Sofa delivery and installation in the UAE: what to expect

It depends far more on how the sofa is made than on where you live. Broadly, there are three routes, and each comes with a different wait.

Whatever you buy, the most useful question is not how fast, but how sure. A clear delivery day at the moment you order lets you plan the rest: the old sofa, the rug, the guests you have invited.

Planning around a date? If you are moving in, or expecting family for Ramadan, Eid or a celebration, count back from that day. With three to six days between order and delivery, ordering a week ahead leaves a comfortable margin to prepare the room, hang curtains and place the rug before the first guests sit down.

Before you pay for any sofa, ask exactly what the delivery covers. A good answer includes all of these:

• Delivery to your home, wherever you live in the country, with the price confirmed before you pay.
• Carrying the sofa into the room where it will live, not leaving it at the entrance.
• Installation: unwrapping, fitting the feet, joining the sections of a corner sofa and placing the cushions.
• A clear day, given in advance, so you know when to be at home.

With Pufflo, delivery and installation are included in the price in all seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, Al Ain included. The price you see on the sofa page is the price of the sofa in your living room. Our sofa delivery and installation page lists every emirate, with a useful tip for each.

The smoothest deliveries start with a sofa that fits. A few minutes with a tape measure make sure the sofa you love in the photos is just the right size for the room.

1. Measure the wall the sofa will stand against, and the depth of the room in front of it.
2. Keep a walkway. A common rule is about 60 cm in front of the sofa, more on the main route through the room.
3. Mark the outline on the floor with masking tape and live with it for a day. It shows the real size better than any number.
4. Use the Will it fit? tool on each sofa page: type your wall length and see the sofa drawn to scale.
5. For a corner sofa, decide which side the chaise goes before you order.
6. Measure the way in: the front door, the lift door, the inside of the lift and any tight turn on the way. Our guide on whether your sofa will fit in the lift shows how.

Our guides on what size sofa suits your living room and left or right chaise go into more detail.

A Pufflo sofa does not wait in a warehouse. Once you order, our workshop makes it by hand, locally, in the fabric and colour you chose, with the comfort you picked, Cocoon or Classic.

Every Pufflo sofa is European quality, handmade locally when you order. You can read how a sofa comes together on our atelier page.

If a question comes up in those days, about the room, the date or anything else, message the team on WhatsApp.

A little preparation makes the visit short and calm, for you and for the team.

• Clear the spot where the sofa will go, and the route from the entrance to the living room: shoes, toys, plants and small furniture out of the way.
• Put the rug down first. It is much easier to place a sofa on a rug than to slide a rug under a sofa afterwards.
• Move fragile pieces such as lamps, vases and framed pictures near the route.
• Plan for the old sofa. Decide in advance whether you will sell it, give it away or move it to another room, so the space is free on the day.
• Keep pets and small children in another room while the sofa is carried in.
• Make sure someone is at home on the delivery day who can decide where the sofa goes.

Decide the exact position in advance: how far from the wall, how far from the television, which side the chaise faces and how much space you want in front of it. If you used masking tape to mark the outline when you measured, leave it on the floor until the sofa arrives. It turns a discussion into a two-minute job, and the sofa ends up exactly where you planned.

Installation means the sofa is ready to use when the team leaves. It is carried in, unwrapped and set in place where you want it. For a corner sofa, the sections are joined and aligned; the feet are fitted and the cushions placed.

Before the team leaves, take a few minutes to look the sofa over together:

• the colour and fabric are the ones you ordered;
• the chaise is on the side you chose;
• the seams, the corners and the feet look neat;
• the sofa sits level on the floor;
• it stands exactly where you want it, with the walkway you planned.

Sit on it for a moment. Over the next few weeks it softens gently into its most comfortable self as you use it.

Every new sofa settles in, and these first weeks are when it becomes truly yours.

• The seat softens gently into the way you sit.
• Corduroy shows its soft shading in the pile where you sit, part of its velvet charm, and a soft brush along the ribs evens it out.
• Bouclé loves a fabric shaver on the seat you use most, which keeps it smooth in seconds.
• Keep it out of hours of direct afternoon sun and out of the direct airflow of an air conditioning unit.
• Vacuum once a week with the upholstery brush, especially between the cushions where fine sand collects.

If anything does not look or feel right, message the team on WhatsApp with a photo. Our help centre answers the most common questions.