Milan Compression Sofa: four 104cm sections, three boxes

The Milan Compression Sofa is not one object but four, plus cushions. The listing describes vacuum-sealed compression packing that reduces a four-seat sofa into three boxes, with the sections, the four cushions and the upholstery elements detaching from one another and joining with loops and snap clips. That changes both what you can do with it in a room and how it gets into the room in the first place.

What four 104cm squares can become

Each section is listed at 104 x 104 x 38cm, and four of them come with every purchase. Square sections give you arrangements a fixed frame cannot:

• All four in a line: about 416cm of frontage, which needs a long wall and leaves no gap for a side table.
• Two plus two as an L: roughly 208cm along each arm, which is the shape that suits most square sitting rooms.
• Two plus two as a block: a 208 x 208cm square that works as a day bed or a snug platform rather than a conventional sofa.
• Three and one: a sofa plus a separate seat, with the fourth section used as a footstool or moved to another room.

Those totals assume the sections butt tight against each other. The clips hold them together, but the listing does not state how much play there is at a joint, so treat 416cm and 208cm as the figures to plan against and add a little tolerance.

A 38cm section and a 30cm cushion

The third figure, 38cm, is given without a label, though on a section listed as 104cm square it can only be the height. The figure that shapes the room is the 104cm footprint, which sits at the deep end of the rest of the Sofas range, where the listed depths run between 78cm and 100cm. Deep is comfortable to lounge on and less comfortable to sit upright in, and it consumes floor. Against a wall, a 104cm section is more than a metre of room gone before the back cushion is in place.

The back cushion is listed at 30cm high. The listing does not give an assembled back height, so if the sofa is going under a window or in front of a radiator, ask the shop what the total height measures once the cushion is standing against the section. The two figures cannot simply be added with any confidence.

Three boxes, and the weights that are stated

Those are unusually specific figures for this catalogue, and they are useful. A box a little over a metre square and only 21cm thick turns a stair corner that a built sofa never would, which is the point of the compression packing. The weights say something too: two of the three are heavy enough that you want help on a stairwell rather than a solo lift. Total volume comes to 0.681 CBM, which is worth knowing if the boxes have to wait in a hallway or a garage before you build them.

Colours, clips and the open questions

The listing names dark grey, black, blue and ivory, and the finish menu on the product page carries all four. It describes the joints as loops and snap clips, and makes the point that an individual section can be cleaned or replaced without touching the rest.

What it does not say: the upholstery composition, whether the covers come off for washing, how many clips a joint uses, and whether any tools are needed to assemble it. All four are fair questions to put to the shop before ordering. If you would rather have a conventional fixed sofa, compare the Paris Grey Sofa, or for a far smaller footprint the Lucy Sofa and the Roma Grey & Cream Mix Sofa.

Ordering

Choose your finish on the Milan Compression Sofa page. Delivery is free within 50 miles of the Glasgow store and £50 beyond; ask the shop for the current lead time when you order.