G-Paris Grey Shimmer Sofa: sizing the 3+2+1 to your room

The G-Paris Grey Shimmer Sofa is listed as a three-piece set, and the configuration menu on its product page lets you take the chair, the 2-seater or the 3-seater on its own. So the first decision is a tape-measure decision rather than a question of taste: how many of the three units the room will hold, and where each one goes.

The three units, as the listing gives them

All three share the same 82cm and 72.5cm figures, so only the first number moves between them. Read in the usual order that is a width, a depth and a height, which suits a sofa of this shape, but the listing does not label the figures. If a couple of centimetres either way matters where you are putting it, ask the shop to confirm which number is the depth before you order.

What 82cm of depth asks of the floor

82cm is a middling depth for a sofa, and it is the figure that catches people out in a narrow room. Back to the wall, the front edge is already more than three quarters of a metre into the floor space, before anyone's feet are on the carpet. A walkway in front wants roughly 75cm to pass in comfort, and nearer 90cm if it is the route to another door. Add the two together and the sofa and its walkway account for about 1.7m of the room in a straight line. Put a second 82cm-deep unit on the facing wall and the pair need a little over 2.5m between the walls before the route through starts to close up.

Measure that depth out from the skirting board rather than the plaster. A skirting of two or three centimetres pushes the whole piece forward, and so does a radiator or a deep window board.

Adding the units up

Take all three and you are placing 216cm, 171cm and 104cm of furniture, which is 491cm of frontage in total. Few sitting rooms swallow that in a straight line, so the common arrangement is the 3-seater along the longest wall, the 2-seater at right angles to it and the chair facing in, with the 82cm depth of each piece eating into the floor from three sides at once. Sketch it on squared paper before you commit to the third unit.

A tighter room is often better served by the 2-seater and the chair together. That is 275cm of frontage, and it leaves the long wall free for a TV unit or a chest.

Shimmer, buttoning and gold legs

The description sets out a Chesterfield outline: deep button detailing, rolled arms, and a grey shimmer upholstery it describes as catching the light through the day. The legs are described as polished gold accents. That is the whole of the specification, and it is worth knowing where it stops. There is no fabric composition, no seat height, no note on the frame or the filling, no weight and no boxed size, so if the route in involves a turn on a stair, ask the shop for the packed dimensions first.

On the two listings, the shimmer upholstery and the gold legs are what separate this from the Paris Grey Sofa, which gives the same sizes and the same Chesterfield outline in a plain grey fabric on polished chrome legs. Neither listing describes the frame or the filling, so there may be differences that are not written down. If you want the same silhouette without the sheen, compare those two side by side. For a smaller floor plan, the Lucy Sofa is both shorter and shallower, and the Roma Grey & Cream Mix Sofa is a single compact two-seater rather than a set.

Ordering

Choose the configuration you want on the G-Paris Grey Shimmer Sofa page, or look across the rest of the Sofas range first. Delivery is free within 50 miles of the Glasgow store and £50 beyond. Ask the shop for the current lead time when you order, and have the doorway, the stair turn and the walkway measured before the van is on its way.