A college professor gets up in front of his class and puts an empty glass jar on the table and fills it with big rocks and asks the class if it’s full. The class all agree it’s full. He then pulls out a jar of pebbles and pours them into the glass jar. The pebbles find their way to the spaces between the big rocks. The professor asks again if the jar is full, upon which the class says definitely. The professor then pulls out a jar of sand and pours it in with the big rocks and pebbles and the sand finds its’ way to the small crevices between the big rocks and pebbles. The professor says, now the jar is full and tells the class that the priorities in life are like the big rocks and, if you fill the jar with the sand or pebbles first, there won’t be any room for the big rocks.

So, what does this have to do with furniture, you might be asking yourself. Well, when designing a room, we always start with the big rocks, like sectionals, sofas and dining tables. We then fill in with smaller items like chairs, coffee tables, console tables etc. and these are the pebbles. The finishing touches of accessories like lamps, vases and accessories is the sand.

Don’t get caught up in the smaller things before focusing on the top priorities of the room. Choosing the big pieces first will determine the size and style of the smaller items and become the axle that cranks the wheel.