THE PROPORTIONS ARE TAKING LEGAL ADVICE

Parlour Postcard 002

Scale is paramount. Ignore at your peril.

Proportion is the benevolent dictator of a room. It decides whether a sofa looks just right or stranded. Whether a rug gathers the furniture together or lies there as if gifted by a kind relative. Whether a lampshade has presence and purpose, or looks as though it was bought in a hurry and has caused uneasiness ever since. You know the one. You glance at it ever time you walk past.

Old houses often have strong bones: tall windows, deep skirtings, chimney breasts, cornices, alcoves, thick walls, narrow returns, odd little shifts in line and level. They can take confidence. They often need it.

The mistake is usually timidity dressed as good taste. Curtains stop too soon. Pictures float too high. Furniture sits politely around the edge of the room. The fireplace is left to do all the work or no work at all, parading a TV on top. Beige as far as the eye can see.

Measure the room, then look again. Height matters. Width matters. So does visual weight, which is more elusive and far more likely to slip through your fingers.

A small room may need a larger gesture. A large room may need restraint. The room will usually tell you, although it may do so after you have already bought the wrong chair, because houses enjoy drama too. Keep the receipt.

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Short notes from Studio Wallander on old house interiors,

materials, details, and design opinions.