FairFits

the standards · flow

The Flow standards

Fit says which placements are possible. Flow chooses between them: where the piece belongs once several spots all pass the measurements.

There are no numbers on this page, on purpose. A Flow standard names something in the room, says which workable placement it prefers, and says what that preference costs. Every one of them can be overruled by a measurement inthe clearance standards, named under it, and no placement is argued on Flow that has not passed those first.

5 of the 6 are FairFits' own placement judgment; the others name the source they rest on and the setting that source addresses.

The arrival path

In the room
The first step into the room, from the open door to the point where the room's routes divide.
The judgment
Between placements that all clear the door, prefer the one that leaves the first step into the room open and obvious. A door that clears the furniture is not yet a convenient way in.
What it costs
Keeping the entry open usually moves storage farther along the wall, away from where it is handiest. In a tight room a turn at the door can still be the best arrangement available, and that is a compromise, not a fault.
Fit can overrule it
Door swing arc, Primary walkway
Whose judgment
FairFits judgment
Argued in

The main route first

In the room
The route used most, and used worst: door to bed, door to closet, carrying something, in the dark.
The judgment
When the floor cannot be generous everywhere, give the generous width to the main route and let a route used once a day take the squeeze.
What it costs
The far side of the bed, or the path to a window, ends up tighter than it would be in an even split. Whoever uses that side pays for it.
Fit can overrule it
Primary walkway, Secondary walkway
Whose judgment
FairFits judgment
Argued in

The approach, not only the footprint

In the room
The patch of floor in front of a piece that a person has to stand in, step through or back out of to use it.
The judgment
Place a piece where its approach stays open. A smaller piece buys back floor around itself, not the floor in front of it, so a corner whose approach runs into the bed or the door path is not an open corner.
What it costs
The spot with the best approach is often the more visible one. The tucked-away corner looks tidier and works worse.
Fit can overrule it
Desk chair pushback, Standing room at a wardrobe, Door swing arc
Whose judgment
FairFits judgment
Argued in

One patch of floor, two jobs, in turns

In the room
Floor that serves as a walkway and also as the standing room in front of a drawer or a door.
The judgment
Two uses may share a patch of floor when they happen at different times. Prefer the placement where the shared patch belongs to one person's routine, not where two people need it at the same moment.
What it costs
Sharing the floor lets a deeper or larger piece into the room. The price is that the route is closed whenever the drawer is open.
Fit can overrule it
Primary walkway
Whose judgment
FairFits judgment
Argued in

The wall is spent before the floor

In the room
An uninterrupted run of wall, from one thing that stops a piece to the next: a corner, a door casing, a window.
The judgment
Treat that run as a budget other things also draw on: the door's swing, a nightstand, the bed's room to shift. Prefer the shape that leaves the wall able to do a second job, even when both shapes fit it.
What it costs
The shape that saves wall is usually taller or deeper, so it takes height, floor or sightline to give the wall back.
Fit can overrule it
Clearance at the foot of the bed, Primary walkway
Whose judgment
FairFits judgment
Argued in

The bed reads the door

In the room
A bedroom's one door, as seen from the bed: whether a person lying there can see it without turning, and whether the foot of the bed points straight out of it.
The judgment
Among the walls that clear the door's swing and keep the bedside, prefer the one from which the door is in view at a diagonal — not behind the head, and not straight ahead of the feet — with a solid wall behind the headboard. The bed gets distance from the entrance; the entrance stays in sight.
What it costs
The wall with the diagonal view is often the long wall wanted for a dresser, or the window wall the source would rather the bed avoided, and a corner placement gives up one bedside. In a narrow room the diagonal may not exist; the straight-ahead wall is then the honest choice, named as the compromise, and no mirror or hung object changes the physical fact.
Fit can overrule it
Door swing arc, Bedside clearance, Primary walkway
Whose judgment
practitioner source Anjie Cho, "Q&A Sunday: The Best Feng Shui Bed Position", Holistic Spaces blog — addresses the bed in a bedroom, relative to the room's door: the commanding position, in which the door can be seen from the bed without the bed lying directly in its line, and the coffin position, in which the feet point out of the door; plus a solid wall and fastened headboard behind the sleeper
Argued in