If you took an elephant’s legs and put them onto a flamingo, it would be quite a distracting thing…to say the least. Same thing if you saw an alligator’s legs on a monkey or an eagle’s legs on a kangaroo. My point here is not to dive into the realm of what-animal-combination-would-be-weirdest (although I’d recommend playing this game with your young children; it makes for a wild Friday night party), but my point is that legs on a thing are incredibly important in how that thing is perceived, how it functions, and how it looks.

The same idea (although arguably to a less extreme sense) goes for furniture legs. Although a small part of a space overall, a piece of furniture’s legs play a key role in the all-around vibe and aesthetics. I’ll show you what I mean:

Each piece of furniture here is very leggy, and charmingly so. Tall, simple wooden legs work well on solid cream-colored furniture and paired with a colorful, graphic rug. The legs here have modern sensibilities (straight, clean lines that emphasize white space) but also produce a timeless look. The vibe is minimal and simple…yet anything but boring.

Here, curved legs of this blue armless chair complement the curves of the chair itself, as well as the lattice-print rug. Their detailed flourishes fit perfectly here in this ornate, plush room. What’s more, the modern stem design of the white Saarinen side table is a nice contrast to the fairly traditional space. The table is nicely proportioned next to the blue chair, and the legs of each combine to create a pleasing visual juxtaposition.

Anything can be made into furniture legs, frankly, and this is evidence of that. Whimsical and perfectly at home on a small game table, these spiral cone legs legs work as an accessory to the room’s overall vibe rather than trying to become a defining piece. The modern-industrial feel of these legs pairs tastefully with classically straight wooden chair legs.

This space provides a textbook balance between dissimilar and similar furniture legs. The dark wood legs here are not only beautiful, but they also serve to tie the primary (seating) furniture together. They contrast just enough with the slim metallic legs of one side table and the large pedestal stem of the other side table. The effect is interesting and lovely, incorporating just enough contrast to make things visually balanced but not so much that it’s distracting from the overall peaceful aura.

Again, this space succeeds in large part to strategic leggy variety. This time, we have no noticeable legs on the sofa, but we do see small wooden peg legs on the yellow club chairs and long slender metal legs on the butterfly lounge chair. Legginess helps to define furniture against the thick and dark shag rug, but since the sofa matches the rug color, it can pull off being sans legs. It’s almost as if, here, the amount of leg shown on each piece is in direct proportion to the size of the furniture itself. And I find the effect to be wildly successful.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.