238 Interiors Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Visual scale is a comparison of one object to another as perceived with your eyes. When you compare the Empire State Building to a small rural town, the scale seems too large. A child’s play table compared to a typi- cal dining table seems small. Use of scale in furnishings, doorways, and windows alters a viewer’s perception of a building or of an interior space. Human scale, in contrast, is the perception people experience within a space. You may feel small in scale when you stand in your state’s capital building rotunda. Another example is when the scale is too tight, such as with a small elevator. In this case, you may feel closed in—sometimes even feeling claustrophobic. Extremes of scale can be surprising. The Thorne Room Miniatures is a well-known set of historical interior spaces developed to depict finishes and furnishings of a specific period. They are delightful to view in their modeled, miniature detail. Entering a large palace can be surprising as well, but inspire different emotions. The fireplace in the grand hall can be two or three times the width and height of a standard residential fireplace and make the tallest person look small. Thus, unexpected use of scale often makes a design statement, Figure 8-28. The wrong scale, while fun in some places, can have a devastating effect in some areas of design. Furniture size should fit the scale of the room. If it does not, the furniture can crowd a small room, making it look even smaller. In contrast, furniture that is too small in scale for a room appears even smaller in an oversized space. The proportion example used earlier regarding a large island in a small kitchen applies here, too. While the large island was in the wrong proportion for the kitchen, the island was in correct scale. Note that a piece of furniture can be in the correct scale, but poorly proportioned for the room. One of the goals of good design and beauty is the selection of furnishings and fixtures that are in scale with one another and the whole of the interior space. Furniture should also be in scale to other furniture around it. A small, delicate end table will appear more so if placed next to an overstuffed lounge chair. With this in mind, you can use different scales in the same interior space to achieve a design statement. Very large or very small furnishings can contrast with large-size works of art. In interiors, designers use scale to ■ place the right-size furniture in a room. Is king size bed too large for space? ■ determine if pattern motifs are appropriately sized for the object they cover. ■ select the accessories. Is the art piece too large for the fireplace surround? ■ determine if a chair is the appropriate size for the person using it. Design by Lita Dirks & Co., LLC Photography by Imoto Design by Lita Dirks & Co., LLC Photography by Quick Pic Tours Figure 8-27 Scale is an important principle of design. How does scale effectively work in these living spaces?