Siena 08 5 Seater Sofa: fitting 325cm, and getting the hand right

At 325 x 95 x 78cm, the Siena 08 5 Seater (LH/RH) Sofa is one of the longer pieces in the sofas range, and the length is the whole decision. The listing gives those three figures unlabelled, so everything below reads them as length, then depth, then height; ask the shop to confirm which is which before you plan to the centimetre. Five places across 325cm works out at roughly 65cm each if you divide it evenly, though the listing does not break the seats down, so treat that as a rough guide rather than a seat width.

What 325cm asks of a wall

Three and a quarter metres is longer than most chimney breasts, most bay windows and a good number of internal walls. Before anything else, find the clear run you intend to use and measure it at skirting level and at 78cm, because a radiator, a pipe boxing or a return wall often takes a slice out of one but not the other.

The 95cm depth is the figure that decides the rest of the room. Along one wall of a 3.5m room it leaves 2.55m in front, which comfortably takes a table and a walkway. Across a narrow room it will not, and no amount of rearranging fixes a sofa that is deeper than the space it leaves behind it.

What the listing does not give is a return measurement, or any statement of whether this is one straight run or turns a corner. One length and no second figure reads as a straight run, but the listing does not say so, and it does not explain what the left-hand and right-hand options actually change. Ask the shop before you plan a layout around it, and ask for a second measurement if there is one. The listing itself asks you to get in touch about the hand, so that is the call to make anyway.

Left hand, right hand, and the colour list

The description names grey and ivory. The configuration list offers grey with a right arm, ivory with a left arm and ivory with a right arm. If grey with a left arm is what your room needs, that is a question for the shop rather than an assumption to make at the basket.

Work out the hand with the room, not the picture. Stand where you would sit, facing the sofa's intended wall, and note which end the long side or the raised arm needs to be on. Handing is the part a photograph never settles, so fix it with a tape measure and a note of which end goes where.

A 78cm back, and what the lower line changes

At 78cm the back is noticeably lower than the reclining sofas in the same range, which are listed at 107cm. Two practical consequences follow. It will sit under a window sill that a taller back would cut across, and it leaves more wall visible above it, which matters if the long wall is also where art or a television lives. The trade is support: 78cm is the overall height, the listing gives no seat height and nothing in it describes a headrest, so sit on one if you can before deciding it is the right height for an evening.

Boucle, and what the listing leaves open

The covering is named as boucle, a looped, textured weave, and the listing describes the texture as part of the point. It stops short of the detail a buyer eventually wants: there is no fibre content, no cleaning or spot-clean code, no word on whether the cover is treated, and nothing about removable covers or seat cushion construction. If the sofa is going into a house with pets or small children, ask about the cleaning code specifically before you order, because that answer is harder to live without than any of the others.

Two boxes, and the day it arrives

The listing says it arrives in two boxes, which is good news for a 325cm sofa: a single crate that long rarely gets past a hall turn. No box dimensions are given, so ask for them if your access is tight, and clear the route before the van arrives rather than during.

Worth comparing if 325cm is too much wall: the Lucy Sofa (3+2) splits the seating over two smaller pieces, and the Paris Grey Sofa (3+2+1) spreads it over three. If you want reclining seats instead of a long straight run, the Rose Charcoal 2+1 Recliner Corner Sofa turns a corner and adds consoles piece by piece.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of the Glasgow store and £50 beyond. Once you have the clear run measured and the hand settled, order the Siena 08 5 Seater Sofa in the colour and hand you need, and ask the shop for the current lead time when you do.