When a Room Doesn't Quite Work ...

How to find what's causing the problem before you start again.

September has a habit of turning our attention back towards the house. The days begin to shorten, we spend a little more time indoors, and rooms that seemed perfectly adequate through the summer suddenly come under closer scrutiny.

Sometimes the problem is obvious: a paint colour we have never really liked, curtains that have seen better days, or a piece of furniture that simply doesn’t fit.

More often, though, there is nothing particularly wrong. The furniture is good, the colours are pleasant and everything is where it ought to be, yet somehow the room still doesn’t feel quite right ...

Before reaching for a paint chart or deciding that everything needs replacing, it is worth trying to work out what is actually causing the imbalance. Very often, a room needs far less intervention than we imagine.

Start with proportion, not colour

Colour tends to get blamed first, but proportion is often the real culprit.

A sofa that is too small for a large room can look slightly lost. An oversized coffee table can make circulation awkward. A collection of small pieces of furniture can make a room feel cluttered even when there isn’t actually very much in it.

Rugs are another common example. A rug floating between the furniture rather than relating to it can visually divide a room into lots of smaller parts. Increasing the size so that at least the front legs of the principal pieces sit on it can make exactly the same furniture suddenly feel connected.

The same principle applies vertically. If every piece of furniture finishes at roughly the same height, a room can feel strangely flat. A tall lamp, artwork, curtains or a well-positioned bookcase can restore some variation and give the eye somewhere to travel.

Before buying anything new, stand in the doorway and look at the shapes rather than the decoration. Quite often, the problem becomes much easier to see.

Look at the windows

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a curtain maker, the windows are one of the first places I look.

Windows occupy a substantial amount of wall space and have a disproportionate influence on how a room feels. Yet window treatments are frequently regarded as something to add at the end.

Curtains that finish too close to the edge of a window can make it appear smaller. A pole positioned too low can reduce the apparent height of a room. Too much fabric stacked over the glass restricts daylight, while too little fullness can make an otherwise lovely fabric look rather mean.

Sometimes curtains aren’t the answer at all. A Roman blind may suit the proportions of a smaller window far better, or a combination of blind and curtains might provide the right balance of privacy, light control and softness.

There is no universal formula. The architecture of the room, the shape of the window, the fabric and the way the space is used all matter.

Good window treatments should look as though they belong to the room, rather than having simply been fitted to the window.

Furniture doesn’t always belong against a wall

We have a natural tendency to push furniture to the edges of a room, particularly when we want it to feel larger. It doesn’t always work.

In a generously sized sitting room, pulling chairs and sofas away from the walls can create a much more comfortable arrangement. Furniture can then relate to the people using it rather than simply following the perimeter of the room.

Think about how people actually move through the space. Is there a natural route to the door? Can someone put down a cup without stretching? Do chairs face one another comfortably enough for conversation? Is there an obvious place for the eye to settle?

Even moving a chair, changing the angle of a sofa or relocating a side table can alter the balance considerably. It costs nothing to experiment.

Colour needs relationships

Choosing a colour because you love it isn’t always enough. Colours need something to relate to.

A blue patterned curtain, for example, may feel disconnected if that particular blue appears nowhere else in the room. Introduce it quietly in a cushion, a painting or a piece of pottery and suddenly the choice begins to make sense.

This doesn’t mean everything should match. In fact, rooms where the curtain fabric, cushions and upholstery have been coordinated too precisely can feel rather staged.

I prefer colours to have a conversation with one another rather than all saying exactly the same thing.

It is also worth remembering that colour changes enormously with light. A fabric or paint that looks warm and inviting in a showroom may behave quite differently in a north-facing room at home. Samples are invaluable. Look at them in the room, at different times of day, and ideally live with them for a little while before deciding.

Texture matters more than we sometimes realise

A room can have an excellent colour palette and still feel rather lifeless if every surface has the same visual weight.

Linen, wool, timber, leather, woven fibres and ceramics all reflect light differently and bring subtle variation without necessarily adding more colour or pattern. This is one reason one neutral room can feel rich and interesting while another feels bland. The difference is often texture.

Equally, not every surface needs to make a statement. If the curtains are strongly patterned, perhaps the upholstery can be quieter. If there is an exceptional piece of furniture in the room, give it enough space to be noticed. Good interiors need some restraint.

Don’t overlook the lighting

Lighting is another frequent source of that feeling that something isn’t working.

A single central pendant may technically illuminate a room, but it rarely creates a particularly comfortable atmosphere.

Table lamps, floor lamps and directional lighting allow pools of light to develop at different heights and make a room much more adaptable. This becomes especially apparent as autumn approaches and artificial light begins to play a greater part in our evenings.

Before changing the decoration, try changing the lamps. You may be surprised.

And finally, take something away

Perhaps the most useful interiors advice of all is not to assume that the answer is always to add something. Rooms accumulate things. Another side table appears, another cushion arrives, pictures are fitted into the only remaining spaces on the wall. Sometimes a room feels wrong simply because there is too much competing for attention. Try removing a few things and looking again.

Good furniture and beautiful fabrics benefit from space around them. An interesting chair looks more interesting when it isn’t surrounded by five other objects trying equally hard to be noticed.

Finding the thing that is wrong

When I visit a client’s home to discuss curtains, blinds or other soft furnishings, the conversation rarely stays confined to the window. Fabrics have to relate to the furniture, the light, the proportions of the room and, most importantly, to the people who live there.

I am sometimes asked whether I am an interior designer and I am not. I am, first and foremost a maker, although years of working with fabrics and seeing them in people’s homes inevitably teaches you a great deal about what makes a room feel balanced.

My instinct is usually not to ask what should be changed, but what is already working. There is little point replacing something simply for the sake of creating a new scheme. Often the solution turns out to be surprisingly modest: curtains hung differently, a better placed or proportioned blind, furniture rearranged, a colour repeated elsewhere in the room, or simply removing something that was never quite right.

A successful room doesn’t need to conform to a particular style, nor does everything in it need to be new. Some of the most interesting interiors mix different periods, materials and price points very successfully.

What matters is balance.

So, if you have a room that has never quite worked, resist the temptation to start again.

Stand back. Look at the proportions. Look at the windows and the light. Move things around. Take something away.

Once you have identified what is actually wrong, the solution is usually much easier to find.

Phillippa Kirby,

Phillippa Kirby Soft Furnishings