Tailormade: All You Need To Know About Right Measurements For Your Sofa

Pushpa Arora, 45, bought her first home seven years ago. Since then she has been dealing with a wrong choice of sofa she bought from the furniture market. While she went shopping for the sofa, though she had the measurements right, the sofa when placed in her living room along with the centre table blocked leg movement and had made the room looked filled up. But, now that she had paid a good sum and bought the set, she had to live with it.

Today, she is ready to give her home a makeover. The first thing she wants to get rid of is the sofa set and bring home something which is light, moveable, attractive and most importantly comfortable to sit in and also with the movement around it.

Also read: Feel Like a King: 12 Types Of Sofas To Style Your Living Room

This time she opts to get it custom made and here are certain things her designer shares about the right sofa size:

• Pay close attention to cushions: A sofa set is only best to a user's comfort when the cushions are well made with enough filling. In case you are a creating a complete fill sofa set, then your cushions are going to be heavily filled and bulky. So, if your room is small these are a big no no. 

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• Depth of the seat: Based on the size of back cushions and the fill work, a right size of depth should be kept in mind. Remember, sofa depth and seat depth are two different things. While the former is depth from one end to the other, the latter is the depth measured from where the back cushion ends to the front of the seat. Certain inches of your sofa depth will be covered by cushions. So, if the cushion used is heavily filled, ensure that the sofa depth is more to ensure enough seat depth. On an average, a sofa depth should range between 21-24 inches.

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• Your sitting posture: The depth and even the style of the sofa depend on the sitting posture. So, if your sofa for the living area is largely used for guests, where they generally sit upright, a sofa depth of 20-21 inches is enough. But, in case you are looking a sofa where you could lounge and sit with your legs folded or wish to lie down, increase the size to 24 inches.

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• Size of the room: Arora had a constraint of room size. Her living room, rectangular in shape, she had to place three sofas aligned to three walls of the room. So, the heavily-filled sofas made her room look filled up with no room to move around. Hence, in case your room has a space constraint opt for a contemporary wooden sofa set with smaller cushions on the back which can be kept or removed easily. This lets you keep the permissible depth to the bare minimum. So think about a sofa with 21 inches of depth instead of 24 inches. With three sofas you are adding up a space of three inches each.

Also read: Bring Home The 17th-Century Baroque Décor

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• Seat height: Followed by depth of the sofa, height is another area of concern. The height of the sofa is defined by the depth. So, if you are keeping the maximum permissible depth, make sure the height of the sofa is at least 18 inches for you to easily get up from a comfortable position. A low lying sofa will be uncomfortable to sit down and get up from. 

(Dreamstime)