Every sectional listing publishes three numbers. The one that decides whether the thing gets into the room is a fourth, and it is not printed anywhere. Shopping for a sectional sofa for living rooms looks like a question about seating and turns out to be a question about your front door, your stair corner and the distance from that door to the wall opposite it.
This is an independent editorial review. Raymour & Flanigan did not review or approve this article.
Raymour & Flanigan describes itself as a family-owned furniture and mattress retailer serving customers in more than 145 showroom, outlet and clearance center locations, and the measuring guidance, product dimensions and delivery questions described here were read from its own pages on the date of writing; the figures that actually decide whether a piece fits are the ones inside your home, and nobody can take them for you.
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Use case 1: Buying a sectional sofa for living rooms that opens off a narrow hall
Raymour & Flanigan publishes a measuring worksheet for delivery, and reading it is a faster education than any buying guide. It asks for eight separate figures from your home: “Interior doorway width & clearance to opposite wall”, “Interior doorway height”, “Stairwell overhang/ceiling height”, “Exterior/Front doorway height”, “Exterior/Front doorway width & clearance to opposite wall”, “Staircase width”, “Staircase corner width* & clearance to opposite wall upstairs” where the stairs curve, and “Low-hanging light fixtures”. If you live in an apartment it adds a ninth instruction, to “measure the elevator interior height, elevator opening and opposite wall distance”.
Then it asks for two figures from the furniture, and this is the part that matters: “Measure the diagonal depth and width of the furniture.”
Diagonal depth is the measurement across the side profile of the piece, corner to corner, and it is what a sofa presents when two people tip it up to get it through an opening. It is the figure the worksheet tells you to compare against your entryway, your stairway and your interior doorways. It is also the figure no product page carries. A two-piece sectional with a full sleeper on the company’s own site lists exactly one set of dimensions, “L: 108″ x W: 67″ x H: 35″”, and nothing else.
Work it out from the company’s own published ranges and you can see why the gap matters. Its sofa size guide puts sectional depth at 30 to 38 inches and height at 30 to 36 inches. A piece at the deep end of that, 38 inches deep and 36 inches tall, has a side-profile diagonal of a little over 52 inches. The worksheet’s own worked example of a front door is “ex. front door 78″h 36″w”. That is the whole problem in two numbers, and it is why sectionals arrive in pieces.
Take them in this order, because each one can end the exercise:
- Measure the front or exterior doorway, width and height, and the clearance to the wall opposite it.
- Measure every interior doorway on the route, again with the clearance behind each one.
- Measure the staircase width, the overhang above it and the corner clearance if the stairs turn.
- In an apartment, measure the elevator interior height and the elevator opening.
- Measure the diagonal depth and width of the piece you want, and compare it against all of the above.
Small apartment: a sectional sofa for small spaces is sized by the path, then the floor
In a small home the temptation is to shop by length, because length is the number that looks like the constraint. It is not. A sectional sofa for small spaces has to clear a stair corner before it ever reaches the wall you measured, and the worksheet treats the stairs as three separate questions rather than one: the width of the staircase, the ceiling or overhang above it, and the clearance to the wall upstairs where the stairs turn.
Raymour & Flanigan’s own guidance helps here in a way that is easy to miss. It notes that sectionals range “from 2 to 6 pieces” and that modular versions “give you the ability to add or remove sections if needed”. A four-piece configuration is not just more flexible in the room; it is four smaller diagonal depths going up the stairs instead of one large one.
- Measure the narrowest point of the route, not the widest, and write down where it is.
- Measure the clearance to the opposite wall at every doorway, because a piece has to pivot there.
- Check for low-hanging light fixtures over the stairs and in the hall, which the worksheet lists on its own.
- Count the pieces in the configuration before you compare prices, since piece count changes the route.
Kids and a dog: a sectional sofa for families is a seat-height decision too
Once the route is settled, the rest of the choice is about daily use, and a sectional sofa for families runs into two published figures worth knowing. The size guide states that “Most seats are 17-19 inches off the floor, which suits most adults” and that “Seat depth is generally 20-24 inches from the front to the back cushion”. Those two numbers decide whether a child can get down without sliding and whether an adult can sit back without their feet leaving the floor.
The guide also carries a quieter warning for households with a sleeper in the plan. It publishes the open mattress footprints: a twin at 38 by 75 inches, a full at 54 by 75, a queen at 60 by 80 and a king at 76 by 80. A sleeper section does not merely sit in the room; it needs that rectangle of clear floor in front of it on the nights it is used.
One big room: a sectional sofa for open plan homes is sized by the walkway
In a single large room there is no wall to bound the purchase, so the limit becomes circulation. A sectional sofa for open plan homes is sized against the routes people take through the space, and the company publishes usable figures for both: “you should leave 30-36 inches for main walkways and 18 or so inches between the sofa and a coffee table”, plus the reminder that “If a door opens into the seating area, make sure it can swing freely.”
Its proportion rule is the other half: “A sofa that spans about two-thirds of a wall usually looks balanced and leaves enough space for end tables or lamps.” In an open room, pick the notional wall first and then apply it, or the piece will read as furniture parked in a field.
Two more questions on the worksheet belong to this situation and nowhere else, because large configurations arrive on large trucks: “Can your driveway hold a 26ft truck?” and “Can our delivery truck fit down your road?”
Side-by-side by situation
| Your situation | The measurement that decides it | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Front door opens onto a narrow hall | Doorway width plus clearance to the opposite wall | Compare against the diagonal depth, not the listed depth |
| Walk-up apartment with a turning stair | Staircase corner width and upstairs wall clearance | Prefer more, smaller pieces over fewer large ones |
| Elevator building | Elevator interior height and opening | Measure all three figures the worksheet names |
| Young children at home | Seat height and seat depth | Use the 17-19 inch and 20-24 inch bands as a filter |
| Open plan main room | Walkway width around the configuration | Hold 30-36 inches for main routes before choosing length |
| Rural or steep driveway | Access for a 26 foot truck | Raise it at order time, not on delivery day |
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Frequently Asked Questions
The questions below come up once the route has been measured and the configuration is still open.
How do I measure diagonal depth?
Measure the side of the piece from the highest point at the back to the lowest point at the front, corner to corner, rather than straight across the seat. Raymour & Flanigan’s size guide puts it plainly: “Compare these to the sofa’s diagonal depth – this will tell you if it can navigate corners.”
Does the delivery team measure for me?
The worksheet is written for the buyer to complete before the order, and the company’s pre-purchase page offers help by phone, chat or email rather than a site visit. Treat the measuring as yours, and raise anything unusual about the route at order time.
Is a modular configuration better in a small home?
For getting it in, usually yes, because each piece presents a smaller diagonal depth on the stairs. For living with it, the trade is that modular pieces can drift apart on a hard floor and need resetting.
What if the only route is through a window or over a balcony?
That is a conversation to have before you order rather than after, since it changes who is doing the delivery and on what terms. The worksheet does not cover hoisting, and nothing on the retailer’s public pages promises it.
If a floor surface is part of your plan for the room, our guide on what your floor actually is covers the care side of that decision.
You can check current options here:
Conclusion
The listing gives you length, width and height, and none of those three is the number that fails on delivery day. Take the eight measurements the worksheet asks for, work out the diagonal depth of the piece you want, and compare the two before you compare anything else. A configuration that fits the room but not the route is the expensive version of this mistake, and it is entirely avoidable with a tape measure and twenty minutes.
