Sofa shopping can be stressful at the best of times, but there's nothing worse than realising your brand new couch won't fit through the door or in the space you've allocated for it. We've got a handy guide with tips and advice to make sure sofa is sitting pretty in its new home.
1. Make Sure You Know Your New Sofa's Dimensions
Make sure you check the dimensions of your new sofa before you purchase. All our Furniturebox sofas have a dimensions tab with an infographic and a table setting out all the product specifications.
Make a note of these so you can check the sofa will fit through/up your doorways, hallways, lifts and stairs.
Note that some of our sofas come with room-of-choice delivery option, and for these, our delivery drivers will unpack and manoeuvre your sofa to the spot of your choice!
The key measurements you'll want are the width, height (with and without legs) and depth.
2. Measure Up The Available Space In Your Room
Now you have the sofa dimensions, make sure you've got plenty of space for it in the room you'd like it to be in.
Top Tip!
You can mark out the outline of the sofa on your floor using masking tape to get a clear idea of the space it will occupy.
3. Measure Available Door Width
Open all the doors your sofa will need to pass through, including your front door, as wide as they will go. Measure the available width of the doorways, inside the frame, and accounting for the thickness of the door itself.
You might need to flip your sofa onto its back, or stand it on its end, to fit it through your doors, so make sure your doorway is tall enough, too!
4. If You Need To Go Upstairs, Measure Available Stairs Width And Height
If the sofa needs to go upstairs, make sure you've got enough space! The width of the stairs needs to be wider than the narrowest side of your sofa. If you need to lift your sofa over a bannister to get it onto the stairs, you need to make sure you've got enough height above it for the sofa, too.
5. If You Need To Use A Lift, Make Sure The Lift Is Big Enough
If you need to use a lift, make sure there's plenty of room inside for your sofa! Measure the opening between the door and the internal width/height of the lift before attempting to squeeze a sofa in there! You don't want it to get stuck.
6. Make Sure Your Hallways Are Wide Enough For Your Sofa
You also need to make sure you've got enough space internally to accommodate the narrowest length of your sofa. Measure the narrowest part of your hallway, including skirting boards and furniture already in place, and make sure you've got room to turn corners; you might need to stand it up on one end and shuffle it or 'walk it' around a corner.
7. When Your Sofa Arrives, Unbox It Outside!
It'll make life a lot easier if you unbox/unwrap your sofa before trying to get inside the house. Obviously, if it's raining, this might not be ideal. But, if it's dry, removing packing will make the sofa smaller, and it'll be less of a struggle to get it through doorways. Remove all the cushions and don't attach the legs until it's in its chosen location - this will also keep the moving parts as narrow as possible.
Top Tip!
Most uPVC doors can be lifted easily from their hinges and removed to make the opening wider. Open the door to a 90-degree angle and use something to lever the door up around 50mm - this will lift it from the hinge pin. To refit the door, it's just the reverse of this process. Be careful though, as doors can be heavy! Make sure you have help to do this.
Make sure you can turn your sofa! You might need to stand it up on one end and shuffle it or 'walk it' around a corner.
