How many seats do you need? Seating for families and guests

Sofa seats are counted along the front of the seat, between the arms. A common rule is about 60 cm per adult for real comfort over a long evening, and about 50 cm when people squeeze in for a short while. Children need less, and often end up on the floor anyway.

Arms matter more than most people think. Two sofas with the same overall width can have quite different seats. The Nuage 3-seater is 230 cm wide with arms of 28 cm each, which leaves about 174 cm of seat: three adults side by side, or two with plenty of room to spread out.

Lounging changes the count too. Someone lying down or curled up uses the space of about two seats, and a chaise is one long seat, not two.

A quick way to find your own number: picture a typical weekday evening and a typical weekend afternoon, and count who is in the living room and how they sit. That number, not the size of your biggest gathering of the year, is the one to plan the sofa around.

Start from your household and the way you use the room. Here is a simple guide.

If someone in the family loves to stretch out every evening, move up one line. A corner sofa keeps a lounging seat for one person while everyone else sits normally, which is exactly why it suits family rooms so well. Once you know your number, our guide to 2-seater, 3-seater or corner sofas helps you choose the shape, and what size sofa you need checks it against your wall.

In the UAE, gatherings can be big: weekend lunches with the extended family, iftar during Ramadan, a full house at Eid. It is tempting to buy a sofa for those days. But a sofa sized for twelve turns an ordinary evening for four into a sea of empty cushions, and it takes floor space you need every day of the year.

A better plan is to size the sofa for the people who use it every week, then add seats that are easy to bring out:

• Poufs, which double as footrests or side tables.
• Floor cushions, majlis style, for children and relaxed evenings.
• Armchairs that turn towards the sofa when guests come.
• Dining chairs pulled into the living area for the evening.

A modular sofa helps too. The modules of Comfo can be separated, joined and rearranged whenever you like, and its ottomans move wherever they are needed, as a footrest on a quiet evening or an extra seat when the family arrives.

For the big days, our guide to hosting for Ramadan and Eid shows how to prepare the room.

Two families of four can need very different sofas. If yours watches films stretched out, feet up, a deep corner sofa gives everyone room. If you mostly sit upright to talk, a 3-seater with an armchair may be all you need.

Seat depth plays its part. Deep seats, like the Comfo's 74 cm, invite people to curl up and lean back, which is lovely for family evenings but uses a little more space per person. A medium depth keeps people more upright. Comfort matters as well: our Cocoon seat is very soft and lets you sink in, while Classic is the medium feel you sit on and get up from easily. Both cost the same on every sofa. Our guide to seat depth and height explains how to choose.

Think about the years ahead as well. Small children grow into teenagers who need a full seat each, and often stretch out across two. A sofa is a long-term piece, so a young family often does well to choose the next size up, as long as the room allows it.

Using the 60 cm rule and the shape of each sofa, here is a realistic count for everyday use.

Nuage and Doudou come with the chaise on the left or the right, and so do Comfo's chaise and corner, always named as seen when you face the sofa. Comfo is also fully modular: its modules can be separated, joined and rearranged later, so its shape can change with the room. Before you choose, the Will it fit? tool on each sofa page draws the sofa to scale against your wall, so you can see whether the seats you need also suit the room.

Sometimes the number of seats you want does not fit on one wall. A common rule is that a sofa takes about two thirds of its wall and leaves at least 60 cm to walk in front. If a bigger sofa breaks those rules, spread the seats across the room instead:

• Two sofas facing each other seat more people than one long sofa, and everyone can talk. See two sofas facing each other.
• A sofa with two armchairs opposite makes a U that seats five or six.
• A corner sofa uses an empty corner to add one or two seats without making the room feel smaller.

Our guide to what size sofa fits your room has the measuring method, step by step.

Beyond ten, a majlis layout along the walls, or a sofa shaped for the room, is usually the most comfortable answer. Our guide to arranging a majlis covers the layouts, and you can ask for a custom sofa in another size or shape: the team replies within 48 hours with a drawing and a price.