Data on Living Room Armchairs and Sofas

Armchairs, couches, as well as three seater and two seater sofas are found in living rooms. Although furniture sizes can vary, there are basic constraints — doorways, room sizes and the human body being the main limiting considerations.

Elevation A (click to enlarge)

As you can see from the side elevation, there is a headroom minimum requirement of at least 1900 from the finished floor level (FFL) at 200 in front of the cushion’s edge. The head height requirement at the back is at least 1200 vertically from the FFL.

In the armchair plan, there are three widths and depths for the chair itself — small, medium and large if you will. This is shown on the left side of the above drawing. The line shown at the front edge of the chair’s cushion is the demarkation point, and to the right of this line is the space requirement in front of the chair. “RES” means restricted and “ELD” means elderly.

• [C] The width in front of the chair or sofa for getting up and sitting down is 1050 across the arms (to allow for elbow movements).
• [D] is the depth needed for sitting down and getting up.
• A depth of between 550 and 650 is required for sitting normally.
• A depth of between 800 and 850 is needed for putting legs up on a footstool.
• When seated at a low (500 high) coffee table, a depth of 450 (300 restricted) would be OK.

FIRA survey data of 309 upholstered armchairs :

Per Cent	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)	Height (mm)
100	2740	1200
90	2740	1010
75	2220	980	530 – 1100
50	2030	960
10	1600	890

FIRA survey data of 322 Sofas:

Per Cent	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)	Height (mm)
100	1680	1070
90	990	1070
75	990	980	640 – 1040
50	910	970
10	760	810

*About 30 per cent of sofas were under 1800 wide (2 seaters), in a FIRA sample of 16 sofa beds, about 70 percent were 1900 long by 900 wide or less.