Understanding the principles of scale and proportion, is a key aspect of creating impactful yet harmonious spaces. Achieving visual balance is particularly important when styling or home staging a property, to appeal to prospective buyers.
A synergy of Scale & Proportion
In home staging, property styling, and interior design in general, simple changes can balance scale and proportion, and you won’t necessarily need to replace existing furnishings.
“When I visit a home and look at the rooms and spaces to be styled or staged, scale and proportion are very important factors – getting them right makes it easier for prospective buyers to visualise living there,” explains Jayne. “A few simple changes can make a home feel much more inviting, spacious and versatile.”
Scale & Proportion: what’s the difference?
Scale: is how the size of an object relates to its surroundings; the space around it, other objects, and people using the room or space. The scale of furnishings can have a big influence on whether a room/space feels large or small.
Proportion: is about the relationship between the shape of items, not just their dimensions. It also involves considering the design elements of an object and how they relate to other objects in the room or space. Having a focal point also helps create balanced proportions.
Jayne’s Styling Tips
Furniture
Sometimes a room can look and feel out of balance when furniture is too big or small (not to scale). This is common with lounge suites, sofas, dining tables, and beds. If you must use a lounge suite or sofa that’s too small, you could balance it with furnishings of similar proportions, and/or have a focal point – e.g. artwork, an accent chair, large rug.
If you’re starting with an empty room, measure the dimensions to help determine the scale of furniture needed. And before you buy furniture or use home staging furniture, you could use painter’s tape to mark out where it may work best.
Coffee tables: if placed in front of a sofa, they look best when the coffee table length is about 2/3 of the sofa length.
Bedrooms
When staging bedrooms, use the right sized beds – not only to suit the scale of the rooms, but to be consistent with how bedroom sizes are described in the property’s real estate marketing. Also consider the size of bedside tables: sometimes they’re too small, or make a room seem smaller/cluttered by using up too much space around the bed.
If you have a children’s room/rooms, if possible, show that a larger bed can fit easily (at least double). It’s also best to stage a spare room as a bedroom, not as a home office -buyers find it easier to imagine it as an office, than the other way round.
Artwork & Mirrors
I LOVE using art – it’s a great way to add visual interest and can be the perfect finishing touch for a room. Often though, people use artwork that’s too small – but large artworks, mirrors, and grouped art, don’t necessarily make small spaces seem smaller.
In bedrooms, a common mistake is having a small artwork on the wall behind the bed. Try to use art that ideally, is 2/3 of the bed width. Landscape (horizontal) orientation is better than portrait (vertical). You can also group multiple artworks next to each other, to reach the ideal width.
Rugs
Rugs ground a space, IF they’re a suitable size – they’re often too small and look like postage stamps! When in doubt about what size rug to use, go big – even in smaller rooms, large rugs can make a room appear bigger. And if a rug will be under furniture which has legs, the rug should reach beyond the front legs.
Accessories
Try to use accessories that are less than 1/3 the height or length of what they’re placed on. For grouped items, an uneven number tends to work best and accessories of varying heights (though there are exceptions to every ‘rule’).
Make use of Negative Space
Using negative space (empty space) gives your eyes somewhere to ‘rest’: e.g. on a wall, between furniture, between windows. Negative space adds a feeling of spaciousness and depth – allowing furnishings to stand out.
Reoccurring Patterns & Shapes
A sense of proportion can be enhanced by using reoccurring patterns and shapes but don’t go overboard – they can overwhelm a space. If the room/space is small, keep patterns to scale: use smaller prints and not too many.
TOP TIP
Or you can just leave it to us! See the home staging and property styling options we provide: full or partial Home Staging, Top Dressing, Consultations.
“I can’t thank you enough for the beautiful luxury feel you brought to our house … Your decor lifted the house to another level. It only took one quick 15 minute tour through, for you to come up with all the ideas of where to put pieces to their best effect. The result was above my expectations.”
Christine – Home Owner