apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

There's a thing called overdoing symmetrical too - LOL.

I was literally just thinking about this. My sister and I discovered we'd recently purchased the same style sofa, yet it feels completely different in our spaces. I think the reason is she uses a single chair next to it, while I have another sofa (albeit different style) across a coffee table -- creating a symmetrical feel. Her space is much larger than mine, but the furniture feels lost, and the room actually seems smaller (than mine which is much smaller with much more, larger furniture). Anyway, such a good point! I discuss more of these types of things in my blog http://tearinguphouses.blogspot.com/

This is the best of the city AT blogs. I think the bed photo is great, and I like symmetry as well, except when I don't.

I agree with k51279. Use of complimentary objects to approximate symmetry pleases me. Purchasing the same two of anything means I've got a relationship that forces itself upon the whole room.

The first photo doesn't make sense to me. The chairs are in interview position, but they should be angled a little bit to take in the fireplace. The reading lamps don't look usable to anyone sitting in the chairs - perhaps one appropriately placed behind a chair?

I think balance and symmetry are easily confused. Balance doees make a small space look bigger, but symmetry in a small space can make a sitting area, for example, look like a waiting room - which I don't think is ever a good look.

I think k51279's post is a good example of how symmetry could work in a larger space however, by defining an area so it doesn't get lost in a bigger room.

I know designers are always preaching about the power of threes but I'm hooked on symmetry — there are pairs of just about everything in our living room and I find the balance copasetic, if perhaps, a little stiff: http://stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/07/time-for-an-intervention/

Cool digs, Chris.

Symmetry isn't what makes a space look like a waiting room - it's all the chairs and sofas pushed up against the walls with a little table floating somewhere out of reach in the middle...

Yes, symmetry in small objects is generally a bad thing: Think of the mantelscapes or buffets we've all seen that have a pair of candlesticks and a pair of faux topiary plus a pair of twee vases arranged like an altar to the god of decorative objects...

However, IMO there's nothing that conveys luxury better than matched pairs of large items: a pair of sofas facing one another across a large coffee table in the center of a room, a pair of identical lounge chairs or wing chairs on either side of a fireplace, a pair of matched lowboys set on either side of a large archway or on either side of a bed, or a pair of over-scaled matching lamps on either end of a long credenza, or on either side of a sofa or a bed.

This might be unrelated to this post, but WHERE is that coffee table from? I need something just like that.

i don't know zaky, but i purchased a REALLY similar one ages ago from pier one...

k51279: The one with the claw-feet, glass top? It was almost perfect...I just didn't want a glass top :(

no... it had a straw mesh sort of top in a wood frame. i know it sounds awful, but it was pretty sweet. the frame was nearly? the same (exactly, if i remember correctly)...