4 Smart Tips for Finding the Perfect Sofa for Your Studio Apartment

Because studio apartments are typically one big (or small!) room, renters have to get creative when it comes to making distinct spaces for sleeping, cooking, eating, and hosting. Furniture often has to pull double duty, with individual pieces doing a lot of the dividing work alongside their main functions. With limited square footage, it can be hard to figure out the proper proportions and sizes of said pieces to create division without overcrowding the space.

To that end, it’s incredibly helpful to have a few handy shortcuts up your sleeve for laying out your space. Renter Geneve Lau, whose 350-square-foot Hell’s Kitchen studio is a master class in maximizing a small space, came up with these four great tips for spatial planning and selecting the perfect studio-sized sofa, and they’re worth remembering the next time you’re sofa shopping or looking to shake up your small space layout.

Lau knew her gray flared-arm sofa (which she found on Facebook Marketplace but is also available on Wayfair) was “the one” because it was exactly half the width of her apartment. The sofa’s back not only visually separates the bedroom from the TV area, but its arm also separates the dining area from the TV area, carving up her place into quadrants of sorts. Even better, that same arm appears to line up perfectly with the TV wall, meaning the walkway from her door to the back of the studio feels defined but is also totally free of obstructions.

Although it might seem counterintuitive, pushing a sofa right up against the wall, onto the perimeter of a room, can actually make a smaller space feel more cramped. “Try pulling it a few inches off the wall,” Lau says. Give pieces a little room to breathe, and things will feel airier on the whole. Leggy silhouettes can help in this regard, too.

Before you move in (or even after, if you’re just looking for a layout refresh), use a PDF or screenshot of your floor plan and move things around on your computer screen before moving them around IRL. “I didn’t use any fancy software, just Preview on Mac,” Lau says. You may be surprised at what possibilities you can unlock by looking at your space from a bird’s eye view.

Lau’s final word of advice on adding the perfect sofa to her place: Moving your sofa might cost just as much as the piece itself. “No one tells you that if you don’t know anyone in the city with a large, oversized van to borrow, you’re going to have to pay for a Dolly or TaskRabbit to move it,” she says. “The couch was $120, but I paid almost $160 just to move it.” The solve here? Budget about double to move your pre-existing perfect piece or consider selling what you may already have and starting fresh so you can take advantage of any given home decor brand’s free or less expensive delivery straight to your place.

For other smart studio tips, check out Lau’s full house tour here.