"When your seating heights are wildly uneven, it feels like the furniture is arguing,"
"A sofa at 18 inches next to a lounge chair at 13 looks like one of them gave up halfway through the conversation. But within that 4-inch window, everything starts to hum together - the eye relaxes, and the room feels composed without you quite knowing why."
"Think of it less like a law and more like social etiquette for furniture. You want everyone sitting at roughly the same level so the conversation and the view line feels balanced."
"When seating heights are wildly different, the room can feel disjointed and conversation awkward. Keeping pieces within a similar range naturally creates flow and visual steadiness."
Keep seat heights—sofas, armchairs, dining chairs, and banquettes—within about a four-inch range to preserve visual harmony and comfort. Consistent seating heights align sightlines and make conversation feel more natural and balanced. Large differences in seat heights create a disjointed look and awkward physical relationships between seated people. When seats fall within the four-inch window, the room reads as composed and cohesive and the overall flow improves. Treat the four-inch guideline as a flexible social-ergonomic principle rather than an absolute rule, adaptable to design needs and personal preference.
Read at Apartment Therapy
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