Before you buy a sofa

WANT TO MAKE SURE YOUR MONEY IS WELL SPENT? THIS EXPERT GUIDE WILL ENSURE YOU BUY THE BEST FOR YOUR NEEDS AND BUDGET

- AMY CUTMORE

Choosing new seating for our living rooms should be a joyful affair, shouldn't it? Yet it can be a deceptively hard task.

That showroom excitement can quickly dissipate when your new sofa arrives and you find that it swamps the room, or it doesn't feel as comfy as you expected, or - worst of all - you can't even manage to fit it in through the door.

'Changing a sofa after you've bought it and it's been delivered is a big hassle, so it's best to give some serious thought to the style, feel and size that you need before purchasing,' advises Patricia Gibbons, head of buying at Sofa.com.

So Patricia, along with several more experts in the world of sofas, has shared her advice on things to look for when you're planning on buying a new sofa so you can get it right, first time.

START BY MEASURING UP

A common sofa faux pas? Buying something you discover to your cost you can't get into the house. 'If your sofa, for example, needs to make it up a flight of stairs,' explains Patricia at Sofa.com, 'start by measuring the width of the staircase at its narrowest point, including any handrails or light fittings. And make sure you also measure your front door (or the door being used for access) accurately, including its height.

'Some sofas come in breakdown-able versions, so it's always worth asking about these if you think access might be tight,' suggests Patricia. This is particularly true of sofa-in-a-box solutions from the likes of Swyft, where the base, back and arms of the sofa come unassembled and are bolted together after delivery. Because there's no bulk, this makes the pieces far easier to manoeuvre around corners and through doorways and stairwells.