Have you ever lived in an apartment with a small stairwell? Sure, most people complain about moving furniture up and down a few flights, but some stairwells can limit you tremendously on what will actually squeeze by those tight corners, twists and turns. Here's a few tips to keep in mind when furniture hunting.
1. Don't Forget About Chairs: It's easy to go straight to a sofa, but sometimes a pair or grouping of comfortable chairs will do the trick and actually be a better use of your space. Consider looking for chairs on your local Craigslist (used) or retailers (new) before you look into sofas.
2. Measure Your Stairs: Don't worry if the neighbors think you are crazy, measure your stairs. Take the smallest space measurements so next time you hit the store you'll know exactly how much room you have to move around.
3. Look For Things That Disassemble: Sure cushions can come off your sofas, but look for feet that can be removed, legs that detach or even pieces that have some bend and flex to them. A little bit of space can go a long way!
4. Forget Sleeper Anything: Sleeper sofas and chairs are plentiful and although their logic is sound, when your space is tight, you really, really don't want to be lugging around that extra weight while you stare at your new sofa and your staircase like a monkey doing a math problem. Keep it simple, keep it light. Forget trundles and extra weight!
5. Take Your Time: Often small spaces require a perfectly scaled piece. It can be hard to live in a space without furniture, so check into alternatives that double up later on. Pallets with soft cushions on them are great, folding chairs or even a twin mattress for the time being until you find exactly what you want.
Do you have any tips to small spaces and moving furniture in and out? Have a horror story? Moving story? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
(Image: Flickr member CocteauBoy licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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I learned this one the hard way. A good furniture store sales person will ask you if you have stairs...
Pleeeaaase keep safety in mind with this one!!! -- See if it's possible to bring something in via window or fire escape for suites on lower levels. This worked for me, though with a bit of extra manpower. It was major "Aha!" moment when I realized the staircase and the placement of my front door weren't working out too well, but my lower level window was perfect. :)
Check out Crate and Barrel's How to Measure guide. The guide provides instructions about what and where to measure in your home before buying a piece of furniture: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/resource-guide/how-to-measure.aspx
Be sure to measure the width of your hallway and width/height of your front door as well! I live in an old tenement with long, narrow hallways. Each side of the building has two apartments per floor, and the front doors to each apartment are on the side walls, and not across across from each other. This means you can't ask your neighbor across the hall to open their front door to give you more wiggle room to move in a piece of furniture.
I know some stores like Ethan Allen will have someone visit your home and take measurements to confirm the furniture will fit before processing the order.
If the furniture has feet/legs, check if they are removable, this will give you an extra few inches of moving room. Not all feet come off. For example, the Colefax Chair from Hickory Chair: http://www.hickorychair.com/Furniture/All-Furniture/Upholstery/i504577-Colefax-Chair.aspx, has feet underneath the skirt. The feet are about 4" tall. I assumed they would unscrew from the bottom of the chair, but emailed customer service to check. Turns out the feet are part of the chair frame and do not come off.
Be sure to review all areas of the building before ordering. Even if a store will accept a return if furniture does not fit through the hall/door, the shipping/delivery fees are most likely not refundable.
Good luck!
Emma I SixFlightsUp.blogspot.com
This reminds me that I need to measure EVERYTHING when we visit our new place. Luckily, mattresses squish a little.
Also, check out Simplicity Sofas: http://www.simplicitysofas.com/
They seemingly solved the "how will I fit that" riddle. :)
@PI -- mattresses squish, but box springs do not! Something I learned when I moved into my last apartment and had to pull the wooden slats off the bottom so it would twist.
@Kwebs - True! We'll have to adjust accordingly. It's a slightly more modern building so I think the clearance is higher.
if you are moving to a new place but have existing furniture (as i assume every reader does eventually) measure the stairs WAY in advance. or measure your current furniture BEFORE looking for an apartment.... nothing sucks worse than getting that giant furniture halfway across the states just to find out you gotta stick it on the curb.
if you are a "i can't live without a couch" person, check out ikea (ugh, i know), but seriously. ikea has some cheap sofas where the entire BACK comes off so the couch breaks down into basically 2 narrow rectangles. awesome for curvy brownstone stairs with stupid 180-degree turns and 8-foot ceilings.
All I can think of now is Ross's couch on Friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYH4lO6Bug
Pivot! Pivot!
Sectionals. Sectionals. Sectionals.
I had this issue to contend with when I moved last May. I ended up with a sofa from homereserve.com and I'm very happy with it. They ship it to you in a few large boxes that are much easier to handle going up the stairs. If you don't mind assembling furniture yourself, it's a good option. Also, I feel that it's better quality that some of the other ready-to-assemble furniture I've bought in the past (ikea, target, etc.), and they have a TON of colors, fabrics & styles, so you won't be bored.
Akay, me too! My family moves around a lot, and it is pretty much expected that, at least once a year, someone will be screaming "PIVOT! PIVOT!" from under a couch. :P
An article should be written on "where" to find furniture for people living with stairs. My apartment is narrow as heck and I had to wait months before I could actual furnish it because I couldn't find places that had pieces that could come apart.
Honestly Ikea is my new friend.
Measure the actual doorways that you will need to move the furniture through--not just a random sample doorway.
I have a table that fits through the front door of the building, the front door of my apartment, the doors of the living room and two bedrooms, but not the dining room door. So the table ended up in the living room, instead of the kitchen as planned.
Older buildings do not always have standard measurements.
Sometimes the backs of sofas come off! A few of up helped a friend get his new sofa and chair up to his third floor apartment... I don't think we knocked too much plaster off... he moved maybe two years later and elected to sell the sofa to one of the friends who helped him move it in rather than squish it into his gf's apt; am glad I was out of town for that second move though. orz
@Pi
Boxsprings don't squish, but queen and king boxsprings are usually two-parters, no? Dunno about full-size beds. I think it's a rare stairwell you can't fit a twin boxspring up, even if it's upright almost the entire way....
I live in an large enough apartment but to get in furniture is very complicated, as my entryway is the laundry/boiler room and everything is at weird angles. I've learned to measure everything I want to potentially get inside my place. Don't forget to measure table legs spacing for example. Also, remember, you can get your door off its hinges if needed.
We got our couch from LoveSac, it's one of their sectionals called Sactionals (yes, clever, I know.) It's sturdy and heavy and soft and squishy, I love it! It also comes apart seat-from-seat, and the backs and seats are seperate pieces. You can reconfigure the pieces any way you like and they still all slot together.
We got it after the professional movers couldn't get our old couch up the stairs of our new building. We will never have that happen again!
I would definitely recommend the Sactional. It's pricey, but I think it will last forever, or at least twenty years. :)
You might want to check out your local thrift stores, vintage and antique furniture stores because older pieces were often made locally for the type of housing stock found in your area.
SimplicitySofas.com makes an entire line of sofas, sleepers and sectionals designed specifically to fit up (or down) narrow stairs and through narrow doorways. All of their furniture fits through 15 inch wide doorways. (Normal doorways are at least 32 inches wide.) http://www.simplicitysofas.com