.
Empty space also facilitates movement and makes a room more usable.
This doesn’t mean that minimalist interiors are necessarily the better option. A room full of layers and with a wealth of furnishings can be just as successful provided the various elements are thoughtfully arranged.
The key issue is whether each piece adds something to the whole.
8. How to choose furniture more successfully
Before investing in expensive furniture, consider the following steps:
Measure the room accurately and take down the dimensions of the walls, windows, doors and any other fixed architectural features.
Plan the layout first. Work out where the main pieces of furniture are going to be and check that the circulation routes are still going to be comfortable.
Think about visual weight. A heavy element needs to be balanced by a lighter one, a more open form or structure or indeed by negative space.
Check the relationships between the objects. Look at the sofa and coffee table together, the dining table and…
