Why scale is so important in interior design – and why we all get it wrong
A quick glance through our dos and don'ts of decorating, in which interior designers offer their principles for good decorating, reveals a few common threads that it seems everyone can agree on. A strong distaste for too much overhead lighting, for one, and an equally firm veto on blindly following trends. The one we're attending to here, however, is perhaps the most transformative piece of advice there is: always pay attention to scale, and in most circumstances, scale up.
It's a piece of advice that applies to both big and small rooms: in a big room, you need objects of scale simply to ensure that they look appropriate in the context. No one likes furniture or rugs that feel mean or ‘mimsy’ (as Joanna Plant puts it) for the space. In a small room, however, scaling up can have a transformative effect. “It's all about deceiving the eye,” says Alidad. “Putting something that's a bit larger than usual into a small room fools you into thinking that the space is bigger than it is. This can apply to various elements of a room: architectural mouldings, furniture, art, lighting, rugs and more. “It's something everyone gets wrong all the time,” continues Alidad. “I'm always presenting ideas to clients and they worry that things will be too big, but when they see it in situ it just works.” We've gathered some of the best pieces of advice from interior designers on this subject, plus design ideas to show how scaling up can work in practice, but if there's one rule to take away, it's always buy a little bigger than you think.
The dos and don'ts of scaling up (and down)
“Start with the architectural elements. Keep it all in proportion and not too mean. I hate rooms with narrow architraves and oversized cornices, while fireplaces should have mantles you can lean an elbow on, and a big enough grate." – Philip Hooper, joint managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler
"One trick I often use is to reverse a large cornice, so that the part that's supposed to be on the ceiling goes on the wall, and vice versa. When the eye sees a big cornice like that, it can't analyse what you've done and thinks immediately this is a big room. But I do try to use cornices, skirtings and architraves that are as close in size as possible to those which would have been used in the original building." – Alidad
“If the architectural mouldings are not original we tend to beef up what might have existed, and we do the same with furniture. Size matters.” – Adam Bray
“If the ceilings are a bit low, take any built-in joinery, such as bookcases on either side of the fireplace, right up to the ceiling.” – Alidad
“My mantra is ‘if it fits through the door, it’s the right size. It's good news to me if there are a couple of things in the room that only just fit.” – Alidad
“I hate modern interiors where everything is too low. Side tables should be at the height of a sofa or chair arm, coffee tables and ottomans should relate to the height of seat cushions, ideally a few centimetres lower.” – Philip Hooper
“Bigger is usually better. A large bookcase won’t dominate a room but can often tie it together. A high piece of furniture in a room with a high ceiling really helps.” Edward Hurst
“Table lamps, lanterns, sculpture and mirrors ought to steal the show, yet they cannot if they are too small. Our Upton sofa for example, demands quite generously sized table lamps if they are to hold their own against such a grand sofa. Small lamps next to such a piece would look dainty and, at worst, mean.” – Will Fisher & Charlotte Freemantle of Jamb
"In the guest annex of my house in Suffolk there is only room for a bed, but one way to make a room like this seem bigger is to select a compact four-poster: It creates a feeling of grandeur and makes the proportions of the room seem larger." - Veere Grenney
“Don't overscale everything. Take certain elements in the room and make them as big as possible, like putting a very tall screen in one corner to give an impression of height, but then maybe leave the next corner fairly sparse. But then you can balance larger things: in my dining room there's a bookcase that only just fits into the room, and then on the other wall there's a large mirror, and those two things balance each other nicely. I'm always balancing pairs of chairs so that they have the same volume but different shapes." – Alidad
“You don't want to scale up on absolutely everything. It’s very easy to make a bed too big, and if you’re not careful it can end up just consuming a room. Plus, beds are for intimacy! You don’t want too much space in them. It’s also easy to overdo it on the size of a bath. Massive baths are the worst of both worlds – too short to swim in, but too long to lie in comfortably.” – Max Rollitt
“If you have a large room, fill out from the centre. Do not place seating around the perimeter, make cosy conversation areas, don’t expect people to have to shout across a space if they are sitting too far apart. Don’t always think a three seater sofa solves a problem – most people will not sit in a row. Instead use a large two seater with big cushions in the corners, it will be far more in scale.” – Philip Hooper
“A dainty piece of furniture in a monumental room will always look sad so best to place it elsewhere.” – Philip Hooper
“If your rug is too small, it can throw off a space and make things feel disproportionate. I suggest always going a bit bigger than you think. Wall-to-wall is also making a comeback.” – Heidi Caillier
“The first rug you put in has to be as big as possible. You can leave around 30 or 40cm at the edges of the room but the main rug should cover the rest. And then you can always layer rugs on top of that.” – Alidad
“Make sure you get the size right with rugs – for me they need to be big enough so that at least the front legs of a seating group are all on it (and often even larger). And around a dining table be sure to leave enough space for people to pull their chairs back without falling off the edge of the rug.” – Brandon Schubert
“I think large paintings that fill walls from floor to ceiling are a great way to add an interesting scale.” – Philip Hooper
“If you can have a large mirror on a wall it can just make a massive difference. It can sit behind a sofa, opposite a bed – and don’t be afraid to use it as wallpaper, so you can hang things in front of it. It will change the scale of the room and the movement within the space completely.” – Max Rollitt
"Think about putting at least one big thing on every wall. If you have one very big painting, then all the rest of the paintings on that wall can be tiny and it'll look like an interesting collection." – Alidad
“You have to give small things room to breathe. If you want something small and beautiful to shine, don’t stick it next to something big or something very similar – if it’s a painting, put it next to a ceramic. Make sure it’s well lit. You can also play with how it’s displayed – even hanging something like a small picture on the face of the mirror.” – Max Rollitt
“A large repeat looks silly unless it is repeated vertically at least four times as walling. Similarly a large scale design on upholstery makes no sense. Do not try to be clever with pattern and scale. You are not Alice and it’s not Wonderland.” – Philip Hooper
“If you're going to use a large pattern on the walls, make sure your main pieces of upholstery are plain. You can always introduce more bits of pattern in the cushions, which won't take over, but I always make a lot of use of plains. If you have one major pattern on the walls, take the colours from that and use them for the plain upholstery.” – Alidad
“Large-scale prints and fabrics appear to have really taken off, especially in the US. This makes sense given that the size of a pattern should be appropriate to the size of a space – if you’re working with a capacious Texas ranch you can get away with much bigger patterns, and get much more impact that way than, say, in a Georgian townhouse. In the latter, it can feel playful but risks being overwhelming. There are a lot of situations that call for refinement and a lighter touch, especially when you’re working with other pieces that have a delicacy to them such as Neoclassical furniture – and it’s there that smaller prints can be more impactful to the overall design than scaling up.” – Max Rollitt
