I was just explaining about too-small objects to a friend and her reaction was, ‘Oh my God, how did I not know this?’, which made me think I should share it with you in case it’s useful. It’s a bit like the scarf thing (wrapping by starting with a corner rather than the whole blunt end): if you know you know and it’s glaringly obvious, but if you don’t it changes everything.
My friend’s issue was this: she has some really nice objects, as in purely decorative items that sit about in various rooms bringing pleasure whenever the eye alights on them. This is their only job - to bring joy through beauty, to remind her of a happy memory, to make her feel contented whenever she looks at them, and to feel pleased about her shopping choices.
But, my friend said, none of this really happens. The eye does not alight. Joy does not come. The objects are lovely - a small painting, some enviable ceramics, a shell and some candlesticks, among other things - but instead of looking glorious and meaningful, ‘they just look really random and unspecial. I can’t understand why’.
I can. Well, I can now, x number of houses later. It’s because the objects in question are too small. To put it a different way, they don’t have enough visual weight.
You know when you have a surface - a coffee table, shelf, console, bedside table, dresser or whatever - that doesn’t look quite right? Nine times out of ten it’s to do with the smallness of the things on it. Same thing if you’ve ever said ‘Thank you - I always feel it’s rather lost’ when someone compliments you on something in your house (usually because they’ve only just noticed it even though you’ve had it for nine million years).
The objects aren’t too small in themselves, obviously - a candlestick is always going to be candlestick-sized, a bud vase is by definition mini - but they are too small for the context they’re in, and this robs them of their presence and by extension of their visual appeal. Being too small, they become lost, and all your good work sourcing them and loving them is lost alongside.
We all have small things, obviously. Small things are great. Nobody lives in The House of Giant Objects. But there’s a right and a wrong way of displaying them, and a very easy fix.