Question: How can I make my living room a little bit roomier? This sofa bed in the living room seems so big that there are only small spaces going to the window. The small dining room is on the left side of the picture. The sofa bed measures 89 by 36 inches. I was thinking of replacing the sofa bed with an Oriental-style rosewood sofa that measures 76 by 30 inches that I saw in a store here in San Francisco, to go with my coffee table, which is also rosewood. Do you think this will look OK?

Eleanor F. Silvano San Francisco

Answer: Decorating a space while keeping everything in good proportion is what designers do every day, but the challenge of doing it well in a home with furniture that is too large for the room is always difficult.

If, as you suggest, you can replace the offending piece of furniture with one that has a more appropriate scale for the room, you’ve come up with a no-brainer solution to your design dilemma. And any designer or person trying to redecorate their own home would be thrilled if this solution were always an option.

However, sometimes this isn’t feasible, and the real challenge is how to decorate a room that has to include furniture too big for the space. Having said that, let’s try to solve this design dilemma as if keeping the large furniture is the only option available. [Read more…]