The Sofa Buying Guide

People rarely regret the colour of their sofa. What they regret is the one that wouldn’t turn at the top of the stairs, or the one that sagged in the middle after eight months. So this guide puts the boring bits first, because the boring bits are the ones that cost money.

How do you measure a room for a sofa?

Measure the wall at skirting height, not eye level. Skirting boards, radiators and plug sockets eat into the space you think you have — a wall measuring 240cm at chest height might give you only 232cm of clear run at floor level.

Then measure the space in front. You want a walkway of 60cm to 75cm between the sofa and whatever faces it; under about 45cm and the room feels like a corridor. Measure the height too: if the sofa sits under a window, a 90cm back against a sill 85cm off the floor blocks both the window and the radiator.

The most useful trick costs nothing. Mark the footprint on the floor in masking tape, using the exact width and depth from the product page, then live with it for two days. Tape is a great deal cheaper than a return.

Will the sofa actually fit through the door?

This is the expensive mistake, and the one that turns a good purchase into a refused delivery.

The standard internal door in England and Wales is 1981mm tall by 762mm wide, or 6’6″ by 2’6″ in old money. In Scotland the common size is 2040mm by 726mm — taller, narrower. Those are leaf sizes; the clear opening once the door is hung is a few centimetres less again. Check all of this before you order.

1. The front or back door. Clear width with the door open, and the height.
2. Every doorway on the route. Same again for each one.
3. The hallway width. A sofa carried on its side needs the hall wider than the sofa is deep.
4. Any turn. Measure the hallway and the space it turns into. A tight 90 degree turn out of a narrow hall beats more sofas than a narrow door does.
5. Stairs. The gap between wall and banister, the headroom above the treads, and the half-landing where the flight turns.
6. Ceiling height and light fittings, particularly a pendant over the stairs.
7. Lifts, if it’s a flat. Internal depth, width, door height, and whether the lift is working.

The comparison you’re making is this: a sofa goes through on its base, its back or its side, so measure the smallest opening on the route against the smallest dimension of the sofa, not the biggest.

If access is awkward, look for removable arms and unscrewable feet. Between them they can save 10cm to 20cm. Modular and corner sofas arrive in sections, which is why they fit where a fixed three seater won’t — more on that in the corner sofa buying guide. And if the answer is no, it’s better to know now. A different sofa you can get indoors beats the perfect one stuck on the pavement.

What does “3 seater” actually mean in centimetres?

Less than you’d hope. No British standard says a three seater must be a particular width, so the label is a description rather than a measurement. Two sofas sold as three seaters can differ by 40cm.

A three seater seats three the way an aeroplane row seats three. If three adults will genuinely use it every evening, look at the seat width between the arms and aim for 55cm to 60cm each. Take width, depth and height from the product page. If a listing doesn’t give all three, that tells you something in itself.

What seat depth and back height suit your height?

Seat depth runs from the front edge to the base of the back cushion. Standard is 50cm to 60cm; past 60cm is a lounge seat, made for curling up sideways rather than sitting upright.

Under about 5’4″, a deep seat leaves your feet dangling or makes you perch on the front edge with no support for your lower back. Over about 6ft, a shallow 50cm seat feels like a bench and cuts into your thighs. Most people sit properly, feet flat, when the depth is near the length of their own thigh. Where two people of very different heights share a sofa, a middling 55cm plus a couple of good cushions behind the shorter one beats either extreme. Cushions are cheap; sofas are not. There are plenty in the accessories range.

Seat height is usually 42cm to 48cm from floor to cushion top. Lower feels relaxed; higher is far easier to get up from. If standing up is a daily struggle for anyone in the house, a higher seat with a firm cushion is worth more than anything else on this page.

Back height runs from about 75cm to 95cm. A low back looks neat under a window and suits a small room. A high back supports your neck and shoulders, which is the difference between reading for twenty minutes and reading for two hours.

What is the frame made of, and what should you ask?

The frame is the bit you never see and the bit that decides whether the sofa lasts eight years or eighteen.

Kiln-dried hardwood — beech, birch, ash, oak. Kiln drying takes timber down to a low moisture content, commonly quoted around 6 to 8 percent, so it has done its shrinking before it’s cut and jointed. It won’t warp or split as your heating cycles through the year.

Softwood, usually pine, is fine in a lightly used room. It’s softer, so screws and staples have less to grip and joints can loosen over years of heavy use.

Particleboard, chipboard and MDF. Engineered boards aren’t automatically bad — good multi-ply plywood is strong and stable and appears in decent sofas as bracing. Low-grade chipboard is another matter: it holds fixings poorly, hates damp, and once it fails it can’t be repaired. If a description says “solid wood and manufactured board”, the board is doing more work than that phrasing suggests.

Four questions worth asking. Is the frame kiln-dried, and what timber? Are the joints glued and dowelled, screwed, or just stapled? Is there a corner block at each corner, the small triangle of timber that stops the frame racking? And how long is the frame guaranteed, separately from the rest? If a retailer can answer those, that’s a good sign in itself.

What holds the seat up?

Underneath the cushions sits a suspension system doing most of the work. Three types cover almost everything sold here.

Serpentine springs (also called sinuous or zig-zag) are S-shaped steel wires running front to back. Most common in mid-range sofas, firm and supportive, and they last. Look for springs spaced closely, clipped rather than stapled, ideally with tie wires across them so no single spring sags on its own.

Elasticated webbing is strapping woven across the frame in a criss-cross. Lighter, cheaper, softer. Wide and tightly interwoven, it’s genuinely good. Cheap and sparse, it stretches, and you get the classic dip in the seat you always sit in.

Pocket sprung seats put individual springs in fabric pockets inside the cushion, as a mattress does. Responsive, even, and they hold shape for years. They cost more and weigh more, which matters if you’re carrying it upstairs. Same idea as in beds and mattresses.

Whatever the system, sit down heavily in the middle of a seat, then right at the front edge. A good sofa supports you at the front edge too. A poor one lets you sink and tip forwards.

What’s inside the cushions, and what does each cost you in upkeep?

Every filling trades how it feels on day one against how much attention it needs afterwards. Nobody tells you the second half.

Foam holds its shape and needs least maintenance. What matters is density, in kilograms per cubic metre. High resilience foam around 35kg/m³ (often labelled HR35) is a solid domestic spec, and higher densities last longer under daily use. Low-density foam is where the cheap sofa goes wrong: it compresses and doesn’t come back. Turn foam cushions every few weeks so they wear evenly, and that’s all the upkeep there is.

Fibre gives a soft, slightly rumpled look. Light, hypoallergenic, inexpensive. It also flattens, so it needs plumping realistically once a week and still looks lived-in between times. It’s most often used in back cushions, which is a sensible place for it.

Feather and down is the nicest thing to sink into and the most work. Feather cushions want shaking every time you get up, or they stay flat and creased. Feathers work through the ticking eventually, and if anyone in the house reacts to them, that settles it.

Mixed fillings — a foam core with a fibre or feather wrap — give shape from the foam and softness from the wrap, with far less plumping. For most households that’s the right answer. Choose honestly, though: if you know you’re never going to plump cushions, a feather sofa will disappoint you within a month, and that isn’t a fault in the sofa.

How do you know whether a fabric will last?

There’s an actual number for this. The Martindale rub test, run to BS EN ISO 12947, rubs fabric against a standard abradant in a figure-of-eight until it shows wear. The result appears on product pages as “Martindale” followed by a figure. The bands usually quoted in the UK are:

• 10,000 – 15,000 rubs: light domestic. A bedroom chair, a room nobody uses.
• 15,000 – 25,000 rubs: general domestic. Everyday household seating.
• 25,000 – 40,000 rubs: heavy domestic and light contract. Family sofas used every evening.
• 40,000+ rubs: contract. Hotels, pubs, waiting rooms.

For a main family sofa, 25,000 and up is the sensible target. Don’t read it as a promise, though. Martindale measures abrasion and nothing else — not a spilled cup of tea, not sunlight fading, not a cat’s claws. A 40,000 rub linen will still water-mark. Pet households need a different shortlist, which is in the guide to sofa materials for pets and kids.

Which fabric should you choose?

The longer version, reasoned through for family homes, is in the best sofa fabrics for family homes.

What do leather grades mean?

“Leather” on a label covers four quite different materials, and the price gap between them is enormous.

• Full grain keeps the outer surface of the hide intact, natural markings and all. Strongest, develops a patina, most expensive. Light scratches often buff out with the warmth of your hand.
• Top grain has the top layer sanded and a finish applied to even the colour. A little less hard-wearing, more uniform, better against stains. Most good UK leather sofas use this.
• Split leather comes from the lower layers left once the top grain is taken off. Real leather, but weaker, and usually embossed to imitate grain.
• Bonded leather is leather fibre — commonly cited as around 10 to 20 percent of the material — shredded, mixed with adhesive, bonded to a backing and given a polyurethane surface. Convincing when new, well known for peeling after a few years, and once it starts it can’t be repaired.

Watch too for sofas where only the seat, back and arm faces are hide and the sides are matched vinyl. That’s a legitimate way to keep the price down and plenty of people are happy with it. It should just be stated plainly, so ask.

Which colour still looks right in ten years?

Sofas outlive trends. The average one stays for the better part of a decade, so it’ll see several rounds of paint and curtains. Keep the sofa the quiet piece and put colour into things that are cheap to change: cushions, a throw, a rug, a lamp.

That points to mid-tone neutrals — warm grey, oatmeal, stone, taupe, muted olive, deep navy. Mid tones hide marks better than either extreme: very pale fabric shows every scuff, very dark shows every crumb and hair. If your dog sheds pale hair, a charcoal sofa looks untidy in a way a mid-brown one never does. Match the sofa to the hair, not the wallpaper. It sounds daft, and it works. Light matters too, since north-facing rooms get cool, flat daylight that makes cool greys look colder and slightly grubby. Always get a sample and look at it in the room itself, in daylight and under your own lamps at night. Screens lie about colour, and no two screens lie the same way.

What do the cleaning codes mean?

Most upholstery carries a cleaning code, usually on a tag under a seat cushion. Four letters cover it:

• W — water-based products only.
• S — solvent only. Water will mark or shrink it.
• WS — either water-based or solvent cleaners are safe.
• X — neither. Vacuum and light brushing only; anything more goes to a professional.

Check the code before you buy, not after something has been spilled. An X-coded fabric in a house with small children is a decision you’ll keep paying for. Whatever the code, test any cleaner on a hidden patch first and let it dry fully before you judge it.

What does the fire safety label tell you?

Upholstered furniture sold new in the UK must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Fillings and covers have to pass ignitability tests: cigarette resistance for the composite, match resistance for the cover or an approved interliner.

What you look for is the permanent label — a durable label securely attached to the furniture, usually stitched into a seam or under a cushion, which stays with the sofa for life. The full version carries the words “CARELESSNESS CAUSES FIRE” plus the supplier’s details, a batch or identification number, and a description of the fillings and covering materials. If you’re comparing older advice online, note that the separate swing or display label that used to hang off new furniture is no longer required, having been removed by an amendment from 30 October 2025. Compliance information now sits on the permanent label alone, which makes its absence a red flag — and that matters a great deal buying second hand, where the label is your only evidence the item is legal to sell.

What warranty questions are worth asking?

“Ten year guarantee” on its own means very little. What you want to know is what it covers.

• What’s covered, and for how long each? A ten year headline often means ten years on the frame and one on everything you can see.
• Does it cover cushion collapse? Many exclude “normal softening” of foam and fibre, which is where most complaints come from.
• Parts only, or labour and collection too? A free replacement part is less useful when you’re paying for the visit.
• Is it transferable, and does it survive a house move?
• What voids it? Using the wrong cleaner is a common one.

Separately from any guarantee, you have statutory rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 goods must be of satisfactory quality, and you have a short-term right to reject a faulty item within 30 days of delivery; in the first six months a fault is presumed to have been there on arrival unless the retailer shows otherwise. Buying online adds the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013: generally 14 days from delivery to change your mind and a further 14 to send it back. Made-to-order and bespoke items are excluded from that cancellation right, so if you pick a custom fabric, check the retailer’s own returns policy first.

What actually matters, and what is showroom theatre?

Genuinely matters: the access measurements, the frame material, the suspension, the foam density, the Martindale figure, the seat depth against your own height, and the cleaning code. Those seven decide whether you’re still happy in year five.

Mostly theatre:

• “Handcrafted in the UK” with no detail. Assembled here isn’t the same as made here, and neither tells you what the frame is.
• Enormous discount percentages. A price cut from a figure nobody ever paid is not a saving — I’ve written separately on telling a real sofa deal from a fake one.
• Piping, deep buttoning and contrast stitching. Lovely if you like them, and nothing to do with durability. Buttoning makes cleaning harder.
• Scatter cushions counted as part of the value. They cost the retailer very little.
• The sit test on a display model. Those have been sat on by hundreds of people, so they’re softer than the one that arrives at your door. It’s why a new sofa often feels firmer than expected and needs a few weeks to settle.

And the honest one. If money is tight and the choice is between a well-made two seater and a cheap four seater, take the two seater. A smaller sofa with a kiln-dried frame and decent foam will still be good in eight years; a big soft one on a chipboard frame will be sagging by next winter, and you’ll buy twice. Fewer seats is a much better compromise than worse construction. Same logic with sofa beds: for occasional guests, a good sofa plus a proper guest mattress often beats a mediocre sofa bed, and I’ve set out when one does make sense in the sofa bed buying guide.

A short order of play

1. Measure the wall, the walkway and the height under the window.
2. Measure the whole route in, including every turn and the half-landing.
3. Decide seat depth and seat height from who actually sits on it.
4. Filter by frame and suspension before you look at a single colour.
5. Check the Martindale figure and the cleaning code.
6. Order samples and look at them in the room, day and night.
7. Read the warranty terms, not the warranty headline.
8. Tape the footprint on the floor and live with it for two days.

When you’re ready, you can browse the full sofa range, with dimensions on every product page. If paying in one go isn’t realistic this month, we offer the option to spread the cost through our finance partner, and the how it works page explains what happens before you apply. Applications are subject to status and affordability checks, and you’ll need to be 18 or over and a UK resident. Indoor Living Ltd is a credit broker, not a lender.

There’s more in the same vein over on the blog, including the mistakes people most often make when buying one. Take your time with it. A sofa is one of the few things in a house you touch every day.

Common questions