Furniture Clearance Calculator
Enter one piece of furniture and the space you want on each side of it. The furniture clearance calculator adds them up into a floor zone, gives its area and checks it against your room.
Furniture clearance calculator
Planning aid, not a building-code check. Requirements vary by jurisdiction and building type. Confirm with your local rules or a qualified professional.
Bare numbers are meters; 190 mm works too.
Sides against a wall need no clearance; those values are ignored.
Leave blank to skip the room check.
Leave blank to skip the room check.
Assumptions
Change any value to match your product or local rules.
Basis: Example starting value. Adjust it to your furniture, door style and how you use the room; it is not a standard.
Basis: Example starting value. Adjust it to your furniture, door style and how you use the room; it is not a standard.
Basis: Example starting value. Adjust it to your furniture, door style and how you use the room; it is not a standard.
Basis: Example starting value. Adjust it to your furniture, door style and how you use the room; it is not a standard.
- Zone width
- 2.80 m
- 9′ 2″
- Zone depth
- 2.70 m
- 8′ 10″
- Floor area the piece needs
- 7.56 m²
- 81.4 sq ft
- Piece’s share of that area
- 19%
- Your room
- Fits
A dining table 1.60 m (5′ 3″) × 0.90 m (2′ 11″) with this clearance needs a clear floor zone of 2.80 m (9′ 2″) × 2.70 m (8′ 10″) (7.56 m² (81.4 sq ft)). Fits your room with 0.40 m spare across and 0.30 m spare along.
In the editor
- “Design this room” opens a room whose inside is the zone, with the editor’s dining table placed where the clearances put it.
How this was calculated
- Zone width = piece width + left clearance + right clearance
- Zone depth = piece depth + front clearance + back clearance
- A side against a wall gets no clearance.
- Zone area = zone width × zone depth; the smallest clear room is the zone itself.
- Zone width = 1.60 m + 0.60 m + 0.60 m = 2.80 m
- Zone depth = 0.90 m + 0.90 m + 0.90 m = 2.70 m
- Zone area = 2.80 m × 2.70 m = 7.56 m²
How it works
Pick a piece
The buttons fill in the editor’s library size and example clearances for a dining table, bed, sofa, desk or wardrobe. Change any of them to your own.
Say which sides touch a wall
A bed’s head or a sofa’s back against a wall needs no space behind it, so that clearance is left out.
Read the zone
Zone width = piece width + left + right clearance. Zone depth = piece depth + front + back clearance. The area is width × depth.
Check your room
Enter your room’s inside width and length. The zone is tried both ways round, and you see what is spare or missing.
Worked example: a dining table
A 1600 × 900 mm table with 900 mm on each long side and 600 mm at each end: the zone is 1600 + 600 + 600 = 2800 mm wide and 900 + 900 + 900 = 2700 mm deep, so 2.8 × 2.7 m = 7.56 m² (about 81.4 sq ft).
In imperial, a 63 × 35 in table with 36 in on the long sides and 24 in at the ends needs 63 + 24 + 24 = 111 in by 35 + 36 + 36 = 107 in, or 9′ 3″ × 8′ 11″, about 82.5 sq ft.
Use space and walkway
Clearance around a piece is the space you use it from: pulling out a dining chair and sitting down, getting into bed, opening wardrobe doors and standing in front of them. A walkway is space someone else passes through. When people need to walk behind seated diners, add the passing space to that side’s clearance.
The defaults on this page are example starting values and set no rule. Measure how far your chairs pull out, how wide your wardrobe doors swing, and set the clearances to match.
From one piece to a whole room
Zones of neighbouring pieces can share space: the walkway beside a bed can also be the space in front of a wardrobe. This calculator handles one piece at a time, so adding two zones together overstates the room you need. For a bedroom or living room, the room-size calculators below build the arrangement for you; for any mix of furniture, use the furniture layout planner.
Frequently asked questions
How much space do you need around a dining table?
Add the space a chair needs to pull out and be sat on to each side with chairs, plus passing space where people walk behind. With the example values here (900 mm on the long sides, 600 mm at the ends) a 1600 × 900 mm table needs a 2.8 × 2.7 m zone. Measure your own chairs and set the clearances to suit.
How much space do I need around a bed?
Enough on each side you get in from and at the foot to walk past. The example starting value here is 600 mm (24 in) on each open side and at the foot; a double bed of 1600 × 2000 mm with its head on a wall then needs a 2.8 × 2.6 m zone.
How far should a sofa be from a coffee table?
Far enough to get your legs in and close enough to reach a cup. The calculator uses 450 mm (18 in) as an example starting value for that gap; the living room size calculator lays out the whole seating group.
What is the difference between clearance and a walkway?
Clearance is the space you use a piece from. A walkway is space people pass through. If people pass behind a dining chair while someone sits there, the zone on that side needs both.
Can the clearance zones of two pieces overlap?
Yes: the space in front of a wardrobe can be the same floor you walk through beside the bed. That is why adding zones overstates a room; the bedroom and living room calculators let shared space count once.
Ready to plan your space?
It is free, runs in your browser and needs no account. Projects are saved privately on this device.