Why Your Room Feels 'Off': The 5 Proportion Mistakes Everyone Makes
Image Credit: The Staged Life | Emily Hart Photo
You've arranged and rearranged. You've bought new throw pillows. You even splurged on that expensive rug. But something still feels... wrong. The room looks fine in photos, but when you're actually sitting in it, it just doesn't work.
Nine times out of ten, the problem isn't what you chose, it's how it all relates to each other. Proportion is the invisible force that makes spaces feel either harmonious or chaotic, and most people are unknowingly fighting against it every day.
Mistake #1: The Floating Furniture Syndrome
Walk into most living rooms, and you'll see the same scene: a sofa floating in the middle of the room like a lonely island, with a coffee table that could double as a postage stamp sitting sadly in front of it.
Here's the thing about furniture placement that nobody talks about: your brain craves connection. When furniture pieces look like they're trying to escape from each other, your subconscious picks up on that tension.
The fix is simpler than you think. Your coffee table should be about two-thirds the length of your sofa, not half. And that gap between sofa and coffee table? It should be close enough to easily reach your drink, far enough to stretch your legs.
I once had a client with a gorgeous sofa that somehow made her living room feel cramped. The culprit? A tiny round coffee table that looked like it was cowering in the corner. We replaced it with an oversized rectangular ottoman, and suddenly the whole room exhaled.
Mistake #2: Art That's Afraid of Heights
This one makes me cringe every time: beautiful artwork hung so high it might as well be ceiling decoration. There's this persistent myth that art should be hung at "eye level," but whose eye level? A basketball player's? A child's?
Make sure that the centre point of the artwork is roughly 150cm from the ground. This works in 90% of spaces because it's based on average human eye level, not the eye level of whoever's tallest in your house.
But here's where it gets interesting: size matters more than you think. That 16x20 print that looked perfect in the store? It's probably too small for the wall you have planned. Most people need to go at least 50% larger than their first instinct.
For artwork above a sofa, aim for pieces that are 60-75% of the sofa's width. That might be one large piece or a carefully curated grouping.
Image Credit: McGee & Co
Mistake #3: The Rug That Gave Up
Nothing makes a room look more unfinished than a rug that's too small. I call them "area rug islands", these tiny carpets that seem to be floating in a sea of bare floor, anchoring absolutely nothing.
In living rooms, your rug should be large enough for at least the front legs of all your furniture to sit on it. Ideally, all four legs of your main seating pieces should fit. This creates a visual boundary that makes the seating area feel intentional and cohesive.
The most common rug sizes people think they need versus what they actually need:
What they buy: 5x8 rug for a living room
What they need: 8x10 or 9x12 rug
In dining rooms, your rug should extend beyond your table on all sides. This ensures that when people pull out chairs, they're still on the rug, not half on-half off.
Mistake #4: The Scale Confusion Crisis
This is where things get tricky. You can have beautiful individual pieces that create a chaotic mess when combined. It's like wearing a statement necklace with statement earrings with a statement ring—too much competing for attention.
The secret is understanding visual weight, not just physical size. A delicate glass coffee table has less visual weight than a chunky wooden one, even if they're the same dimensions. A dark navy sofa has more visual weight than the same sofa in light grey.
I use the "squint test" with clients. Squint at your room until everything gets blurry. What you're seeing now is the balance of visual weight. Are there heavy, dark masses all on one side? Is everything feeling too light and floating? This helps you see what needs to be adjusted.
Image Credit: ABI Interiors
Mistake #5: The Lighting Height Horror Show
Pendant lights over kitchen islands hung at random heights. Chandeliers that either knock you out or disappear into the ceiling. Table lamps that cast light on absolutely nothing useful.
Every light fixture has an ideal height, and these measurements aren't suggestions—they're based on function and proportion:
Pendant lights over islands: 75-90 cms above the surface Chandeliers in dining rooms: 80cms above the table Bedside table lamps: Lamp bottom should be at mattress level, with the shade at eye level when you're sitting up in bed
One of my favorite transformations involved simply adjusting the height of a client's dining room chandelier. It had been hung so high it was basically decorating the ceiling. Lowering it by 45 cms transformed the entire room from a cafeteria-like space into an intimate dining experience.
The Fix That Changes Everything
Start with your largest piece, usually the sofa, and build everything else in relationship to it. Don't choose pieces in isolation. That beautiful coffee table might be perfect for someone else's living room but completely wrong for yours.
Remember: good proportion isn't about following rigid rules. It's about creating relationships between objects that feel harmonious and intentional. When you get it right, you stop noticing the individual pieces and start experiencing the room as a cohesive whole.
And that "off" feeling? It disappears completely.
