Moving into a new apartment: furnish the living room first

After the bed, the living room is where a new home starts to feel like yours. It is where you eat a takeaway on the first night, where friends come to see the new place and where the family gathers at the weekend. An empty living room makes the whole apartment feel unfinished.

It is also the room where one decision shapes all the others. The sofa decides how much floor is left, what size the rug and coffee table should be, where the television goes and how people move through the room. Choose it first and the rest falls into place. Choose the rug or the coffee table first and you may end up searching for a sofa to fit them.

A new apartment is the perfect moment to measure, because the rooms are empty. Take ten minutes and note:

• the length of each wall where a sofa could stand, and the depth of the room in front of it;
• the position of windows, air conditioning units, sockets and the television point;
• the routes people will walk, for example from the entrance to the balcony or the kitchen;
• where the sun falls in the afternoon, especially through west-facing glass.

Then mark the outline of the sofa you are considering on the floor with masking tape. Leave about 60 cm in front of it as a walkway and see how it feels for a day. On every Pufflo sofa page, the Will it fit? tool draws the sofa to scale against the wall length you type.

If you can, visit the empty apartment at two different times of day. Morning and late afternoon light can feel like two different rooms, and the afternoon sun through large windows shows you where a sofa would sit in full glare and where a deep colour would be safe from fading.

Lighting is the step people skip most often. Many new apartments come with bright ceiling downlights only, which flatten a room in the evening. Two or three lamps at different heights, with warm bulbs, change the feel of a living room more than any other single purchase. These are common rules, not laws, but they keep a new room balanced. For the details of steps 2 and 3, see our guides to rug sizes and coffee table size and distance.

Apartment living rooms vary a lot, from compact studios to generous family flats. Start from the wall you measured and the number of people who sit together every day.

In a smaller room, a sofa with a clean outline and no bulky details looks lighter than its size. Rounded arms soften the room without adding visual weight. A corner sofa can work even in a mid-size apartment, as long as the chaise does not block a walkway or the route to the balcony. For more, read the right sofa for a small apartment in Dubai.

Moving is expensive, and it is tempting to buy everything at once at the lowest price. A better approach is to spend on the pieces you use every day for years, and save on the ones you can easily change later.

• Spend on: the sofa and the mattress. You sit and sleep on them every day, and a well-made sofa with a solid frame and resilient foam can last ten years or more.
• Save on: side tables, decorative objects, cushions and art. They are easy to replace as your taste and your home evolve.
• Wait for: statement pieces. Live in the space for a few weeks before you choose them.

As a broad range, ready-made store sofas often cost AED 1,300 to 5,000. Pufflo sofas start at AED 6,090, handmade locally when you order, with delivery and installation included. Our guide to how much a good sofa costs in the UAE explains what you get at each level.

Many people in the UAE rent, and many move every few years. That changes the way to choose a sofa: it should suit this apartment and the next one.

• Choose a size that travels well. A 2-seater or 3-seater fits most living rooms; a fixed corner sofa needs the right walls in every home you move to. A modular sofa such as Comfo adapts instead: separate and rearrange its modules to suit the next living room.
• Prefer a calm colour. Sand, mist or a soft green suit most walls and floors, so the sofa feels at home wherever you go.
• Bring character with things you can take down. Rugs, lamps, curtains on tension rods and leaning art change a rented room without touching the walls.

Before you drill or paint, check what your tenancy contract allows.

1. Week 1: measure the room, mark the sofa outline with tape and decide the layout.
2. Week 1: order the sofa. A Pufflo sofa arrives three to six days later, delivered and installed; your delivery dates are shown when you order.
3. Week 2: choose the rug and coffee table to suit the sofa, and fit warm bulbs in every lamp.
4. Week 3: hang curtains, starting with the windows that get the strongest afternoon sun.
5. Week 4: add side tables, cushions, plants and the first pieces of art.

Not sure which sofa suits your new home? Our one-minute quiz suggests the right sofa from four quick questions.