I once bought a beautiful little armchair that looked perfect in the shop. At home, next to our big sofa, it looked like doll’s furniture. Nothing was wrong with the chair. The problem was scale — and learning to think about it has saved me from many more mistakes since.

Scale vs. proportion

Scale is how big something is relative to the room and the other things in it. Proportion is how the parts of something relate to each other — the height of a lamp base to its shade, say. When both feel right, a room looks effortless. When either is off, the room feels awkward even if every piece is beautiful.

Rules of thumb I actually use

• Rugs: at least the front legs of every seat should sit on the rug. Too-small rugs are the most common scale mistake I see.
• Coffee tables: roughly two-thirds the length of the sofa, and about 40–45 cm away from it.
• Art over a sofa: about two-thirds the width of the sofa, hung 20–25 cm above the back.
• Pendants over a table: the light should be roughly half to two-thirds the width of the table, hanging about 75–90 cm above it.
• Curtains: hang the rod high and wide — close to the ceiling, extending past the window frame — to make windows look bigger.

Mix your scales

A room where everything is the same size feels static. Combine a few large pieces with medium and small ones: a substantial sofa, a pair of medium chairs, small side tables, and a mix of big and small accessories. Variety in scale is what makes a room feel dynamic and natural.

When a room feels wrong, check the sizes before you change the style.

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Measure before you buy

My best advice is wonderfully unglamorous: use painter’s tape to mark the footprint of a new piece on the floor before you buy it, and leave it there for a day or two. You’ll know very quickly whether it fits — far better than any photo can tell you.