We see two scenarios most often with our customers. The first: the sofa fits perfectly in the room layout, but it won’t fit through the door. Second: the coffee table fits perfectly according to the floor plan in the picture, but in reality, you can’t walk around it. Do you know how to avoid this? Spend just 20 minutes measuring every centimeter perfectly before you click “buy.”
How to measure furniture: First, measure the room itself, the length and height of the walls. Then measure the door opening and the elevator (width and height, to see if the item will even fit inside), and, to be safe, measure the width of the stairwell. The furniture must fit through the narrowest point along this route, not just fit where it will ultimately be placed. Floor plans provided by developers in Dubai often differ from reality by a few centimeters, so you should trust a tape measure rather than a PDF file from the developer’s website.
Measuring the Room Properly
is a basic rule of measurement that you need to take very seriously. A margin of error of just 1 cm can ultimately mean something simply won’t fit. Therefore, approach this matter with the utmost care. Measure:
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The length of the wall, right at the floor, not at waist level, where a baseboard or radiator often gets in the way.
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The ceiling height and the height of the windowsill.
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The location of radiators, air conditioners, and ventilation grilles.
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Exactly where the outlets and light switches are located (a sofa pushed right up against the wall could permanently block access to an outlet).
A separate tip on how to measure furniture that people somehow forget: measure each wall separately, rather than assuming the room is a perfect rectangle. Apartments are rarely perfectly square, and a difference of just a couple of centimeters can determine whether a L-Shaped Sofa will fit against that wall or not. Take the baseboards into account, too, since they “eat up” a couple of centimeters right where the furniture will eventually stand.
Write down the measurements on paper by hand. Taking notes on your phone is nice and convenient, but you may mix up which wall is which, or accidentally tap the wrong number and not notice. That’s why it’s better to do it the old-fashioned way, on paper, with a pen. Also, take a photo of the room from the entrance; this shot will help a lot later when choosing between two sofa options without leaving home. In Dubai, measure the apartment you actually live in, not the one depicted in the developer’s brochure, since the actual dimensions are almost always slightly different.
The Route In: Doorways, Elevators, and Stairwells
Once you’ve chosen a piece of furniture, you need to work out all the details of how it will get to its final destination. Specific measurement rules apply here as well. Measure the route in the following order:
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The building entrance.
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The width of the elevator door, as well as the interior depth and height of the elevator car.
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The apartment door.
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The width of the hallway and any turns along the way.
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The door to the room itself.
We pay the most attention to the narrowest points along the route. For example, if you’re ordering a sofa (the largest item, which often isn’t disassemblable), you need to consider the sofa dimensions. It’s very difficult to bring such an item through narrow points because it’s hard to maneuver; you also need to account for the diagonal dimensions, and if there are any deviations from the dimensions, the sofa simply won’t fit in its intended location.
Dubai’s unique circumstances add a few more considerations: service elevators often need to be reserved in advance; many buildings permit deliveries only during specific hours; and some communities require you to obtain a move-in permit through the property management company several days ahead of time.
By the way, before ordering delivery, we recommend checking the packaging dimensions, too. Just because your future dresser is 100 cm long doesn’t mean the box won’t add a couple of centimeters on each side.
Living Room: Sofa and Coffee Table Dimensions
Let’s start with sofa dimensions: a two-seater sofa is usually 140-170 cm wide; a standard three-seater sofa is 180-220 cm wide (the most common request from our customers); and a corner sofa starts at 240 cm. The seat depth is 75-100 cm, and if the model has a deep seat, you’ll need to leave more free space in front of it.
The main rule for choosing a sofa size is that the sofa should take up about two-thirds of the wall it’s placed against. For a 3-seater sofa measuring 180-220 cm, this means a wall that is at least 270 cm wide; otherwise, the sofa will appear too large for the room.
The logic is similar for coffee tables:
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Coffee table size - the ideal length is approximately two-thirds of the sofa’s length.
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The standard coffee table height is 40-45 cm; the tabletop should be level with the seat or slightly lower.
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The distance between the edge of the sofa and the coffee table should be 40-45 cm, this is enough to walk past and reach for a cup.
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Side table height should be level with the sofa’s armrest, typically 55-65 cm.
If the table is too low or the coffee table height doesn’t match the sofa’s height, it will be uncomfortable to reach it even if the distance from the seat is correct.
The sofa’s width is rarely an issue, but problems arise with depth, because that’s the dimension people most often forget to check before buying.
Dining: Table Size and the Space Around It
More numbers, and the rule of free space, which is more important than the table itself. The standard height of a dining table is 75 cm. Typical dining table dimensions include: a table for four is approximately 120×80 cm, for six - 180×90 cm, and a round table for four - 100-120 cm in diameter. Until you’ve chosen a specific model, you can use these figures as a rough guide when comparing dining table dimensions with your room layout.
The rule that’s most often overlooked: allow 60 cm of table length per person, and at least 90 cm, preferably 110 cm, between the edge of the table and the nearest wall. With this much space, you’ll be able to easily pull out a chair, and someone might even walk behind a seated person. The right dining table size depends not on how many guests you want to seat, but on the room size: a table that’s “as large as possible” can make the room too tight to walk around. When choosing a dining table size for a small dining room in Dubai, base your decision on the room’s square footage. If the table is extendable, plan for where the extra tabletop will go when not in use.
Bedroom: Bed, Nightstands, and Walkways
The UAE uses its own mattress sizes, which differ from European and American standards (this is precisely what causes problems when ordering). The basic rule for walkways: a minimum of 60 cm on each side of the bed if both sides are in use, and 90 cm at the foot of the bed if that’s the route through the room.
Choose bedside tables that are level with the mattress or slightly lower, and no wider than the clearance between the bed and the wall. Dubai apartments almost always have built-in closets, so it’s not so much the closet’s area that matters as the radius required for its doors to open. One more detail: a tall headboard can clash visually with a low ceiling, so keep that in mind.
Clearance: The Gaps That Make a Room Work
We’ve compiled all the clearance measurements in one place so you can bookmark this page:
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Main passageway through the room: 90 cm.
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Secondary path between pieces of furniture: 60 cm.
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Between the sofa and the coffee table: 40-45 cm.
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Behind a pulled-out dining chair: at least 90 cm.
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In front of a closet door: the width of the door plus 30 cm.
The main problem is that the space between furniture pieces is too small. In a compact Dubai apartment, treat these passageway measurements as fixed and base your selection of sofa dimensions and other furniture sizes on them. There’s one exception: a path used only once a day; there, you can slightly reduce the standard, unlike the main passageway in the room.
Test It Before You Buy: Tape on the Floor
This is our favorite trick, one you should try at least once and then tell your friends about. Use painter’s tape to mark the outline of your future furniture on the floor according to its actual dimensions, and live with this layout for a couple of days: walk your usual route, sit where the future sofa will go, and open all the nearby doors.
This reveals what no measuring tape can show: whether a door opens fully, whether the passage feels cramped even if the numbers say it “fits,” and whether the future silhouette of the furniture will block the light from the window. To check the height, stack ordinary boxes to the level of the sofa’s backrest or a shelf. This step turns a set of numbers into a decision, and almost no one does it, even though it takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.
What to Ask Before You Order
Finally, we’ve prepared a short list of questions you should ask before placing your order:
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Ask for the dimensions separately when assembled and when packed.
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Check whether the furniture can be disassembled for delivery and reassembled in the room.
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Find out what’s included in the delivery: to the door, into the room, or with assembly, and whether they’ll remove the packaging.
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Check the delivery window against your building's service-elevator rules.
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Separately, check the return policy in case the item doesn’t fit.
In the UAE, delivery usually takes a few days, and you can always double-check the dimensions with the store’s team before ordering. If you’re ready to select furniture based on measurements you’ve already taken, check out our collections: sofas, coffee tables, and dining tables. The exact coffee table size and sofa size are listed for each model so you don’t have to guess based on a photo.
A tape measure is the cheapest part of any furniture purchase, and the only thing that can really save you from making an expensive mistake.
