SCALE & PROPORTION

What do you know about Scale and Proportion? Does

anything about this Interior Design seem off to you?
 Scale Grand scale
room, features,
Scale deals with the and furniture
absolute size, character
and visual weight of an
object or space compared to
other objects in the same
space.
To achieve good scale, choose
objects that are appropriate for
human dimensions and the Small scale
proper size for the space they room,
occupy. features, and
Adult in a child's chair furniture
Make sure the following are in
scale with the size of the room:
Size and amount of Furniture
and accessories
Size of patterns
Colors
 Proportion Large Furniture
and features are
Proportion is relative, proportional to
the large scale
describing the ratio of room
one part to another part
or to the whole, or the
ratio of one object to
another.
The most effective
proportions have an uneven
Small Furniture
ratio of 2:3, 3:5, or 5:8.
and items are
Square (2x2) is the least
proportional to
pleasing shape. the small scale
Rectangles (3x2, etc) are room
pleasing
An item or arrangement may
be in proportion to itself, but
furniture and accessories
must be in scale to the room
 SCALE & PROPORTION
Too Big, Too Small , or Just Right
The chairs light palate
This chairs large scale This club chair matches
accentuates its skinny,
diminishes everything the scale of the sofa.
small scale.
around it.
 Too Big. Just Right.

Too Small.
Coffee table is over- The table is substantial enough to
anchor the furniture grouping, yet it
scaled for the sofa. leaves room for traffic flow around
both ends.

Table not only looks out of

proportion, it functions
poorly as well.
Too Big.
The large-scale motif and
strong colors of this floral
wallpaper overpower the
petite powder room as well
as the fixtures and furniture
in it.
Too Small. Just Right.
The narrow contrasting
The pattern is so small
stripes provide the ideal
and pale that it almost balance for the clean-lined
disappears. pedestal sink and oversize
pine mirror.
 Too Big. Just Right.

Too Small.

This rug covers too much of the Choose an area rug

floor beyond the conversation area thats about as long and
to define it as a discrete space.
wide as the furnishings
in the space.

Instead of creating
intimacy, the rug only
increases the appearance
of isolation.
 Too Much. Just Right.

Theres no time to pause to

consider any single object, since
Too Little. The weight now shifted to
they are all stepping on one the left side, fewer items
anothers toes in a jostle for are needed there for
space. balance.

Too much space between objects

makes the candlesticks and the
too-small frame look lonely, the
bare wall yawning above.
 Too Big. Just Right.

Too Little.

Theres no breathing To size a single picture, choose

room in this are-to- one thats nearly the same height
sofa match. as the sofa and between half and
two-thirds its width.

This picture is tall enough, roughly

matching the height of the sofa.
But it ends up looking leggy and
lost because its too skinny in
proportion to the sofas width.
 Proportion and Scale Assignments
ASSIGNMENT 1 EXAMPLES:
Unrealistic Scale and Unrealistic Scale: Unrealistic
Proportion The room is not to Proportion:
1. Using magazine cutouts of people,
human scale, it is The parts of the faces
furniture, and other objects, create two
collages; one illustrating UNREALISTIC much too large. Also are out of proportion.
proportion, and one illustrating the Lamp is much
UNREALISTIC scale. larger than the scale
2. Each collage will be graded on
neatness as well as correctness. Mount of the room.
each collage on a separate sheet of
black paper.
3. Each collage should be labeled
according to the principle it illustrates.

Do this for the next 15-20 min, then

well talk about the Golden Mean.
 The Golden Mean
The Golden Mean The most
3
proportionately pleasing division of a line
or form between 1/2 and 1/3.
5
The like is dividing the form so that the
smaller portion has the same ratio to the
2
larger as the larger has to the whole
(example: 2/3=.6 and 3/5=.6)
This creates a series of ratios that
progress by the sum of the two previous
numbers (2:3, 3:5, 5:8, 8:13, 13:21).
It can also be multiples of those ratios
(2:3 or 4:6 or 6:9, etc). 3
Square (2:2) is the least pleasing shape
or ratio. Rectangles are more pleasing,
especially with a ratio of 2:3.
Devised by the Greeks. 2

3 2
 The Golden Mean or Ratio
The Golden Mean is
found everywhere in
good interiors and is 5

often found in nature.

3
Where do you see the golden mean?
Where do you see the golden mean?
Where do you see the golden mean?
Computing Scale & Proportion
A rectangle with proportions of 2 to 3 is ideal. All the drawings
below show items that are in the ideal proportion of 2 to 3. One
dimension is missing for each drawing.

How to find
the missing
measurement:
2/3=X/6
6(2/3=X/6)
4
12/3=X
4=X
Computing Scale & Proportion

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Computing Scale & Proportion

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