Will your furniture fit the room and get through the door?

By Nassim Hasni, publisher of DecoScale · published 24 September 2026

A sofa that fits the living room also has to get there. Here is what to measure for the room, for the space around the furniture and for the delivery route, and what DecoScale checks for you.

How do I know if a sofa will fit in my living room?

A piece of furniture fits if its footprint fits the space set aside for it, if it leaves clear the walkways the room needs, and if it can reach the room through the door, the hallway and the stairs. The last two are the ones people often forget.

1. Measure the real space. The length of the wall the piece will stand against, the depth available in front of it and the ceiling height. Measure at floor level, from skirting board to skirting board: that is where the space is narrowest. Note what interrupts the wall: a door and the way it opens, a window and its sill height, a radiator, a socket.
2. Note the piece's three dimensions from its product page: width, depth, height. A sofa bed is also measured open, a corner sofa along both sides.
3. Add the clearances from the table below: the space the piece uses without occupying it.
4. Mark its footprint on the floor with masking tape, and its height on the wall. If you find yourself walking around the outline, the piece is too big for that spot.

How much space should you leave in front of a door, storage or a radiator?

DecoScale's engine applies these values to every piece it places. They can guide a layout planned by hand; some, like the door clearance, are deliberately cautious.

The 90 cm walkway in the right layout dimensions is the strip that leads from the door across the room; the 100 cm is the zone around the door that no floor-standing piece occupies. The gap between the sofa and the coffee table is in that guide too; the distance to the screen has its own: how far the sofa should be from the TV.

How can I see furniture in my room before buying it?

• The floor outline. Masking tape for the footprint, a piece of cardboard taped to the wall for the height. The best test for a single piece, at full scale.
• The scale plan. At 1:20 on squared paper, each piece cut out: it shows walkways, not volumes.
• The refurnished photo. DecoScale starts from three photos of your living room or bedroom, taken from three spots, and two tape measurements. It measures the room, chooses real products at the dimensions the merchant publishes, checks that each one fits, then draws the furnished room. Every object in the render is clickable: dimensions, price, link to its product page; when the drawing is only an inspiration, the card says so.

The render is an image drawn by artificial intelligence: it shows how the room looks. The dimensions, however, are checked by calculation before anything is drawn. On the render, you can ask for another model of a piece within the same budget: this starts a new render (see pricing), the layout is recalculated and the image redrawn.

What DecoScale checks, and what it doesn't

It checks:

• that each piece, at its published dimensions, fits on the floor of the measured room and under its estimated ceiling;
• the clearances in the table above; for doors, windows and radiators, those it was able to locate in your photos;
• that the pieces it places do not overlap; a curtain longer than the ceiling height is flagged, with the length to take up.

The two tape measurements, the back wall and the depth, make the room's width and depth exact; DecoScale asks for them before drawing. Walls, ceiling, overlaps and the clearance at doors and radiators are not negotiable: a piece that cannot respect them gets no calculated position. The comfort rules (storage, window, walkway from the door, gap between sofa and table) are penalties: when the room cannot satisfy them all, the engine keeps the layout that breaks the fewest (see small living room layout).

It does not check:

• the ceiling height to the centimetre: it is estimated from the photos, not measured. For a wardrobe or a tall bookcase, measure it yourself;
• that all the pieces fit together when the budget holds more than the room can take: a piece that finds no place may stay in the selection. Lower the budget or drop an item;
• the route to the room: front door, hallway, stairs, lift, nor the package dimensions;
• the manoeuvre: that a wardrobe assembled lying down can be stood up;
• a piece you found elsewhere: it chooses from its own catalogue;
• an element it could not locate: a door or radiator missing from the photos is not taken into account. For a door, you can trace its threshold on the photo; for anything else, check the render.

How do I know if a sofa will go through the door?

1. Measure the clear opening with the door fully open: between the frame and the open door leaf, at the narrowest point. It is less than the door's width; taking the door off its hinges gains the thickness of the leaf. Measure the height of the opening too.
2. Note the sofa's height, depth and length, feet included. If the feet unscrew, measure without them as well.
3. Compare. If the smaller of its height and depth is less than the clear opening, and the larger is less than the height of the opening, it goes through carried lengthways.
4. Otherwise, measure its diagonal depth. Lay a straight edge from the top of the backrest to the front edge of the arm, then measure at right angles from the sofa's bottom back corner to the straight edge. If that is less than the clear opening, the sofa can go through tilted.

Keep a few centimetres spare. If nothing works, look for what comes off: feet, backrest, arms. A sofa delivered in modules gets through more easily.

What about the hallway, the stairs and the lift?

• The hallway: the obstacle is the corner. Measure its width on both sides of each corner. A long sofa is often stood up on one arm to turn: the manoeuvre must then fit under the ceiling (table below).
• The stairs: the width at the narrowest point, often between the handrail and the wall; the headroom above the steps; the size of the landing where the stairs turn. A straight staircase lets through far longer furniture than a winding one.
• The lift: the width and height of its door, the cabin's three dimensions and the maximum load shown inside.

The surest test is still a cardboard template at the package dimensions, walked along the route. The package dimensions are often on the merchant's product page. If nothing gets through, some removal firms offer an external furniture hoist through the window.

What ceiling height do you need to stand up a wardrobe?

A wardrobe assembled lying down is stood up by pivoting it on one edge, and it then reaches the diagonal of its side panel: the square root of its height squared plus its depth squared. The same calculation applies to a sofa stood up on one arm, with its length in place of the height and its height in place of the depth.

A wardrobe 220 cm tall and 60 cm deep therefore needs 229 cm to be stood up. A sofa 240 cm long and 90 cm high cannot be stood up under a 2.5 m ceiling. Keep a margin; otherwise, choose a lower or shallower model.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to measure the room myself?

Two tape measurements are enough: the back wall and the depth. DecoScale reads the rest from your three photos, and asks you for those two measurements before drawing, so it never has to guess the size of the room. The ceiling height is still estimated from the photos: for a tall piece, measure it as well.

Can I test a sofa I found on another website in DecoScale?

No. DecoScale chooses the furniture from its own catalogue and checks that each piece fits your room. You can then ask for another model within the same budget, which starts a new render. For a piece found elsewhere, the floor outline and measuring the clear door opening remain the right method.

Does the render show exactly the piece I will receive?

Not always. The render is drawn by artificial intelligence. The link, price, merchant and dimensions are those of the product, but the drawing may only be a close equivalent. Each product card says which: this exact product, or inspiration.

What happens if a curtain is longer than my ceiling height?

It is still offered, and its card shows roughly how much to shorten it when hanging, rounded up to the next 5 cm, because the ceiling height is estimated.

How long does it take to see the room refurnished?

One to four minutes. Each step is shown as it runs: observation, measurements, clearing, choosing the furniture, checking it fits, drawing, clickable areas.

Do I need to install an app?

No. DecoScale works in the browser, phones included.

Read next

• The right distances for laying out a living room and a bedroom
• Small living room layout: the measurements that decide
• Small bedroom layout: the measurements that matter
• TV viewing distance: how far to sit from your screen
• All guides