Most sofas that go back go back for one reason. Not the colour, not the comfort — it did not fit. It got stuck on the stairs, or it cleared the doorway and then swallowed the room.
Twenty minutes with a tape measure is the whole fix. Here is the order we would do it in.
1. Measure the room before the sofa
Stand where the sofa will go and measure the wall it will sit against. Then measure how much floor you are willing to give it. A sofa that leaves less than 45cm (18in) between the front edge and the coffee table will feel tight every time somebody walks past.
Write both numbers down. The wall length is your maximum width. The floor depth is your maximum depth. Everything else is negotiable.
2. Measure the way in, not just the room
This is the step people skip. The sofa has to get from the street to the spot.
- Doorways — width and height, and whether the door itself comes off its hinges
- Hallways — the narrowest point, and any corner it has to turn
- Stairs — the width, and the ceiling height at the turn. Turns are what kill deliveries, not straight runs
- Lifts — internal depth and door width, which are different numbers
The rule of thumb: a sofa can get through any opening that is bigger than its diagonal depth — measure from the top back corner to the front bottom corner. That is usually smaller than the height, which is why sofas go through doors on their side.
3. Tape it out on the floor
Painter's tape, on the actual floor, at the actual dimensions. Live with it for a day. Walk around it. Most people move the tape at least once before they buy, and that is the point.
4. Then look at the listing
Every sofa we list has its width, depth, height and seat height in the specifications. Seat height matters more than people expect — under 40cm reads as lounge-y and is hard to get out of; over 48cm reads formal. Most people are happiest between 42 and 46cm.
If you are still not sure
Send us your measurements. Tell us the doorway, the hallway and the wall, and we will tell you straight whether the piece you are looking at will make it in. If it will not, we will say so — we would rather lose the sale than book the return.
