Have you ever bid furiously on a piece of too good to be true furniture online, only to realise it was designed for a small child or even a doll’s house? I’ve been there. So too have I purchased items like lampshades, artworks or armchairs that, on arrival, looked insurmountably huge for my small flat. However, of all these purchases, small and large, the former were quickly returned while the larger found their unlikely place in the flat, assimilating easily and quickly, much to my disbelief. Of all the furniture and bric-a-brac at home, these lightly oversized pieces are my favourites. Indeed, perhaps they aren’t oversized at all, but just Goldilocks right.
“Overscaled furniture, mirrors and art both anchor a room and draw focus within the space, big or small,” says Jon Sharpe, chief creative officer at the online interiors shop, LuxDeco. “Smaller spaces call for oversized homeware, especially large artwork. In a small room, we would recommend quietening the presence of oversized art by positioning the piece behind a slim console table,” he says, adding, “alternatively, strip back the furniture and where possible, choose a low-lying bench to stand in front of it creating the grandeur found in a gallery.”
