Lucca Mini Sideboard: 70cm wide, 35cm deep, for tight rooms

Most sideboards are bought for a wall. The Lucca Mini Sideboard, listed at 70x35x80cm, is the size you buy when there is no wall going spare and the piece has to earn a narrow strip of floor. Its description is that one dimension string, so everything below is about fit.

The listed size

The 35cm depth is the number that matters

In a hallway the depth is the whole decision, because it comes directly off the width people walk through. The arithmetic is unkind and worth doing honestly. A 110cm hall leaves 75cm of clear passage, which is enough for one person carrying shopping. A 90cm hall leaves 55cm, which is a squeeze with a coat on and impossible with a pram. If the hall is the route for furniture coming into the rest of the house, think about that too.

Against a radiator, remember the wall fixing and pipework stand proud of the plaster, so a nominally flat back can sit a centimetre or two off the wall. Measure to the thing that sticks out furthest, not to the paint.

70cm wide: what it slots between

Seventy centimetres is short enough to sit between two door frames, inside a bay window, at the foot of a bed, or on the blank wall beside a chimney breast where nothing bigger will go. Measure the gap at the skirting as well as at the top: a 70cm opening at waist height is often a 68cm opening at the floor, and the skirting is what stops the piece going back flush.

The 80cm height, and a quirk in the catalogue

Eighty centimetres is a comfortable height to drop keys and post onto without stooping, and clears the top of most skirting-height obstructions. It is also tall enough to interfere with a low window sill, so if it is going under a window, measure sill height to the floor before anything else. Worth knowing: the Torino Mini Sideboard is listed at 70 x 35 x 81cm, a centimetre taller on paper for the same footprint. Treat both figures as nominal and leave yourself a little slack.

What the listing does not cover

• No finish, colour or material, and no photograph description. Judge the look from the pictures, and ask us to confirm the finish before you order rather than taking a guess from a photograph.
• No internal layout. For a hallway piece the useful question is whether the inside takes gloves and dog leads or whether it is shelved for something shallower.
• No weight and no note on assembly. It is the smallest set of figures in the range, but without a stated weight nobody can tell you what it takes to lift, so ask before you plan the carry in.

If it turns out to be too small

The step up is the Lucca Small Sideboard at 97x40x81cm, and the Lucca Large Sideboard at 137x40x81cm if the wall allows. Both add 5cm of depth over this one, which is the figure to re-check against your hallway. Everything is listed together in Sideboards & Cabinets.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. Measure the narrowest point of the route first, then the Lucca Mini Sideboard page has the photographs and the order form.