How to Choose Furniture for a Large Room

Upcycling Furniture & Home Decor For Dummies

Choosing furniture for large rooms leaves many scratching their heads. Knowing how to choose the right furniture for a large room can keep your wide-open spaces from seeming cavernous.

Rooms with two-story-high ceilings or extra large floor plans need furniture that is in scale with the room’s dimensions. The best choices are substantial items that have visual mass, which makes them have a bigger impression in the eyes of the beholder. Choosing large furniture pieces is always a good place to start, but you don't need to have every piece supersized.

Here are a few ways to scale up:

Trade in your low-backed sofa for a high-backed (shelter) sofa.
Make your low-backed sofa look taller by standing a continuous row of extra-large toss pillows along the inside back. Better yet, make sure the pillows have a vertical stripe.
Create a seating area using a large sectional. This can help ground the space when the room feels cavernous.
Hang a large, over-scaled picture above the sofa.
Group two rows of several smaller pictures for larger scale and dramatic impact.
Hang a collection of three or four tapestries (dressy) or quilts (country) in compatible colors and patterns in a two-story entry or stairwell.
Build your own wall unit by grouping three to five bookcases as one single, massive unit, and top your arrangement with a super big container of faux or fresh vines.
Stack smaller chests or trunks atop larger ones to build a pyramid. Patterned or textured chests and trunks trimmed with eye-catching hardware don’t need any other decoration (such as a vase) on top.
Make any piece of furniture — a secretary, armoire, or china cabinet — look more important by placing it atop a simple platform built of 2-x-4s on edge, topped with 5/8-inch-thick plywood and covered to match your flooring.
Take a look at how large hotels and restaurants decorate. See how they soften these large industrial spaces into intimate spaces. Try some of their techniques in your home. Don't worry; if it looks beautiful in the lobby of a five-star hotel, chances are it will look lovely in your house as well.

About This Article

About the book author:

Katharine Kaye McMillan, former senior editor of a New York City-based national magazine, is a writer whose work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to internationally circulated Florida Design Magazine. She is the co-author of several books on decorating and design, including Sun Country Style, which is the basis for licensed signature collections of furniture and accessories by three leading American manufacturers and importers. A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, she holds a masters degree in psychology and is a doctoral student in psychology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

Patricia Hart McMillan is a nationally known interior designer, whose interior design work for private clients, designer showcases, and corporations has appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York Times and USA Today. Known as a trend spotter and for clearly articulated views on design, she is quoted frequently and extensively in both trade and consumer publications. She a ppears on TV and talk radio. A prolific writer, she is coauthor and author of seven books on interior design and decoration, with Sun Country Style signature collections of furniture based on two books. She has taught decorating courses at several colleges and conducted numerous seminars across the U.S. She is decorating editor for Christian Woman Magazine and reports on design trends for The Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has been editor-in-chief of two publications and was head of a New York City-based public relations firm representing some of the most prestigious names in home furnishing and building products. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in art history (with an emphasis in architecture), from the State University of New York (New Paltz). She was awarded a certificate from The New York School of Interior Design.