Furnishing your first home after marriage: the living room and majlis checklist

Preparing the marital home, bayt al zawjiya, is one of the happiest projects of a marriage. It is also a big one: every room is empty, every decision is new, and both families are curious to see the result. The secret is to finish two rooms well rather than every room halfway.

Those two rooms are the majlis and the living room. In the weeks after the wedding, relatives and friends from both families come to congratulate you, so the majlis needs to be ready to welcome them. The living room is where the two of you spend your evenings, so it should feel like yours from the very first week. The bedroom, of course, is ready before you move in; everything else can follow calmly over the first months.

If you are moving into an apartment, our guide to furnishing a new apartment covers measuring, budget and rented homes in detail. Here we focus on the newly-wed and family side.

Two people bring two tastes, two families and two sets of habits into one home. A single evening with a notebook makes everything easier afterwards:

1. Each of you lists three must-haves. A deep sofa for films, a proper majlis for your mother's visits, a reading corner, a big dining table: write them down and keep them all if you can.
2. Agree on a palette. Choose one main colour, one secondary colour and one accent. Calm, warm tones such as ivory, sand, olive or forest green suit both modern and traditional tastes.
3. Collect pictures. Save ten rooms you both love, then look for what they share: the colour, the shape of the sofa, the light.
4. Think about who will visit. How many guests on a normal weekend? How often will parents and grandparents come? The answers decide the size of the majlis.
5. Look a few years ahead. If you hope to have children, choose pieces that will grow with the family.

Congratulation visits are often the first time both families see your home, and the majlis is where they sit. Plan it for your usual number of guests, with about 60 cm of seat each, everyone facing each other and a small table within reach of every seat.

• For about eight guests: a U-shape such as the Comfo with five modules, 343 cm wide, plus two armchairs or poufs.
• For a large family: a wide corner such as the Doudou, 352 cm across, facing a sofa or a row of armchairs.
• For older relatives: choose the Classic seat comfort, medium and easy to rise from. It costs the same as the softer Cocoon.

Complete the room with a serving console for the dallah, coffee cups, dates and sweets, a large rug and warm, dimmable light. Our guide to how to arrange a majlis with sofas gives the distances for tables and the serving path.

The living room is your everyday space: films on the weekend, dinner on a tray after a long day, quiet mornings with coffee. Choose the sofa for the way you two actually live.

• A cosy 2-seater such as the Brioche, 206 cm wide with soft, rounded arms, is lovely for a couple in an apartment, and fits later in a study or a bedroom.
• A modular sofa such as the Comfo grows with you. Start with a 2-seater, 229 cm wide, or a 3-seater, and rearrange the modules into a corner or a U-shape when the family grows or you move.
• A deep, soft seat suits film nights and lazy weekends; a medium seat suits a room where you also receive guests.

Fine corduroy, bouclé and soft weaves each bring a different feel to a first home, and the fabrics page describes how each one feels and lives. Brioche starts at AED 6,090 and Comfo at AED 7,490, handmade locally when you order, delivered and installed.

1. Eight weeks before: measure every room, note windows, sockets and air conditioning grilles, and agree on the layout of the majlis and living room.
2. Six weeks before: order made-to-measure curtains and any custom furniture, which usually take the longest.
3. Four weeks before: choose the sofas and check them against your walls with the Will it fit? tool on each sofa page. Measure the lift and the front door too, with our guide to checking your sofa will fit through the door.
4. Two to three weeks before: order the sofas once painting and floors are finished. A Pufflo sofa is handmade when you order and arrives 3 to 6 days later, delivered and installed free in all seven emirates; your delivery dates are shown when you order.
5. The last week: rugs, tables, lamps and the serving pieces for the majlis.
6. The first months: art, plants, wedding gifts and the small things you discover you need once you live there.

A first home often fills with treasured things: a carpet from a grandmother, a coffee set from an aunt, silver trays and incense burners given at the wedding. Leave space for them in your plan. A calm sofa in a warm, neutral colour lets inherited pieces shine and blends two families' tastes gracefully.

Give each special piece a place where it is used and seen: the family coffee set on the majlis console, the grandmother's carpet under the living room table, the wedding photo on a shelf at eye level. A home that mixes new furniture with pieces full of memories feels warm from the very first day.

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