A sofa will fit through your door if its depth or its height, whichever is smaller, is less than the clear width of the doorway, and it can make every turn on the way to the room. Measuring takes about ten minutes and saves a failed delivery. Here is how to measure the sofa, your doorways and the route in between.
You need four sofa measurements, plus the width and height of every doorway, hallway and stairwell on the route.
For the sofa, note the width, depth, height and diagonal depth. Diagonal depth is the distance from the top back corner of the sofa to the front edge of the seat. It shows how much room the sofa needs when it is tilted and pivoted through a door. Retailers can usually give you this figure, and you can ask for it in store.
For each doorway, measure the clear width between the door stops, not the outer frame, and the height. Then measure hallway widths, the ceiling height above any stairs and the space around tight corners.
If the sofa’s depth or height is less than the doorway’s clear width, it can be carried through on its back or on its end. If both are larger, compare the diagonal depth with the doorway width. When the diagonal depth is smaller, movers can tilt the sofa and pivot it through the frame.
Many Australian internal doors are 820 mm wide, which leaves a clear opening of roughly 770 mm once the frame and stops are counted. Front doors are often wider. A three-seater is commonly 800 to 900 mm high and 850 to 1,000 mm deep, so on a narrow internal door the legs may need to come off, or the sofa needs to be angled through.
Remove the legs, take the door off its hinges or choose a sofa that arrives in pieces. In rough order of effort:
If space is tight throughout the home, 2 seater sofas for small spaces are easier to carry in, and a compact sofa bed covers guest sleeping without a second large piece.
Measure the lift’s internal width, depth and height and its door opening, and check whether a sofa can stand on its end inside. Many apartment lifts are too shallow for a sofa laid flat, so the ceiling height and the diagonal inside the car matter. Book the lift with building management and ask whether protective padding is available.
For stairs, measure the narrowest point, the ceiling height above the stairs and any landing where the sofa has to turn. Tight landings stop more deliveries than narrow front doors.
Yes. Modular sofas for small spaces and tight access arrive in separate sections, so each piece only has to fit through the doorway on its own. That makes modular a practical choice for terraces, upstairs living rooms and apartments with small lifts. Check the size of the largest single module, usually the corner or chaise piece, against your narrowest point.
Note stairs, lifts or tight access on your order so the delivery team can plan for it. Standard delivery from Home Furniture Outlet assumes level, unobstructed access to a single-storey property. Where there are stairs or a lift, an access charge from around $20 may apply. In-stock items reach most Sydney addresses in 3 to 4 business days.
Bring your measurements to Home Furniture Outlet Penrith at Shop 2B, 61-79 Henry Street, and the team can give you the width, depth, height and diagonal depth of any sofa on the floor. Of the furniture stores Penrith has, ours sits in the CBD, a five-minute walk from Penrith Station. Take a photo of each doorway with a tape measure in shot and bring it in. The team can help you pick a sofa that will make it inside. Call 0422 777 731 before you visit.
Diagonal depth is the distance from the top back corner of the sofa to the front edge of the seat. It tells you whether the sofa can be tilted and pivoted through a doorway narrower than its depth.
A sofa with a depth or height under about 770 mm, with its legs removed, will usually pass through a standard 820 mm internal door. Larger sofas may still fit using their diagonal depth.
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