How to work with furniture of differing height or weight
1. The Problem
As your eye travels around the room following the top of your furniture and artwork, do they follow a similar line, or do they move up and down because your furniture and art are placed at very different heights? If your eye flows relatively evenly from piece to piece, placed at similar heights that’s great. If however your eye moves up and down like a roller coaster as you survey the room, this will be contributing to the room not feeling as good as it could.
2. The Consequence
A room that has too much variation in furniture heights or weight may feel jarring and uninviting.
3. The Solution
If you have a tall piece of furniture next to a much shorter piece, see if you can balance them either by placing them further apart, or by adding a piece of artwork above the shorter piece.
This will help make the pieces fit better alongside each other, since the smaller piece will feel “taller” and therefore sit in harmony with the taller piece next to it.
Once you have placed art work in positions that help balance the taller pieces in the room, you should then ensure that any remaining artwork is also hung at an appropriate height so as not to feel unusually high (or low) compared to other pieces in the room.
I have seen rooms where there is a lot of low set furniture, but the artwork is hung too high. My rule of thumb for hanging artwork is to hang it “slightly lower than you think”. It’s surprisingly common for people to hang their art too high (or simply use a hook that was there already and never get around to placing it effectively). To be most dramatic your art should be at eye level (but if you have an extra tall household, then slightly lower than that so that the art still feels connected to the furniture (not floating high above everything else).
In my last blog how to make your home interior feel more balanced I explain how to achieve nice balance of your furniture within a space. This can also be applied when solving the issue of differing furniture heights, so check it out.
4. An Example
Here’s a real life before and after example of a room that wasn’t feeling right due to differing furniture heights, and what we did to make the space feel more cohesive and inviting.
The furniture and artwork was not hanging together as well as it could. The artwork was hung slightly too high. This was being emphasised by the fact that there was nothing under the art work to balance it effectively.
The long low line of the couch sitting under the window highlighted difference in heights and made them jar.
By placing the couch underneath the artwork, we removed the issue of differing heights. We also lowered the large artwork slightly to make it fit more comfortably above the couch, and not feel like it was disconnected and “floating” above. Paired with a smaller piece of artwork it also felt less dominant.
The couch and artwork were then balanced by two occasional chairs on the opposite side of the room. The whole space felt much more inviting and calming as a result.
As you start to see your home with fresh eyes, you'll be amazed at the difference a few simple changes can make. What can you change at your place to make your space feel more balanced and inspiring?