How much space do I need per person?

Hi there, I'm Chris from Roger and Chris and I'm here today to answer an important question. How much space do I need per person when I'm figuring out how big of a sofa I want?

I've got a quick rule of thumb. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but it's usually gonna get you pretty close. I think for an adult human, we need about 24 inches of width. So 24, 24, 24. You wanna sit three people on your sofa comfortably, we're looking at about 72 inches of inner seating width.

That does not take into account the arms on the sofa. So overall width, not part of it. We're looking at the inner width in between those arms. There's always a little bit of wiggle room on this. People come in different sizes and shapes so we need to consider that to some degree. If you wanna factor in kids, obviously they're gonna need a little bit less space, but they do grow so keep that in mind. The same principles apply to sectionals, as well. You know, we kinda wanna think about that as we start to plop people down on that sectional. And we have to kinda remember that corner is not gonna necessarily accommodate quite as many people, or quite as much as a regular seat cushion would 'cause you're kind of at an angle and you're kinda squeezing in the corner there.

Arm chairs are a little bit different. Arm chairs, somewhat counterintuitively, don't need quite as much space for that one person because the arm rests kinda wrap around 'em. They can be a little bit snugger and still comfortable. So, generally speaking, 24 inches per person and that'll get you just about in the right ball park.