Rooms

Have you ever looked around a room in your home and thought, “Hmm, something isn’t quite right?” but you couldn’t figure out why? Honestly, it could be a handful of reasons, such as the color palette isn’t well-rounded, the size or scale of your furniture is off, or maybe your curtains or art aren’t hung at the correct height. But if you feel like those boxes are all checked to your satisfaction, there could be something else going on: You don’t have the right combination of silhouette weights. Let me explain.

Most furniture and larger accessories can be categorized into two groups—leggy and chunky—and if the balance is off between these, things can feel either overly floaty or too heavy. While there are always exceptions to the rules (yup, I’m going through those, too), I took some time to study images in a variety of rooms to figure out what the right mix of chunky (solid, low-lying base) + leggy (thin-lined silhouette or tall legs) is to hit the bullseyes on balance in your spaces. But first, I want to give credit to Hans Lorei, who made this video on the topic a few weeks ago, which got my gears churning on the subject. Give it a watch as a primer; I’ll wait.