✱Bringing the sofa into the roomto face the fireplace createsinstant intimacy and focus.Interior arranger Kitty Starlingsuggests you look at yourfurnishings and accessories interms of their shapes and thinkabout how the shapes relate toeach other and to the room.Then arrange them around theroom’s most prominent feature.

✱The wing chair stays where itwas originally, now comfortablybalanced by the adjacent sofa.To soften the far corner of theroom, Kitty brought in a foldingscreen. It gives added visualweight to a taller, comb-back?Windsor chair, which helps thechair hold its own in thegrouping. A table and chair thatcan multitask as desk anddisplay space also help bringthe room into balance.

✱The red bench comes out of186

D I N I N G R O O M / L I V I N G R O O M

✱solutionPlace furnishings on thediagonal to open up thespace and add visualexcitement.

TheSpecifics✱ Use the dining table for

display. When you’re not dining,treat the surface like anytabletop in your home—as anopportunity to create a pleasingcomposition. Interior arrangersLisa Billings and Susie Ingramused fabric, tassels, stars, andglobes to create a still life thatcombines shiny, dull, and nubblytextures.

✱ Pay attention to the corners.The table leads your eye to acorner, so put somethingspectacular there to warrantthe attention. Floorcandlestands with tall pillarsand a vase of curly willow on apedestal work like exclamationpoints. For special occasions,enhance the arrangement withfresh fruit and flowers. Tobalance the verticals and softenthe adjacent corner, install alarge, rounded plant there.

✱ Anchor the table with a rug.The rug should be large enoughto contain the table and chairs,with room for chairs to bepushed back from the table. Laythe rug parallel to the table topreserve a well-ordered look. A

Above: Strong color creates drama in

the dining room, but the predictable

furniture placement doesn’t offer

matching excitement.

Page 8: Angling the table and anchor-

ing it with a rug on the same diagonal

produces a livelier look. Plain burlap

shades warm up the windows without

hiding the handsome woodwork.

challenge To make an ordinary boxy dining room andliving room feel extraordinary. In the dining

room, the predictable table arrangementparallel to the walls allows the strong wallcolor to become almost overpowering. The

room could also use accessories to make itmore appealing, both for entertaining and

for everyday enjoyment.

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jute rug adds texture andwarmth without introducingadditional color that could makethe room feel dark and heavy.

✱ Repeat diagonals in theadjoining living room. Diagonalsmake a longer line for the eyeto follow across the room andso expand the sense of space.Angling the sofa also opens upthe seating group, drawing invisitors.

✱ Balance the movement byleaving the coffee table in itsoriginal position, squared up tothe fireplace. This keeps youfrom feeling funneled into avortex; it also emphasizes thefireplace as the focal point.

✱ Unify the seating group withan area rug. If the rug is bigenough to tuck under theseating, it creates a moreexpansive effect and keeps thefurniture from appearing tofloat in the space.

✱ Wake up a dull corner bymoving the artwork from themantel to join the print alreadyon the wall. A floor lamp with ared shade adds a burst of colorby day and warm light by night.

✱ Give the mantel drama byusing objects in scale with thearchitecture. Resting a tall

mirror and framed print on themantel instead of hanging themconveys a casual look and letsyou change displays withoutmaking more nail holes in thewall. Hanging one small piecehas an unexpectedly intimateeffect—it draws you closer, andlike the period at the end of asentence, it completes thearrangement.

✱ Express your interests with adisplay of favorite objects onthe coffee table. Choose itemsthat appeal to you because oftheir color, texture, or shape.Interior arrangers emphasizethat it’s important to havesomething tall on the coffeetable, such as the candlesticks,so that you have a visual lift inthe center of the room.

✱ Show off your best furnitureby positioning it where it can be

Left: Make the most of corners by

treating them as secondary focal

points. The framed piece is wider than

the chest, so drawing up a side chair

helps balance the size of the painting.

Page 10: The visual weight of the

furniture hugs the floor and

keeps the focus low. To lift the eye,

use vertical elements, such as floor

lamps, candlesticks, or plants, in

corners and in the middle of the room.

seen and appreciated. AnEmpire-style chest of drawerswent unnoticed on a short wall(not shown) but became asecondary focal point whenmoved to the adjacent wall (seebelow). Pair it with artwork andarrange accessories on thechest to overlap the wall art,creating a visual link. Use tallplants as vertical accents inotherwise dead corners.

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Above: Your first instinct in a small room

is to push the furniture against the wall,

but that squeezes the side table into the

corner. The framed watercolor and the

baskets of ferns hang too high and don’t

relate to one other effectively.

Page 12: Moving the sofa into the room

relieves crowding. Using accessories to

create dramatic verticals enhances the

illusion of space.

S U N P O R C H

challengeTo enlarge the sense of space in a narrowenclosed porch. The room benefits from a

wall of glass doors and windows on one sideand a wide cased opening on the other,

connecting the porch to the living room (notshown). But within the room itself, the

furnishings feel a bit crowded, and walldisplays could be more effectively arranged.

✱solutionPull the seating pieces intothe room to relieve thecrowded feeling andenhance the sense ofspace. This also opens uproom for displays and better use of lighting.

TheSpecifics✱ Pull seating away from walls.

Even in a narrow room, thisenhances the sense of spacebecause it creates depth.Interior arrangers DonnaMobley and Kitty Starlingtucked a small table behind thesofa to provide a spot for alamp, one of three that nowilluminate the room with cozypools of light. To distribute lightevenly around the room andavoid shadowy spots, use atleast three lamps placed in atriangle. Also vary the heightsof the lamps so the light is castat different levels.

✱ Lift the eye with dramaticverticals. This is another trickfor increasing the perceivedspace in a room. Pulling the sofaforward opened space in thecorner for Donna to stack thetwo end tables to form acolumn. This becomes a stagefor a display that incorporatesobjects of different sizes and11

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shapes. “I tell people to go overscalefor impact,” says Donna.

✱ Create a focal point. The lamp andstacked tables frame the wall behindthe sofa, so Donna and Kitty filled thespace with more verticals—a print anda tole container with dried leaves urgethe eye toward the ceiling,emphasizing a lofty sense of space.“You want to go up into the space tomake a statement,” says Kitty. Tallflowers on the coffee table performthe same function.

✱ Match accessories to the space.The fern-filled cone-shape basketshanging above the sofa were toosmall for the space and were too farapart to relate well to each other.Donna moved them to the oppositewall, beside the door to the breakfastarea. Here they form a column thatsuits the proportions of the wall. Asmall painted chest from elsewhere inthe house moves into the corner toprovide handy storage and a visualbase for the baskets.

✱ Use large-scale pieces for balance.A baker’s rack from the breakfastarea makes a better television standthan the wicker storage basketbecause it’s large enough to anchorthe corner and balance the sofa.Angled across the corner, the unit fitsinto the room without crowding, andthe top shelf provides a spot foranother lamp at a different level.

✱ Unify the conversation area with arug. Its green color picks up the greenelement in the cushion fabric andadds warmth to the terra-cotta floor.

✱ Add color accents. Donna found a setof sunflower plates tucked away in acabinet and lined them up above thewindows. Here they reinforce thecolors in the fabric and walls,strengthening the room’s colorscheme. They also take the eye to theceiling, enlarging the sense of space.

Above: Lining up the chairs along the window

wall creates an awkward conversational

grouping. The television looks like an

afterthought standing on a low wicker basket.

Above: Verticals—lamps,

flowers, wall baskets—

lift the eye and create

an impression of

expansive space even in

a small room.

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