Blog · · 5 min
Will my sofa fit? How to check before you buy
Most sofa trouble is not the room. It is the way in, or the space left around it. Three checks, a tape measure and twenty minutes.
1. Measure the spot
Measure wall to wall at floor level, where the sofa will stand. Note what eats into it: a radiator, a skirting heater, a socket you need to reach, a window sill lower than the back of the sofa, a door that swings into the room. Write the sizes on a quick sketch of the room.
2. Read the spec sheet the right way
A sofa sheet gives three sizes: width (arm to arm), depth (front to back) and height. Some stores also give a diagonal depth: from the top of the back to the front edge of the seat. That is the size that counts when you tilt the sofa to get it through a door. If the legs come off, the height you carry is lower than the height on the sheet.
3. Check the way in
Measure every door on the way, open, between the frame and the door itself (the hinge side takes a few centimetres), and every hall where you must turn. A sofa goes through a door when its depth or its height, whichever is smaller, is less than that opening; tilted, compare the diagonal depth. Corners are the usual trap: a long sofa that passes every door can still be stuck at a 90° turn in a narrow hall. Do the same for stairs and the elevator.
4. Keep room to walk
Planning guides use about 90 cm (36 in) for a main walkway; 60 cm (24 in) is one person walking sideways. A coffee table usually sits 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in) from the front of the seat: close enough to reach, far enough for knees.
5. Tape it on the floor
Mark the sofa’s width and depth on the floor with painter’s tape and live with it for a day. Open the doors, pull the curtains, walk past with a laundry basket. If the tape bothers you, the sofa will too.
How Darplan does the same check
In Darplan, a store piece goes in at the size on its spec sheet. Move it, by dragging it or by typing its position in cm, and the check answers at once: it overlaps something, a door can no longer swing open, or less than 60 cm is left to walk. If your home was read from a photo, its sizes are ranges until you measure one wall: type that one number and every room is rescaled.
Darplan checks the room, not your stairwell: the way in (step 3) is still yours to measure. See the fit check.
Sources for the numbers: walkway widths from the NKBA kitchen and bath planning guidelines (90 cm main path); coffee table distance from furniture makers’ placement guides. Your own home and habits come first.