SCALE IS EVERYTHING: Proportion, Balance, Feng Shui

All Photos (c) Katy Allgeyer

Typical day in Maine, ayup. Beautiful weather, crisp clear skies. And lots of lobster boats like this one above on dry land. But take another look. What’s different about “The Susie”?

With a man and a dog nearby, you can clearly see that this is not a regular lobster boat after all. It’s an adorable–and actually seaworthy!–small replica of a lobsterboat. What does this have to do with feng shui?

If you’re decorating your home or office, don’t just think about color and fabric. Think about placement for good flow. But also think about scale. Scale relates the size of all your pieces of furniture and accessories to the room size. It’s obvious when an overstuffed chair is too big for a room once it’s placed inside the actual room, but sometimes when you’re in the store or showroom the same chair looks like a good fit. You won’t be disappointed until you install it at home. Keeping proper scale in mind will help you to achieve feng shui balance and good flow.

How can you get a handle on scale? Have a tape measure handy. Measure your rooms before shopping. Decide the parameters your chair will fit into and then bring the tape measure with you to measure potential chairs.

Of course the other thing to keep in mind is that each piece needs to relate to the scale of the other pieces in the room as well. Often people get outsized armoires to hold TV sets and then their couch isn’t large enough to hold the balance in the room. A little planning before buying will go a long way.