Paying attention and playing with Scale

Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius.

Scale in design is one of the most important principals. And it goes hand in hand with proportion. Human scale and proportion was the first step and well most furniture that you buy today has been proportioned for human scale. But in design we also need to be aware of the scale of our space in proportion with the furniture we choose. If you are designing a small apartment - getting a large scale, poofy sofa may end up looking something like this...

via apartment therapy

OK maybe not that extreme but it won't work - it will take up the whole space and in return you will have to get a small coffee table, chair, etc - and in essence the space will feel off balance. Paying attention to scale when you are shopping is important because when you bring it home it may not appear exactly as you expected when you were shopping. Case in point.... the gorgeous Antique bed I was searching high and low for in my Bedroom redesign and finally found. Because I was switching from a platform bed to an actual - boxspring/mattress - I under anticipated the scale effect that adding the boxspring would have on the bed. And it is now much higher than I was used to. See here..

I am getting used to the height of the bed (I am getting better at jumping up to sleep) and in fact I am kinda liking it (I feel like a princess). BUT what I had to do is rethink the other elements of the room. Like the pretty antique milk glass knob lamps I got to go on the night stands (which by the way are waiting to be painted so ignore the test paint you see on the nighstands). As you can see above the lamps are way too small for the space and look very insignificant - when in fact they are pretty fabulous take a closer look -

AND the other problem came on the piece of furniture I have opposite the bed.

We had to add a few books under the TV so we could actually see the monitor!! So yeah - I need to get a piece that is a little higher so the TV can sit comfortably on top. Also a larger TV is most likely in the future for this space.

Luckily the bed itself is a full size and fits nicely in the room it is just the added height that I need to account for and design around accordingly. So I am looking for lamps something more like this

Mitchel Gold+Bob Williams

However I think I need something even a little taller than that one, but it def has more of a presence and will help the proportion of the space. And I am going to get more of a console table like this

Or this

These tables are much higher and they have a lighter presence, the glass helps this, so they should flow nicely in the narrow space. SO as you can see scale can really effect your space and needs to be accounted for!
On the flip side - you can also use scale as a feature in your space and really play with it! See these where going off scale brings in a dramatic feature and makes the spaces unique.

A large scale picture next to a small scale chair, but the bright color of the chair helps it stand out and the play on scale becomes a feature!

Here the table is small but the layout of the frames around the table fills the space and it doesn't become overwhelming because the frames are empty -  a nice play on scale here too.

This foyer is huge, the large scale pattern on the floor is a bold accent and helps draw you into the space. And the furniture fits in the space perfectly. You can see the furniture along the walls matches the height of the French doors.

Here they are mixing lots of scale. The large scale of the table mixed with small scale chairs, but they work because the large scale artwork on the walls fills the space.

OK well good luck playing with scale in your space. Does anyone have any fun with scale they want to share?