We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We can all agree that scale matters. But, the most important lesson you can (and should) take away from this class—or any of our classes—is that design is meant to be played with! The creativity in design is what makes it so fun and what makes you talented.
Why are we bringing this up? Because if you've made it this far in the lesson, you're probably hoping for a cheat sheet on choosing the right furniture size at home. We totally get it, and having a frame of reference is helpful. So yes, you're in luck on the cheat sheet front. With that being said, take the below “rules of thumb” as a rough guideline (and never a set rule) as you work through your designs. There's no one size fits all solution for everyone.
Oh, and did we mention to have fun with it?! 😅
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
We love rugs! We'll shout it from the mountain tops (or from the top of our sofa) any day.
Rugs are the foundation of a space and tie all the furniture together (like a pretty bow to finish everything off). Since rugs are such a focal point in design, often times it's one of the first things you'll purchase for a space.
Every room has slightly different best practices, so we’ll go through them individually. As a general rule, area rugs should be the same orientation as the room and layout they’re in — meaning, a square room should have a square rug. The shape of the rug should run parallel to the seating arrangement, not perpendicular.
If possible, all furniture pieces should “live” on the rug in your living room. If your rug doesn’t really allow for that, then at least the front legs should be atop the rug. This ensures the furniture doesn’t look like it’s floating in the room.
Typically, rugs start under the sofa. If you have to prioritize one piece of furniture to sit atop the rug, we suggest the front legs of the sofa!
When placing a rug in a dining room, your dining table and chairs should fit on the rug — if possible.
Ideally (again, not always applicable!), your rug should extend at least 24” past all sides of the dining table so that the chairs stay on the rug when they’re pulled out from the table.
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Place your bed, the bedside tables, and any furniture at the end of the bed wholly on the rug, with at least 24” extending beyond the bedsides.
Place ⅔ of the bed on the rug, with 24” extending beyond the left, the right, and bottom side of the bed.
A personal favorite: Use runners on each side of the bed that are wider than the bedside tables. This can also be more cost effective, depending on the size of your room.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
If we may, here's a final piece of advice before you dive into the cheat sheet and your own furniture and space planning:
Have patience! Practice makes perfect! Call a friend for a second opinion! Okay, maybe that’s more than just one piece of advice. Our point is to try not to let stress get in the way of having fun. Design isn’t always linear. Sometimes we go in loops, circles, twists, and turns before we end up where we should be.
Place the coffee table roughly 15"-18" in front of the sofa/lounge chair. This is a nice sweet spot to allow people to circulate comfortably but still be able to reach the table from their seats.
Coffee tables should be roughly the same height as the sofa seat or just slightly lower. If you want the space to feel loungey (or want to encourage floor seating), a table as low as 13” can be just what the doctor ordered.
Side and end tables are more functional, so they should always be comfortably reachable. Generally, they should be approximately the same height as the sofa arm, or slightly lower. When in doubt, if it hits between the sofa arm and the sofa seat, then you’ve got it. 👌
If you don't have a TV in your living room, (we applaud you) you can skip this section!
The distance between the TV screen and the edge of the sofa should be 1.5x the diagonal measurement of the TV screen.
The distance between the coffee table and the media unit should be roughly 24"-30".
If you have a dining table, chances are you have chairs to go with them. Let's talk about how to arrange them for maximal comfort!
Try to keep roughly 9”-13” of space between the dining table and the chair back.
When planning your dining room situation, reserve 24” of space for each chair/person, and leave 4”-6” between chairs. This accounts for comfortable eating. 🍝
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So, what's the deal with dining tables and... just about any other piece of furniture? We're so glad you asked.
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First things first: Keep a clear path around the dining table! Try to budget at least 3’-4’ from the edges of the table to the next piece of furniture near it.
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If your dining table is near a credenza (we love a credenza), it should be slightly taller than the height of the dining table. Dining tables are typically 29”-31”, and credenzas should be roughly 34”-36” high. Why, you might ask? So that food can be served off of them, or records can be played on them, or 100 wine bottles can be placed on them, whatever your accouterment: it should be comfortable to reach when standing.
Arranging your bed and bedside tables can be simple, but there are a couple of tricks to keep in mind just in case.
Bedside tables should be placed roughly 2”-4” from the bed frame, so you can reach them easily in your sleepy stupor.
Bedside tables should be roughly the same height as the mattress, but this varies (of course) from bed to bed and person to person. This is a personal choice!
Bedside tables can be up to 24” deep. Any deeper, and it can get pretty awkward to get in and out of bed for the average person. If you’re a gymnast, you do you.
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