Are you getting new furniture for a new home? This can be an exciting time, and there are always details that fall through the cracks. It is important that you don’t rush when you choose your new home furniture. The last thing you want is to get to moving day and find out your new furnishings don’t fit within the room.
Do not mistake the importance of taking accurate measurements for your home’s interior design. It is quite common for bedrooms, living rooms, or family rooms to look much larger when empty. Add a few pieces of furniture though, and it will quickly become apparent that the room is much smaller than you thought.
Before jumping online to find the latest modern furniture trends, make sure that everything will fit comfortably by taking appropriate measurements and checking all dimensions on desired furniture pieces. You’ll have the largest selection of furniture of appropriate size with online shopping here.
Here is how to measure for each room of furniture in your home.
Why and how to measure your room
If you’re moving into a new home, you might not know the exact measurements of the room you want to design. Even if you know the square footage of the room, this doesn’t tell you the exact amount of space you have to work with. If your room’s shape has any irregularities, those small alcoves and corners are not usable space but are still counted in the square footage measurement.
That’s why it is so important to measure the room yourself. Measure the length of each wall, as well as the width of the room at each point. Measure to the small irregular spaces because you might find a way to make use of them as you shop for your new furniture.
What to do with the measurements and dimensions
Once you have the measurements of your room, you need to determine the exact space that you have available for your furnishings. While you might have all of the necessary data laid out in front of you, it is usually much easier to make sense of such by making a diagram of the room to scale based on the measurements you took.
Some people will prefer a physical model, while others can get by with a mobile app. Either way, you can then manipulate it, determining what furniture you want in which spots, and how large they can be. Once you have fully designed the furniture layout for the room, look online to find furnishings that match the desired product dimensions.
Don’t forget to account for having ample space to move about the room
The last thing you want to do is overcrowd your home with furniture. Not only does it make it seem cluttered and closed in, but it also makes it difficult to move around the room in the dark or when physically challenged (even on a temporary basis). You never know what might arise in the future, so it is a good idea to start out by being safe and allowing sufficient walk space in your rooms’ design.
Most households find it sufficient to leave about 16” of space around furniture around which you want to be able to move easily. However, if you or someone you know may need a mobility aid, you should have a walk space that is at least 36” in width. This allows anyone with a wheelchair, electric chair, or cane to move around the room freely. In a dining room, you should have at least 36” between the table and the wall on one end. Your working model should be complete with all of the pieces of furniture and their maximum sizes represented, and the ability to adjust the sizes of pieces as you browse available furniture online.
Check all product dimensions carefully
When you look at detailed product descriptions to find the dimensions of the furniture you are interested in, you have to remember to look at more than just width and length – you also need to account for depth. All of these measurements determine how the furniture will fit in your room. If you’re not sure if it will fit in the room, create a piece to scale for your manipulated model (whether physical or digital).
You need to be especially diligent in getting depth measurements for sectionals, whether traditional or modular in design. These types of furniture, along with some stuffed accent chairs and recliners, are very deep and might take up more space than you first realize.
