Interior Design Rule #1 - Proportion & Scale

Let's just call this week Interior Design Rules week! I am going to cover the 6 most important rules of Interior Design that anyone can incorporate into their spaces that surround them.

For today, I will touch on Proportion and Scale. Would it look right to stuff a king sized bed into a tiny bedroom? Or what about a large 6 person dining room table into a small dining nook? No, no! I understand that sometimes we are stuck with what we've got for now, like hand me down furniture, or garage sale finds. Heaven knows, I had a huge queen bed in my daughter's room for awhile that literally took up the whole room because that's what we had to work with! And when we were newlyweds, all my furniture was my mother's rejects that she was done with. But, when you start shopping and purchasing your own furniture, look for pieces that will be suitable for the space you've got.

Proportion and scale needs to be incorporated into walls too...

If you have a wall that is huge and shows lots of open space, don't hang tiny art there. Make it work by finding that properly sized piece (or create your own). And vice versa, don't hang a giant picture on a small wall. There are ways to manipulate art. For instance, I've purchased a print, chopped it up into equal parts of 8, and then framed the 8 pieces and hung them up on the wall in a grid. By framing it in pieces and spacing them out a little bit, it expanded the art and made it work better for the wall I needed it on.

Here is an example of poor Scale and Proportion...



I love this room! I think it is cute as can be, but there are two things that need to be changed that could make it look even better. Look at how small the lamps are, and how the rug is too small for the area it needs to cover. They don't fit in with this space.

Photo from AB Interiors