The sofa that won't go through the front door is a British furniture tradition. It doesn't have to happen to you. Twenty minutes with a tape measure prevents almost every delivery-day disaster.
Measure the room first
Mark out the sofa's footprint on your floor with masking tape before you order anything. It sounds fussy. It's the single most useful thing you can do.
People consistently underestimate how much floor a corner sofa eats. A 260cm x 200cm corner looks modest on a website and enormous in a 3.5m room. Tape it out and you'll know immediately.
Leave walkways. Allow at least 60cm to walk past the front of the sofa, and 90cm where it's a main route through the room. Any less and the room feels blocked even if the sofa technically fits.
Check what else needs space. Radiators need clearance to work. Doors need to open fully. Sockets behind a sofa become unreachable.
Then measure the route in
This is where deliveries actually fail. Walk the path from the street to the room, measuring at every pinch point:
- Front door — width and height, with the door open to 90 degrees
- Hallway — width, and the width at any corner where you have to turn
- Stairs — width, and the ceiling height above the steps
- The landing turn — the classic failure point in a terraced house
- Room door — same again
- Lifts — internal depth, width and door height
The number that matters is the tightest one, not the average.
The diagonal trick
A sofa doesn't have to go through a doorway flat. Most can be turned on their side and angled, which means the useful measurement is often the doorway's diagonal rather than its width.
So compare your doorway width against the sofa's height and its depth, not just its length. A sofa 90cm deep will usually pass through a 76cm door on its side, provided there's room to turn it once inside.
What kills it is a narrow hallway immediately behind a narrow door — you get the sofa in and then can't rotate it.
If access is genuinely tight
You still have options.
Modular sofas arrive as separate sections. Each piece goes through a standard doorway on its own, and you assemble in the room. If you have a loft conversion, a spiral staircase or a tight landing, this is usually the answer. See our modular range.
3+2 sets are two smaller pieces rather than one large frame, so they're easier to manoeuvre than a one-piece corner. Browse 3+2 seater sets.
Split-base beds do the same thing for bedrooms — the base comes in two halves.
Send us your measurements
You don't have to work this out alone. Message us on WhatsApp with your room dimensions and your narrowest doorway, and we'll tell you honestly whether the sofa you're looking at will fit — including when the answer is no and you should choose something else.
We'd rather talk you out of a sofa than deliver one that ends up back on the van.
WhatsApp: 07555 320914