How to measure a room before you buy furniture

A sofa can look right in a listing and still block a door or get stuck in the lift. Ten minutes with a tape measure stops that. Do it before you start looking, and keep the numbers on your phone.

What you need

• A tape measure, ideally 5 metres or longer
• Your phone, for notes and photos
• A rough sketch of the room. It doesn’t need to be neat.

Measure the room

1. Each wall, corner to corner. Measure at floor level, and measure opposite walls separately. Rooms are rarely perfectly square.
2. The ceiling height. You need this for tall wardrobes and shelves.
3. Each door. Note its width and which way it swings, then draw the swing on your sketch. Nothing can sit in that arc.
4. Each window. Note its width, its height and how far the sill is from the floor. A low sill limits what can go under it.
5. Anything you can’t move. Pillars, AC units and vents, sockets and built in wardrobes all go on the sketch.

Measure the way in

This is the step people skip, and it decides whether a piece gets into your home at all.

• The lift. Measure the door, then the width, depth and height inside.
• Corridors and corners. A long sofa that fits a corridor can still fail at the turn.
• Your front door and inside doors. Open the door fully and measure the clear gap, not the door itself.

If you live in a tower, ask your building whether deliveries have to use the service lift and whether it needs booking.

Check each piece against your numbers

• Compare all three sizes. Width, depth and height. Listings sometimes give only one or two, so ask for the rest.
• Leave room to use it. Wardrobe doors have to open, drawers have to pull out and a sofa bed has to unfold.
• Check the diagonal on anything tall. A wardrobe that arrives lying down has to stand up in your room, so it needs more height than its own.
• Mark it on the floor. Use masking tape to outline a big piece, then live around the tape for a day. You’ll know quickly if it’s too big.