Furniture spacing calculator

How to use the furniture spacing calculator

This calculator checks whether furniture leaves enough walkway space across a room’s length and width. Enter room dimensions and up to four furniture pieces, such as a sofa, coffee table, media console, or bookshelf.

1. Choose Feet or Metres under Units.
2. Enter the Room length and Room width.
3. For each furniture piece, enter its Name, Width along the wall, and Depth into the room.
4. Choose which room dimension it consumes.
5. Review the remaining walkways and the pass, minimum, or fail result.

What to enter

Units

Choose Feet for room dimensions in feet or Metres for room dimensions in metres. Furniture piece dimensions remain in inches.

Room length

Enter the room’s longer dimension. The default is 16 ft, or 4.88 m when entering metric dimensions.

Room width

Enter the room’s other dimension. The default is 12 ft, or 3.66 m when entering metric dimensions.

Name

Label the piece, such as Sofa or Bookshelf. Piece 1 and Piece 2 are included by default; Pieces 3 and 4 are optional.

Width along the wall

Enter the piece width in inches. The default pieces are 84 in for the Sofa, 48 in for the Coffee table, and 60 in for the TV stand.

Depth into the room

Enter the piece depth in inches. The default pieces are 36 in for the Sofa, 24 in for the Coffee table, and 18 in for the TV stand.

Which room dimension it consumes

Choose Room width (piece on a long wall) or Room length (piece on a short wall). The default pieces use Room width.

Example: 16 ft by 12 ft living room

Enter Room length = 16 ft and Room width = 12 ft. Add a Sofa with Width along the wall = 84 in, Depth into the room = 36 in, and Room width. Add a Media console with 60 in width, 18 in depth, and Room width. Add a Bookshelf with 32 in width, 12 in depth, and Room length. The width walkway is 144 in − (36 in + 18 in) = 90 in. The length walkway is 192 in − 12 in = 180 in. Both results are above the 36 in recommended walkway, so the result is pass (recommended).

How the spacing check works

The calculator converts the room length and width to inches. It groups pieces by the selected room dimension and adds their depths. For each axis, remaining walkway = room dimension − total piece depth. A remaining walkway below 30 in fails, 30 in through less than 36 in passes at the minimum level, and 36 in or more passes at the recommended level. Piece width is checked against the perpendicular room dimension, and a warning appears if a piece is wider than that dimension. Results show inches and centimetres; displayed lengths are rounded to one decimal place.

Reading the results

The summary shows the walkway across the width, the walkway along the length, and an overall result. Pass (recommended) means both axes meet at least 36 in. Pass (minimum) means both axes meet 30 in but at least one is below 36 in. Fail means one axis has less than 30 in. The breakdown lists each piece, total occupied depth, and remaining space for each axis.

Limitations and common mistakes

• This is a one-dimensional check. It does not pack furniture in two dimensions or determine the best placement.
• Pieces assigned to the same axis are treated as facing each other, with their depths added together.
• Doors, radiators, built-ins, and other fixed obstacles are not deducted from the room dimensions.
• Enter furniture widths and depths in inches even when the room is entered in metres.

Frequently asked questions