Living room measurements: every clearance in cm

This page puts every living room measurement in one place, in centimetres first, with inches in brackets. Each line names where the number comes from. Most of them are designers' rules: conventions that work in real homes but that nobody has tested in a study. Where a building standard or an industry figure exists, we say so. Where sources disagree, we give the range.

The clearances, at a glance

The drawing shows a 3.2 × 3.6 m room. The same gaps hold in a bigger one: the walkway does not grow just because the room does, but the rug and the TV distance usually do.

The full table

Walkways: the number that matters most

If you remember one figure, make it this one. A route of 75–90 cm (30–36 in) lets one person walk through without turning sideways. Designers aim for about 90 cm on the main route, usually from the door to the seats or to the window. In a tight room they accept 45–60 cm for a path few people use, such as the gap behind an armchair.

We found no UK standard for living room walkways. The nearest standards are for other rooms. Approved Document M asks for a 750 mm route from a bedroom door to its window in new accessible homes. The NKBA's kitchen guidelines ask for walkways of at least 914 mm (36 in). Both sit inside the designers' range, which is reassuring.

Measure a walkway at its narrowest point, not in the middle. A sofa arm, a plant or a radiator often steals the last 10 cm.

The sofa and the coffee table

Leave 35–45 cm (14–18 in) between the front of the sofa and the coffee table. Closer than that, and knees knock. Further, and you lean forward for your mug. The table itself is usually half to two thirds of the sofa's length, so a 200 cm sofa suits a table of 100–130 cm, and it sits 5–10 cm lower than the seat.

A side table works best at about the height of the sofa arm, within 10 cm, so a cup goes down without a reach. That figure comes from one designer's guide, Jackie Barnes Design (2026).

Rug sizes and borders

The rug should be wide enough that the sofa's front legs, and the front legs of any chairs, rest on it. Designers then like it to run 15–20 cm past each end of the sofa, and to leave 30–45 cm of bare floor to the walls. Sources disagree on the border: Architectural Digest says about 15–35 cm, and Livingetc says 30–45 cm. We use 20 cm as the least that still looks meant.

In UK shops that usually means 160 × 230 cm for a two- or three-seater in a small room, and 200 × 290 cm for a bigger sofa or a corner group. Our rug size calculator works it out from your own room and sofa.

TV distance and height

Two figures set the range for distance. THX's best seat puts the screen across 40° of your view, which is about 1.2 times the diagonal away. The figure widely quoted as SMPTE's is 30°, about 1.6 times the diagonal. Wikipedia notes that SMPTE itself may not make a direct recommendation, so treat the 30° figure as a convention.

Sitting further away than the table is fine. The screen just fills less of your view. For height, a common rule puts the centre of the screen at your seated eye height, which on most sofas is about 100–110 cm. We found only weak sources for that exact figure, and one designer gives 107–122 cm, so sit down and measure your own eyes. THX suggests you should not need to look up more than 15°. That rules out many screens mounted high above a fireplace. The TV height and distance calculator works out both for your room.

Art and lamps

On an open wall, hang a picture so its centre is 145–150 cm (57–60 in) from the floor. A widely shared home-decor guide gives 57 inches (145 cm), a figure often tied to gallery practice, and an art adviser quoted by Livingetc gives about 150 cm. Over a sofa, the bottom of the frame sits 15–25 cm above the sofa's back, and the art, or the group of frames, is about two thirds as wide as the sofa. The picture height calculator turns that into a hook height, allowing for the drop of the wire.

For lamps, the guide is your eyes. Put the bottom of a table or floor lamp's shade at about seated eye level, so you see the glow and not the bulb. A ceiling light should hang at least 2.1 m (7 ft) above any floor you walk on.

Doors and radiators

Two things steal space without looking like furniture. The first is the door. Keep its full swing clear, and remember the opening is smaller than the door: on a common 762 mm UK door, the gap you can carry a sofa through is often about 700–720 mm, once the open door and the stop take their share. Approved Document M shows how to measure that clear opening.

The second is the radiator. HOFOR, Copenhagen's heat utility, advises at least 20 cm between a radiator and any furniture, and leaving the valve within reach makes life easier.

Check these in your own room

To use this table, you need two things: your room's measurements, and a way to try the furniture before it arrives. A tape measure and paper do the first. Our eight small living room plans show the numbers at work in real UK room shapes.

Snuug, the iPhone room app, does both at once. You walk once round your room, and Snuug rebuilds it in 3D to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes. You can move the sofa in 5 cm steps and Snuug checks the walkways as you go. Our team checks every room by hand before it reaches you, and your first room is free.

Questions

How far should a coffee table be from the sofa?

35–45 cm (14–18 in), measured from the front edge of the seat to the edge of the table. Castlery UK gives 35–45 cm; Emily Henderson gives 41–46 cm.

How wide should a walkway be in a living room?

Designers use 75–90 cm (30–36 in), and about 90 cm for the main route from the door. In a tight room, 45–60 cm is accepted for a path few people use. We found no UK standard for living rooms.

How far should the sofa be from the TV?

About 1.2 to 1.6 times the screen's diagonal, measured to your eyes. For a 55-inch TV that is about 170–230 cm. The two ends of the range come from THX (40° of view) and the figure widely quoted as SMPTE's (30°).

How high should a TV be on the wall?

A common rule puts the centre of the screen at seated eye height, about 100–110 cm on most sofas. The sources for that exact figure are weak, so sit down and measure your own eye height. THX suggests you should not look up more than 15°.

How far apart should sofas be facing each other?

Somewhere around 1.2–2.1 m between the seats is a common guide. It comes from Edward Hall's 'social distance', observed in one culture in the 1960s, so treat it as a rough starting point.

How high should a lamp be next to a sofa?

Designers put the bottom of the shade at about seated eye level, so you see the glow but not the bulb, and the side table at about the height of the sofa arm, within 10 cm (Jackie Barnes Design, 2026).

Editorial notes

Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.

1. Emily Henderson, Living room rules to know (walkways 30–36 in; 18–24 in in a tight room). The page refused our fetch; figures from search summaries, checked 15 Oct 2026
2. Jackie Barnes Design (21 Jan 2026), Key measurements every homeowner should know when designing a living room
3. Castlery UK (5 Aug 2026), Coffee table dimensions
4. Livingetc (Wolfe, 22 Aug 2025), The two-thirds rule (rug border 12–18 in)
5. IKEA UK, How to choose the right rug size (checked 31 Oct 2026)
6. Wikipedia, Optimum HDTV viewing distance (SMPTE 30°, THX 40° and 15°; checked 31 Oct 2026)
7. Livingetc (Wolfe, 29 Dec 2025), Picture hanging hack (about 150 cm to the centre)
8. Apartment Therapy, How to hang artwork: 57 inches from the floor (page refused our fetch; figure from search summaries)
9. Architectural Digest, How to hang a picture (about 15–25 cm above furniture)
10. Hunker (Hordos, 7 Feb 2010), The right size picture over a couch (two thirds of the couch)
11. Hall (1966), The Hidden Dimension, via Wikipedia, Proxemics
12. NKBA, Kitchen Planning Guidelines (walkways, and clearance behind a seated diner)
13. HM Government, Approved Document M, Volume 1, 2015 with 2016 amendments (750 mm routes; how to measure a door's clear opening)
14. Howarth Timber (Green, 14 Sep 2026), UK door sizes
15. HOFOR (1 Jan 2021), Let the heat spread throughout the room (at least 20 cm from a radiator)