We've taken back a dozen sofas in fourteen years. Eleven of them came back because of a measurement that nobody took. The same five measurements would have saved every single one. Here they are, in order of how often they trip people up.
1. The narrowest doorway on the route in
Not the front door — the narrowest doorway between the front door and the room. Bedroom door frames are often 760 mm. Lift doors in condominiums can be even tighter. Measure the clear opening, not the door size. Subtract 30 mm for the door hinge that doesn't fully open. If your route includes a 90-degree turn in a corridor, measure the corridor width too. We use both numbers to calculate whether the sofa needs to be built with a removable arm or a knock-down frame.
2. The lift's diagonal
If you live in a condo, the lift cab's diagonal is what determines what we can deliver in one piece. A 1.4 m × 1.6 m lift has a diagonal of 2.13 m. Standard three-seat sofas are 2.0–2.4 m long. Cutting it close is the difference between a smooth delivery and a sofa that goes back on the truck. We will always send our delivery lead to look at your lift before final dimensions are signed off — but it helps if you measure first.
3. The wall length, minus return air-con
The "wall length" matters less than what's actually usable. Wall sockets, skirting board returns, the corner where the air-con drips, and the door swing that needs clearance — all of these eat your usable wall. We typically deduct 200 mm from the raw wall length to give the sofa room to breathe.
4. The coffee-table-to-knee distance
The most overlooked measurement. Sit in your current sofa with feet on the floor. Measure from the front of the cushion to where your knees comfortably land — that's the minimum gap to your coffee table. New sofas often have deeper seats than the old one being replaced, which can leave the coffee table too close. We size to a 380 mm clearance minimum.
5. The ceiling-to-floor sight line
If your sofa will sit in front of a window, measure from floor to the window sill. A high-backed sofa in front of a low sill will block your view. A low-backed sofa in front of a high sill will look orphaned. We aim for the back of the sofa to land between 75% and 110% of the sill height — visually balanced either way.
Bring all five with you
Five numbers. Take ten minutes on a Saturday morning, scribble them on the back of an envelope, bring them to the studio. We can do a real, final-dimension quote in one visit instead of two.