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Interior Design vocabulary · Design Principles

Scale

Meaning in interior design, with examples

/skeɪl/nounCore term

In interior design, scale means: The size of an object compared with the room it is in and with the people who use it; also the ratio used on a drawing, such as 1:50.

In Turkish: ölçek, boyut ilişkisi

How it is used

In design talk, scale is about whether furniture and objects suit the size of the space: a sofa can be out of scale or too small in scale. On drawings it means the drawing ratio. Compare proportion, which is about how the parts relate to each other.

Example sentences

  1. The dining table is out of scale with the room; there's no space to pull out the chairs.

  2. In a room with high ceilings you can use lights and art on a bigger scale.

Common collocations

  • out of scale
  • sense of scale
  • large-scale
  • scale and proportion
  • proportionThe relationship in size between the different parts of an object or a room, for example between the height of a lamp and its shade, or a window and its wall.
  • to scaleDrawn so that every measurement keeps the same fixed ratio to the real size, for example 1:50, so that sizes can be measured from the drawing.
  • visual weightHow heavy or light an object looks, whatever its real weight; dark colours, solid bases, large size and bold patterns all add visual weight.
  • balanceThe even spread of visual weight in a room, so that no side feels heavier or emptier than another; it can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Design Principles

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