Small apartment furniture guide: what size fits, room by room

In a small apartment, every piece of furniture has to fit the room and leave space to move. This guide brings together our sizing guides for small living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and entries, so you can check the numbers before you buy.

1. Measure the room and the way in

Measure the floor, then the doorways, hallway and elevator the furniture has to come through. Leave a walking path of about 30 to 36 inches through the main parts of the room. Mark the footprint on the floor with painter's tape before you order anything large.

2. Living room

Most sofas are 80 inches or longer. An apartment-size loveseat around 47 inches wide seats two where a full sofa won't. Nesting coffee tables give you two tables in the footprint of one, and a round storage ottoman can be a footrest, a seat and a coffee table.

3. Guest sleeping

If you don't have a guest room, a sleeper chair is a chair most of the time and opens into a single bed. Our guide to sleeper chairs for small spaces covers how much room it needs when it's open.

4. Dining in a small kitchen

A drop leaf table folds down to a narrow shelf, and a wall-mounted folding table leaves the floor completely clear. Either seats two for dinner and gets out of the way after.

5. Bedroom and entry

A storage bench at the end of the bed holds blankets and pillows, and a narrow console table gives you somewhere to drop keys without blocking the entry.

6. Pieces that do two jobs

The best small-space furniture works twice: a storage ottoman, a bench that holds blankets, a chair that becomes a bed, a cart that rolls away. Choose these first and you'll need fewer pieces overall.

Browse our small space furniture, or send us your measurements and we'll suggest what fits.