How to Measure your Living Room Before you Buy Furniture

Measure the room, then measure the route in. A sofa's diagonal depth must be at least 2 to 3cm smaller than the clear doorway opening with the door unscrewed from its hinges. Inside the room, leave 45cm between sofa and coffee table, 75 to 90cm for walkways, and size the rug so the sofa's front legs sit on it.

Marqet's catalogue data puts the median sofa and armchair price at £1,066.99, 4.8 times the median across the rest of the site. This is the half-hour of measuring that protects that spend: one sequence that sizes the sofa, the rug, the coffee table and the TV unit together, plus the access measurements that decide whether any of it reaches the room.

How to measure a living room, step by step

Work outside in: the access route first, the room second, the furniture last. Most people do it the other way round, fall for a 250cm corner unit and then find the hallway turns at 82cm. Use a steel tape, not fabric: fabric sags over three metres and reads long. This method sizes for living room furniture at 246 products, sofas and armchairs at 40, rugs at 155 and occasional tables at 42.

1. Draw the room. Record wall-to-wall width and length in centimetres, then mark the radiator, chimney breast, alcoves, sills, sockets, aerial point and the arc each door swings through. Measure at floor level and again at 60cm up, because skirting, pipe boxing and bay reveals change the usable figure.
2. Measure the clear doorway opening. Take the door off its hinges — two screws per hinge plate — and measure the narrowest point of the frame, width and height. Most UK internal leaves are 35mm thick and an FD30 fire door is 44mm, so a door left hanging open at 90 degrees costs you that much of the opening.
3. Measure the hallway and its turn. Record the hallway width, then the wall-to-wall distance across any right-angle corner. A sofa turning a corner draws on both, so measure both and note which is tighter.
4. Measure the stairs, landing and lift. Stair width is taken between the wall and the inside face of the bannister, not between the walls. Add headroom above the treads and the landing depth available to pivot on. In a flat, measure the lift cabin and the lift door opening separately.
5. Measure ceiling height on the route. A UK ceiling commonly sits around 2.4m, which is ample. The problems are local: a boxed-in stairwell, a landing bulkhead, a pendant hanging 50cm down exactly where the sofa has to be turned.
6. Mark the furniture out on the floor. Tape the footprint of the sofa, rug, coffee table and TV unit onto the carpet at full size, then live with it for a few days and walk the room in the dark. This is the most useful step here and it costs nothing.
7. Check the product page figures against your list. Width, depth, height, diagonal depth, seat height, and whether the piece arrives as one unit or in sections. Check the product page before you order, because specifications vary across a 246-product shelf.

What is a sofa's diagonal depth?

Diagonal depth is the distance from the bottom rear corner of the sofa to the point where a straight line drawn from the highest point of the back frame to the front of the arm is bisected. That is the method UK furniture retailers use, and Fairway Furniture states it in those terms in its own measuring guide. In plain language, it is the narrowest profile the sofa presents when tipped on its side and hooked through a doorway.

It matters because width and depth mislead on their own. A three-seater 205cm wide and 95cm deep sounds hopeless against a 750mm doorway; tipped and angled, the same sofa may present a diagonal depth of 82cm, which goes through a 760mm frame with the door removed. Two sofas with identical width and depth can have diagonal depths 15cm apart, because a low sloped back and a slim arm tip through where a high straight back and a rolled arm will not.

To take the measurement from a sofa you already own, hold a length of timber from the top of the back frame to the front edge of the arm, then measure from the bottom rear corner to the middle of that timber. Where a product page omits diagonal depth, use the smaller of the sofa's height and depth as a conservative substitute, with the 2 to 3cm tolerance on top.

Will my sofa fit through the door?

It fits if any one of the sofa's three critical figures, height, width or diagonal depth, is at least 2 to 3cm smaller than the clear doorway opening. One is enough, because the sofa can go through flat, upright or tipped. That 2 to 3cm is knuckle room; without it the frame gets scuffed and the door lining gets damaged.

UK internal doors give less than you would expect. A 762mm leaf is standard in England and Wales; Scotland is narrower at 726mm, and 686mm is common in Victorian and Edwardian housing and in flats. Clear opening is typically 10 to 15mm narrower than the leaf once stops and rebate are accounted for, so a 762mm door realistically gives 745 to 755mm. Approved Document M sets a 750mm minimum clear opening for internal doorways in new visitable dwellings, but that applies to new build only. If the house predates it, measure rather than assume.

Three things buy clearance when the numbers are close. Taking the door off its hinges recovers the 35mm leaf. Removing the sofa's feet, where the design allows, takes 10 to 15cm off the tipped profile. A modular or knock-down frame that arrives in sections sidesteps the problem entirely, which is the route Marqet would take on any doorway under 70cm, see corner sofa or three-seater.

What size sofa suits your room width?

Room width, wall to wall, sets the sofa configuration before taste gets a say. This table decides which format to shop.

Sofas and armchairs holds 40 products and corner sofas 21, inside a 246-product living room shelf; the September 2026 audit found 161 of 180 sofas, armchairs and recliners in stock, which is 89%.

One sofa width sets four other sizes

Once the sofa width is fixed, four other sizes follow arithmetically. Find your sofa width in the left column and the rest of the room is largely decided.

The coffee table column is the two-thirds rule: a table roughly two-thirds of the sofa's width reads as proportionate and leaves the gaps at each end walkable. The corner row breaks that rule deliberately, because a long rectangular table in front of an L-shaped seat blocks the short arm, while a square or round table at 100 to 120cm serves both runs. Heights across the occasional tables shelf of 42 products sit close to typical seat heights, which is what you want, level with the cushion, or up to 5cm below.

How much space to leave around the seating

Leave 40 to 45cm between the sofa's front seat edge and the coffee table, and 75 to 90cm for any main route through the room. Those two numbers do more for a layout than the choice of furniture does. Under 40cm you cannot get your legs out; over about 50cm you are leaning forward to put a mug down.

Distinguish between routes. A main route, door to garden doors, or the line everyone takes to sit down, wants 75 to 90cm so two people can pass. A secondary route used single file can drop to 60cm. Below 60cm people turn sideways to get past, which is what an over furnished room feels like however good the individual pieces are. Two clearances are worth taping out separately: a recliner needs the manufacturer's stated rear and front clearance, frequently 10 to 15cm behind and 45 to 90cm in front of the footrest, and a pull-out sofa bed needs its open depth, typically 40 to 60cm more than closed.

What size rug for the room you just measured

Size the rug so the sofa's front legs sit on it, with 30 to 45cm of bare floor between rug edge and walls. On a three-seater at 190 to 215cm that resolves to a 160 by 230cm rug; on a corner arrangement, 200 by 290cm. Rugs are sold in fixed steps, so you are choosing a step, not a dimension.

Front-legs-on is the placement to aim for in an average UK living room, because it ties the seating group to the rug without the rug running under the whole footprint. All-legs-on looks better where the room can take it, but it needs about 60cm of rug in front of the sofa on top of the sofa's own 90 to 100cm depth, roughly 160cm of rug depth before any border. Marqet lists 155 rugs, 134 of 158 in stock at the audit, median £120.99; sizing for bedrooms, hallways and under a dining table is in what size rug for a living room.

What width TV unit for the television you own

Measure the panel, not the inches. A 65 inch 16:9 screen is 143.9cm wide and 80.9cm high, so roughly 145 to 150cm across including the bezel. The unit should be wider: 160 to 180cm for a 65 inch set, 140 to 160cm for a 55 inch, 120 to 140cm for a 50 inch.

Pedestal feet on many current sets sit close to the outer edges of the panel rather than centrally, so a unit wide enough for the screen can still be too narrow for the feet; foot span is on the specification sheet rather than in the headline dimensions. Unit depth has to clear those feet front to back too, usually 30 to 40cm on a large panel.

Viewing distance is the last measurement. For 4K content a comfortable seating distance is roughly 1.2 to 1.6 times the screen diagonal, so a 65 inch set at 165cm diagonal suits about 2.0 to 2.6m. At a measured 2.2m from sofa to TV wall, a 65 inch panel is right and a 75 inch is not.

Measuring the dining end of an open-plan room

Measure the dining end as a separate rectangle and allow 90cm behind each chair for pull-out. Chair clearance, not table length, is what fails: a 180cm table seating six needs roughly 360 by 270cm of floor once clearance is added all round.

Allow 60cm of table edge per person: a 120cm table seats four, 150 to 180cm six, 200 to 220cm eight. Where the dining end backs onto a wall, clearance behind that run can drop to about 75cm. Full figures, including round against rectangular in a small room, are in dining table sizes: how many people actually fit.

What Marqet stocks, and what we would check

Marqet's furniture range is broad rather than deep: 758 products across 11 collections, of which 246 sit in living room furniture, 155 in rugs and 115 in dining room furniture. The largest stocked brands are Gallery at 144 products, Bentley Designs at 62 and Concept Looms at 55.

Marqet's position on which figures to insist on: diagonal depth, or failing that the smaller of height and depth; seat height, because it decides the coffee table; and whether the piece arrives assembled or in sections, which is the difference between a tight doorway mattering and not. Browse Gallery home and furniture and Bentley Designs home and furniture for the ranges where dimensions are most consistently specified. Sofa and armchair prices commonly sit between £400 and £1,600 at the time of writing, median £1,066.99; rugs commonly £60 to £250. Treat those as bands, not quotes. Material choice is covered in fabric or leather sofa.

Buying from Marqet

Marqet's returns window is 60 days from receipt, against a 14-day statutory minimum. Returns are free where an item is faulty, damaged or incorrect. On a change of mind, a £3.99 returns label fee is deducted from the refund. Refunds are issued to the original payment method within 10 business days. Marqet ships to the UK only, with no international shipping. For the arrangements on any individual piece of furniture, including how it is packed and what access it needs, check the product page before you order.

The measuring checklist

1. Room width and length wall to wall, in cm, at floor level and at 60cm up.
2. Clear doorway opening, width and height, with the door off its hinges.
3. Hallway width plus the width across every turn on the route.
4. Stair width between wall and bannister, headroom, landing depth; lift cabin and lift door if applicable.
5. Sofa width, depth, height, diagonal depth and seat height from the product page.
6. Footprints taped onto the floor and walked for at least two days.

Frequently asked questions

How do I measure a sofa's diagonal depth?

Lay a straight edge from the highest point of the sofa's back frame to the front of the arm. Measure from the bottom rear corner of the sofa to the point where that line is bisected. That figure is the diagonal depth, and it is the smallest profile the sofa presents when it is tipped and turned through a doorway.

Will my sofa fit through the door?

It fits if the sofa's height, width or diagonal depth is at least 2 to 3cm smaller than the clear doorway opening. Measure that opening with the door unscrewed from its hinges, because a 35mm internal leaf standing open at 90 degrees eats into the gap. Then check the hallway turn as well as the door.

How much space do you need between a sofa and a coffee table?

Leave 40 to 45cm between the front edge of the sofa seat and the coffee table. Under 40cm you cannot get your legs past; over 50cm you have to lean forward to reach a mug. On a three-seater with a facing armchair, 45cm on the sofa side is the figure to protect.

How wide should a walkway be in a living room?

Allow 75 to 90cm for a main route through the room, such as the line between the door and the garden doors. A secondary route used by one person at a time can drop to 60cm. Below 60cm people edge sideways past the furniture, which is the point a layout starts to feel wrong.

What size coffee table suits a three-seater sofa?

Aim for roughly two-thirds of the sofa's width. A three-seater at 190 to 215cm therefore takes a coffee table of about 120 to 140cm long. Keep the table top level with the seat cushion or slightly below it, which on most sofas means a table height of 40 to 45cm.

What width TV unit do I need for a 65 inch television?

A 65 inch 16:9 panel is 143.9cm of screen, so around 145 to 150cm including the bezel. Choose a TV unit 160 to 180cm wide so the set is not overhanging the ends. Check the foot span as well, because pedestal feet on some sets sit close to the outer edges of the panel.