What you need

What to measure: the full checklist

How to make a simple floor plan

The tape-on-the-floor trick

The most common mistakes

Key takeaways

Browse furniture by your measurements

A 5–8 m steel tape measure is the only real essential — a cloth tape is fine for bodies, not for rooms. A pencil and grid paper (or a note on your phone) to sketch the room as you go. A second person makes corners much easier to measure accurately. That is it. If you want to go further, a laser measure (available from NZ hardware stores for around $50–100) speeds things up dramatically and is worth buying if you move house regularly.

Floor dimensions: measure all four walls, not just two — rooms are rarely perfectly rectangular, and a 10 cm discrepancy between opposite walls changes furniture placement significantly. Measure at skirting board height, not baseboard height. Doorways: width of the opening (not the door itself) and height — you need to know whether large furniture pieces can get in. Windows: position, width, and sill height — furniture placed in front of windows may block light or look odd from outside. Ceiling height: most NZ homes are 2.4 m, but older villas, newer townhouses, and apartments vary. Check especially in rooms where you want tall wardrobes, shelving, or pendant lights. Skirting boards and cornices: note depth (typically 15–30 mm for skirting), as some furniture sits flush against the wall but catches on cornices or skirting. Power points and light switches: mark these on your sketch — they constrain where furniture with plugs or lamps can go. Any alcoves, chimney breasts, or structural columns: these often limit what fits and should always appear on your floor plan.

On grid paper, let each square equal 10 cm or 20 cm. Draw your room outline first, then add: each door and the arc of its swing, each window, any fixed features (built-in wardrobes, fireplace, radiators). Mark north if you know it — useful for thinking about sun and heat. Once the shell is done, cut out scaled furniture shapes from spare paper or use an app like FurnitureFit's Plan a room to drag real product dimensions into the space. This is the moment you discover that the sofa you love leaves only 40 cm to walk around it.

Free and low-cost floor plan apps available in NZ include the room planner built into FurnitureFit, Planner 5D, and RoomSketcher. For a professional renovation, a measured drawing from an architect or designer adds value; for everyday furniture shopping, a pencil sketch is usually enough.

Before committing to a furniture purchase, lay out the exact footprint of the piece using masking tape on the floor. Mark the overall width and depth, then pull out chairs if it is a table, or sit on the floor behind where the sofa back will be. Walk the paths you use every day. Open imaginary wardrobe doors. This is not a substitute for measuring — it is the final check that transforms 'I think this will fit' into 'yes, this will fit'. It takes about five minutes and has saved thousands of dollars of returns across NZ households.

Measuring once and assuming it is right — always re-measure anything that will cost over a few hundred dollars. Measuring wall-to-wall without accounting for skirting boards — a 10–15 mm skirting can catch the back of a flush-against-the-wall unit. Forgetting to check the delivery path — a staircase, tight hallway, or 90-degree corner can make a piece impossible to deliver assembled. Buying to fill a room rather than to suit it — a piece that is technically fits but dominates the space makes the room feel smaller and harder to live in. Not checking listed dimensions before visiting a store — retailers' floor models are sometimes display sizes, not production sizes.

Use a steel tape measure. Measure all four walls, every doorway, and ceiling height. Sketch as you go. Use the tape-on-floor trick before buying. Check the delivery path as well as the room. Always verify the exact dimensions of the product you are buying — not the style photo. And when you are ready to shop, enter your measurements into FurnitureFit to see which products from NZ retailers actually fit your space.

Ready to put your measurements to work? Here are sofas and beds from NZ retailers — check dimensions on each listing, then use FurnitureFit to filter by your exact room size.