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Measuring a London room before furniture is installed

A single width is rarely enough. Record the shell of the room at several heights, then write down everything that steals space from that shell.

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A room, drawn as a record

Width at mid-height, and again near the ceiling Floor to ceiling, left, centre, right Skirting depth comes off the clear width door

The rectangle is a prompt, not a plan of your room. The text beside it is the measurement.

Take the width more than once

Run a tape from wall to wall at skirting height, again around the middle of the wall, and again just below the ceiling or cornice. Write millimetres. In many older London houses the three numbers are not the same. A wall can lean, a floor can dip toward the middle of a span, and a later lining of plasterboard can thicken one side of the room only.

If you are checking whether a run of units will sit along that wall, the smallest of the three widths is the one that governs, once skirting and any pipe boxing have been subtracted. A figure taken only at eye level, in the middle of a bare wall, will not show a bulge beside a chimney or a window reveal that cuts in at one end.

Two diagonals, corner to corner, are a rough check for square. If they differ, the room is out of square and a filler, a scribe or a gap will have to absorb the difference. The size of that difference belongs in the notes. This page does not tell you which remedy to use.

Hands holding a tape measure across a plastered pier in an empty room
A pier, a return wall or a boxing changes the clear opening even when the main wall looks flat. Photograph: Thirdman, Pexels.

Alcoves and chimney breasts

Either side of a chimney breast is its own opening. Measure each alcove across the front at the bottom, the middle and the top. Then measure the depth from the face of the breast back to the rear wall, again in more than one place. The two alcoves in a Victorian reception room are often close in size and not identical.

Record the projection of the breast into the room and the height from the floor to any bulkhead, mantel or boxed flue. A wardrobe carcase that is sized to the wider alcove will not enter the narrower one. A shelf that is drawn to the full ceiling height may meet a slope if the room is in a roof.

Do not assume the breast is a sound place for a fixing. Flues, old openings and later linings are discussed in the note on wall types. Measuring the opening and deciding a fixing are separate tasks.

What reduces the clear space

Skirting has thickness. A deep Victorian skirting can take 20 millimetres or more off the width a plinth or a side panel expected to use. Window boards, radiator valves, socket faceplates and pipe boxing do the same at particular points. A cornice or picture rail can stop a tall unit reaching the ceiling even when the floor-to-ceiling tape, taken in the middle of the wall, looked generous.

Walk the wall and list every item that projects: switches, thermostats, meters, stopcocks, telephone points, and the architrave of a door that opens into the run. Note the height of each one from the floor. A wall cabinet often fails on a socket that nobody put on the drawing, not on the length of the wall.

If the floor is uneven, a low unit will rock or show a gap under the plinth. A straight edge or a long level, read at several points, tells you whether the high spot is in the middle or at one end. Packing and scribing are decisions for the person fitting the piece, using the leaflet and the actual floor. The note you keep is the size of the gap.

A simple record sheet
Place Left Centre Right Notes
Width, lowmmmmmmAbove skirting
Width, midmmmmmmSockets, radiator
Width, highmmmmmmCornice, bulkhead
Floor to ceilingmmmmmmSlope if any
Alcove depthmmmmmmEach alcove separately

The door, and the way in

A piece can fit the wall and still be unusable if a door cannot open, or if the piece itself cannot be carried in. Note the direction of the door swing and the clearance a hinged wardrobe door will need in front of it. Then measure the route from the street or the landing, which is the subject of the indoor routes note.

For a kitchen, take this record to the drawing. The kitchen plan note explains the labels on a typical elevation. For an alcove wardrobe, the same sheet feeds the wardrobe note.

What these numbers do not decide

A tape does not identify what is behind the plaster, whether a lease allows a fixing, or whether a particular cabinet will stay square once it is loaded. Those questions belong with the product leaflet, the wall itself, and where needed a person who is competent to judge them. Keep the sheet with the leaflet so the two can be compared on the day.

A worked example, labelled as one

The figures below are invented for a first-floor room in a London terrace. They show how a record looks when the walls disagree. They are not measurements of 162 Tufnell Pk Rd and they are not a template you can copy into an order.

Example record, front reception
Place Skirting Mid-height Under ceiling
Width, window wall3,640 mm3,655 mm3,628 mm
Floor to ceiling, window2,710 mm2,724 mm2,706 mm
Left alcove, clear width820 mm835 mm808 mm
Right alcove, clear width910 mm918 mm902 mm
Breast projection410 mm into the room, plus a 22 mm skirting

What the table changes

A single mid-room width of 3,655 mm would have hidden the tighter dimension under the ceiling and the 100 mm difference between the alcoves. A bookcase drawn to the right alcove does not enter the left. A cornice that exists only at the window end is a height limit even when the door-side ceiling is taller. Write the smallest figure in each direction next to the piece, and keep the fuller table so you can see why.

Diagonals in this example might read 4,920 mm and 4,955 mm. That gap is a prompt to look for a bowed wall or a floor that is out, not a number to “correct” with packing until a leaflet says packing is acceptable. Some carcases want a flat plane. Some sit on adjustable feet. The leaflet decides which.

Obstacles people skip

  • A picture rail 300 mm below the ceiling reduces the usable height of a fitted top even when the floor-to-ceiling figure looks generous.
  • A window board that projects 40 mm will meet a run of base units. Measure from the wall face and from the board.
  • A radiator valve can stop a door at less than 90 degrees. Record the door’s actual swing, not the width of the door leaf.
  • Sockets behind a planned wardrobe still need access or a plan to move them. Moving them is electrical work, outside this note.
  • A boxed pipe in a corner is part of the opening. Measure around the box, and do not assume the box is empty or that it can be cut.

How to hold the tape

A steel tape hooks onto a skirting and then reads long by the thickness of the hook unless you push the hook flat or start from the 100 mm mark and subtract. Laser measures need a surface that returns the beam; gloss paint and a distant window can throw the reading. Take the same point twice. If the two readings differ by more than a couple of millimetres, the tape slipped or the laser caught a different face. Record which face you used: plaster, skirting top, or the timber lining of an alcove.

Heights are easier with a second person or a rigid story pole marked from the floor. A tape dropped from the ceiling sags. A leaning pole reads short. Floors in older houses often fall toward a party wall; a spirit level on a long straight edge shows the fall before you decide that a plinth will hide it. The floors sheet covers protection once something heavy starts to move.