Where to Put a Suit of Armor in a Normal House
A suit of armor mounted on its stand reaches nearly 70 inches in height. The average eye level of a human is somewhere between 60 and 64 inches, meaning the armor is six to ten inches higher than that level. It’s this six to ten inch discrepancy that accounts for the whole problem. When we place such large things in foyers, they don’t appear like objects the way console tables or coat stands do, but rather they appear as a person standing there.
The height of an armor bust from its base to its top is usually measured between 45 inches and 60 inches; because of this, people usually read the bust as furniture, and it will go wherever furniture goes. This difference is exactly the reason why each item is placed in its proper position, and it is also what decides whether it becomes part of the house or simply blocks the room. Here are the numbers.
A Full Suit and a Bust Are Not the Same Thing
The material is the one thing they share in common. Nothing else seems really close.
Putting together an entire suit of armor with a metal stand to place it on would take a total height of 68 to 74 inches, with the base being of a size of 14 to 18 inches. The majority of decorative armor is made from 18 or 20 gauge steel, so they weigh around 40 to 65 pounds. Taking some extra space to have breathing room, the actual size is about 4 by 4 feet.
A bust is just the breastplate and helmet on a slightly smaller stand of 45 to 60 inches height with a base of 12 to 16 inches. The whole thing is so small that you can pick it up by yourself and move it if you want to change the view. You will have to give it about 3 feet of floor in each direction.
Installing a full suit of armor is a decision about the house. Putting up a bust is not very different from deciding what piece of furniture to put. In addition, a flat black steel plate of 16 inches cannot be easily hidden.
Where a Full Suit Actually Goes
Let’s start with a hallway that’s typically 36 inches wide. If you put an 18-inch base in it, you’re left with only 18 inches for people to walk through. That’s not really a hallway anymore, it’s more like a tight squeeze.
There are three positions that actually work. The first is a stair landing. It is a relatively quiet area, measuring around 36 to 48 inches in depth, and it’s not a high-traffic zone. When you stand at the foot of the stairs, the figure on the landing is the first thing you see, head-on, with nothing in front of it.
The second is a stair turn. That spot can be considered a dead spot anyway, and because the figure is viewed from below, it tends to draw attention to its shoulders and helmet. The third is the end of a hallway, where the hallway itself is a dead end. Even though the figure is the last thing you see as you reach the end of the hallway, it doesn’t actually cause any interruption or obstruction. Instead, it closes the view, becoming a natural part of the overall scene.
Actually, when it comes to displaying knight armor, there’s one place it should never be put, right in the middle of the straight path from the main door to the next room. The reason is simple: it’s always going to catch your eye and stop you in your tracks. What a bust really needs is a corner to call its own. Turn a 16-inch base 45 degrees into the corner and it touches each wall for only 11 inches, so it can share a wall with a console table and a lamp.
Sightlines and Circulation
Two tests need to be cleared before a layout is considered acceptable.
Sightline. A figure belongs at the end of a line of sight, never across it. For instance, a piece at the edge of the corner and facing the room’s opening frames the view. However, placing a piece between the door and the room’s opening will block the view. So it is only by positioning figures in the corner next to the opening that the view is framed without being blocked by the figure.
Circulation. A front door of 36 inches in width swings through a 36 inch quarter circle. One should not place any object or furniture within this area. Past the piece, make sure that the room has a walking space of at least 36 inches, it will feel very natural if you can give it 42 inches.
It might be wise to leave about 12 to 18 inches between the stand and the path to stop people from snagging their coats on it. The figure gives up a bit of its space to the path, but the path does not give up anything at all.
When It Stops Being Furniture
Below about 42 inches, it is just furniture, and your eye skips past it. Heights of furniture: console table is 30 to 34 inches, a sofa back is 32 to 36 inches, a dining chair is 36 to 40 inches. From 60 inches upwards, with a human shape you put a person in the room, then people naturally move around a figure differently. They leave space for it.
Imagine that you are standing in front of the door. You should look out at the room from that position and see in front of you the entirety of the form of a person. If that is the case even when you do not turn your head, then the path in between the human shape and the piece of furniture should still be about 36 inches.
But, if you have just casually moved around it to get to the stairs without even thinking or noticing that you have changed your course, then that piece of furniture simply is an impediment, no matter how many feet it measures by the tape.
What Goes Under the Stand
Distribution of the weight is the main problem here rather than scratches. Putting the whole suit, say 50 lb of weight on it, on 4 tiny feet, which are roughly a square inch in size each, results in putting about 12.5 pounds per square inch on four spots on the floor. That may dent your oak floor within a year.
If the same weight is distributed over a much larger 14 by 14 inch surface, the pressure will be as small as quarter pounds per square inch. Floors made of tiles and stones may take that without a problem, but wooden floors and vinyl plank will not.
One usually goes for a rug. It’s usually the wrong fix, for three reasons:
- A rug’s surface does not compress evenly. The four feet of the stand sink at four different rates, gradually making the stand lean in one direction.
- Tip-over resistance. A base of 16 inches with the heavy part at the level of the breastplate can tip over in a lean of about 11 degrees. This may be one dog, one child, or even a vacuum.
- Trip risk. A rug edge next to a 70-inch object is pointed at the worst possible thing to fall into.
A better choice is hard floor, a solid plate under the base, and a small tether fixed to a wall stud.
Looking After It
Steel doesn’t like a doorway much where humidity is high due to wet coats, road salts, and outside doors. It is advised to keep the relative humidity between 40 and 50 percent so that the steel does not rust. Apply microcrystalline wax to the steel once a year.
Keep it away from direct exposure to the sun. It’s less a problem for the steel than for the leather straps behind it, which dry out and split. You could install the lighting in such a way that it does not shine directly on the steel from below but rather from the side.
The surface of the bright steel can reflect light, making it like a mirror. A lamp placed at 30 inches will create a hot spot that will hit you in the eye with the reflection.
It’s a Scale Problem, Not a Novelty
Medieval armor in the hall would be mainly about the scale. The 70-inch long piece of steel in a space seems to take on an almost human nature.
You should have a minimum clearance of 36 inches beyond it. Lay the weight on a piece of metal, and don’t let it rest on an item that will easily compress. Once these are done, it is part of the house.
