The Chaise Longue Affair

The chaise longue was properly stuck in the staircase – it floated a foot above the stairs,  awkwardly wedged between the narrow walls of the communal area of our building, with me on one side and my boyfriend on the other.

 

We were both trying desperately to free it, without damaging it as the furniture company we had bought it from had very strict return policies and wouldn’t take it back if even the original packaging had been damaged in any way.

We had been going at it, pushing and pulling, for 15 minutes and by this point we had exhausted all ideas, but nothing we did shifted the stupid chaise.

But I knew I had been the stupid one for failing to check the seat’s dimensions online and for failing to measure the staircase to see if it would fit. And, perhaps more importantly, I had failed to measure the space where it was meant to go. So even if we had managed to drag the wretched thing up the stairs or pulled it in through a window, it would have been waaay too big for our two-bedroom flat. 

So we ended frustrated and with a beautiful piece of faux French upholstery blocking our communal staircase for 4 days – our neighbours had to crawl under it every day in some weird furniture limbo contest to get in and out of their flat. Finally the company delivery team managed to extract it, undamaged. We even got out money back! It was like a Christmas miracle in August.

Lesson learned: always measure up.

Second lesson learned: beware of seductive furniture.

 

AN ESSENTIAL TOOL

As house-stagers and interior designers, at Decoroom we spend our days viewing properties and looking at empty spaces, picturing the perfect layout that will show off the property’s best features in order to get some juicy offers for our clients. So we exercise our spatial intelligence muscle on a daily basis and can usually determine whether we’ll be able to just fit that beautiful chest of drawers in the niche next to the fireplace.

However, even with years of experience we sometimes get it wrong. And the last thing you want is to show up on furniture installation day to find out that the sofas don’t fit. So to avoid such a faux-pas we always make sure we carry with us our number one tool… 

[drumrolls, please]

…the tape measure!

The tape measure should be an essential household tool in your toolbox, in your kitchen drawer or even in your car.

Make sure you measure, not only the space where the piece of furniture you’re buying will go, but also the access (i.e. staircases, tight corners, doorways).

And if you require even further help visualising the piece, you may consider also having some masking tape in your tool box.

What you do is, like in those TV cop shows with where they draw the body of the victim on the floor of the crime scene, you can mark the profile of the piece of furniture on your floor with masking tape. This way you’ll get a better idea of how much floor space that sideboard you have your eye on will take in your living room.

And you can take it a step further – you can even go up the wall with the masking tape to include the height for a more 3D version.

But what happens if you forget to do any of the above and your piece of furniture simply does not fit through the door? Well, don’t forget to tune in next time, to learn nifty little tricks to squeeze sofas through the keyhole.

You can contact our designers at:
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