How To Choose a Sofa
Buying Wisely · 25 August 2026
How to choose a sofa: corner, 2+3, and how to measure properly.
The biggest thing you'll buy for the living room, chosen in about twenty minutes on a showroom floor. Here's how to make those twenty minutes count.
A sofa has to do a strange number of jobs. It's where the family lands after work, where guests are seated, where films get watched and where at least one person falls asleep most Sundays. It's also, usually, the single largest object in the room, which means getting it wrong is expensive in both money and floor space.
The mistake we see most often isn't buying a bad sofa. It's buying a good sofa that's wrong for the room: too deep for the walkway, too big to turn on the stairs, or a corner unit facing the wrong way. So we'll start with the tape measure, then the shape, then the bit you can only judge by sitting down.
How do you measure a room for a sofa?
Don't measure the wall. Measure how people move.
Take the sofa's dimensions and mark the footprint on your floor with masking tape, actual size, exactly where it would sit. It takes five minutes and it's startlingly revealing. Then live with the tape for a day and check the following:
- Walkways. Leave roughly 40 to 50cm of clear route around the sofa where people need to pass. Less than that and you'll be edging sideways past it every day.
- Coffee table gap. About 45cm between sofa and table is the sweet spot, close enough to reach a mug, far enough to get your legs out.
- Sofa depth. Deep sofas are gloriously comfortable if you like to curl up, and awkward if you're shorter or prefer sitting upright, because your feet won't reach the floor with your back supported.
- Door swings and radiators. A sofa back against a radiator blocks heat; a sofa arm against a door is a daily irritation.
- The view. Sit on the floor within the taped shape and look at the television, the window, the fire. That's the view you're buying.
Then measure the route in, not just the room. Doorways, hall width, stair turns and landing height all decide whether a sofa can physically reach the living room, the most common cause of a failed delivery, which we covered in full in what to expect on delivery day.
The big decision
Corner sofa or a 2+3 seater set?
This is where most people stall, and the honest answer is that the room decides more than taste does.
A corner sofa makes sense when you have two usable walls meeting, or a square-ish room where one corner is dead space anyway. It seats more people per square metre than any other arrangement, it's excellent for families who all want to sprawl at once, and it defines an open-plan space without needing a wall. The trade-offs: it's committed to one orientation, it's harder to rearrange when the mood strikes, and you need to be certain which way the chaise runs before you order.
A 2+3 seater set wins on flexibility. Two pieces can face each other, sit at right angles, or split between rooms when you move house. They're easier to get up a Victorian staircase, easier to replace one piece of, and better suited to long narrow rooms where a corner would swallow the walkway. The trade-off is that two arms in the middle of the run cost you seating space a corner would use.
A useful tiebreaker: if you rearrange furniture for fun, buy the set. If your living room has one obvious layout and always will, the corner will serve you better.
Don't skip this
How much space does a recliner need?
Recliners are the single most under-measured thing we sell. A reclining sofa in the showroom looks the same size as any other, until it opens.
Both manual and powered models need clearance in front for the footrest and, on many designs, space behind for the back to tilt. Wall-hugger mechanisms reduce that rear requirement but rarely eliminate it. Check the specification for the exact model you're considering rather than assuming, and add the open depth to your taped-out footprint before you decide.
If you're going powered, one more practical point: work out where the plug goes. A trailing cable across the walkway is a poor reward for careful measuring.
Tape the shape onto your floor and live with it for a day. It'll tell you more than any measurement on a page.
What lasts
What's inside a sofa that's built to last?
You can't see the frame, which is precisely why it's worth asking about. A hardwood frame is what keeps a sofa square after a decade of being sat on hard; the seat suspension underneath determines whether it still supports you or has quietly given up.
Cushion fillings set the character. Foam holds its shape and needs almost nothing from you. Feather and down feel luxurious and sink invitingly, but need plumping regularly to look their best. Fibre and foam mixes sit in between and suit most households.
On fabric, be honest about your life rather than aspirational. Hard-wearing weaves and tight textures survive children, dogs and daily use far better than loose, delicate ones. Removable covers help. Light colours are lovely and unforgiving. If a dog shares the sofa, ask us about the practical options, and take fabric samples home, because a swatch under Highland daylight in a north-facing room looks nothing like it does under showroom lighting.
What to check when you sit down
Twenty minutes on a showroom floor, used properly:
Sit how you sit at home
Curl up, put your feet up, slouch. Perching politely on the edge tells you nothing about Sunday afternoon.
Check your feet reach the floor
With your back against the cushions. If they dangle, the seat is too deep for you.
Test the arm height
Lie down along it. If you nap on the sofa, arm height matters more than you'd think.
Get up again
A very low, very soft sofa is hard to leave: charming at thirty, less so at seventy.
Bring whoever else will use it. A sofa that suits one person and not the other is a decade-long negotiation.
Buying sensibly
A sofa is a long-term purchase, and the maths works the same way it does with solid oak versus flat-pack: a well-made frame that stays comfortable for fifteen years costs less per year than two cheap sofas in the same period. If the timing isn't ideal, Klarna lets you spread the cost, and our Price Lock range holds fair prices year-round so there's no need to wait for a sale.
Quick answers: sofa buying FAQ
Is a corner sofa or a 2+3 seater better?
A corner seats more people in the same footprint and suits a room with two usable walls. A 2+3 set is far more flexible to rearrange and easier to move. Room shape usually decides it.
How do I measure my room for a sofa?
Tape the footprint on the floor, leave 40 to 50cm of walkway around it and about 45cm to the coffee table, and add extra clearance for any recliner.
How much clearance does a recliner need?
Enough space in front for the footrest and, on most designs, some behind for the back to tilt. Check the specification for the exact model rather than assuming.
What sofa fabric is best with pets and children?
Hard-wearing, tightly woven fabrics in mid tones, ideally with removable covers. Take samples home and view them in your own light before deciding.
Sit on it before you commit
Browse corner sofas, 2+3 seater sets and recliners, or come and try them at Millburn Road, Inverness.
Shop sofas Visit the Inverness showroom