Furniture Scaling

Featured Pro: Kelly Edwards
Category: Home Décor
Time: 2:22


KELLY EDWARDS: I’m Kelly Edwards, and here’s my GMC Trade Secret.

There’s no limit to what you can do with lots of space. The Acadia here, best-in-class interior space. When it comes to choosing furnishings for your room, you don’t always have the luxury of ample space. So come inside with me and I’ll show you how to make it work in any room, regardless of its size.

In design, it’s all about proportion. The way the pieces relate to each other really makes the overall design. A balanced room can create an overall look, while an unbalanced one can look chaotic and aesthetically unpleasing. So the goal here is to match pieces together that complement each other in both scale as well as their design style.

Take, for instance, this coffee table. When paired with this sofa, it’s just way too big. Not only does the style not match; the size doesn’t match and it impedes on the traffic flow that goes through the room.

Another piece of furniture is this chair behind me. Now, while the chair can look great in some rooms, in this one it doesn’t because there’s way too much dead space behind us and the style is just off.

So I’m going to grab a couple of furniture pieces that actually work well in this space. So I brought in this coffee table here, which works well with the sofa both in style as well as in proportions. Now, anyone who’s sitting on the sofa could certainly access the coffee table. Likewise, the little chair behind me has been removed and replaced with this gorgeous reading chair, which fills in the space perfectly.

Now, this is the layout I’ve chosen for my space. But if you’re curious how to create a layout all your own, just keep in mind you don’t have to be an interior designer to do it. You simply measure the room, including your windows, your doors and your furniture, and you can either go online and take advantage of some free programs or you can do what I did here.

I took a piece of graph paper, which I picked up at the store, and I’ve measured my space. And every foot is two squares. And then I’ve taken my construction paper and I’ve cut it into these little pieces, likewise in scale. And I can move it around the page like so to see how my furniture is going to match up in my space.

Now, some other things to consider when doing your layout at home are your focal points, your conversation areas, and what your room is being used for, because if it’s a high-traffic area, you certainly don’t want to mess up the flow.

I’m Kelly Edwards, and this has been my GMC Trade Secret.