Why good interiors begin before furniture

Furniture is the most visible part of an interior and the least important place to start. By the time a sofa is chosen, the proportion, light and circulation of the room have largely been decided.

Start with the empty room

We begin by walking an unfurnished space and noting where the light falls, where people will pause and where they will pass through. Those observations become a brief, and the brief tells us what the room needs before any object is selected.

Furniture should respond to the room, not rescue it.

When the planning is right, furniture can be simple. When it is wrong, no arrangement of objects will fully fix it, which is why we change circulation, proportion and light first.

More from the Journal →