Interior dimensions, clearances and proportion
The numbers that decide whether a room works
Most interior advice is about taste. This site is about measurement: how far the coffee table sits from the sofa, how wide an aisle has to be before two people stop colliding, how high the art goes. Every figure here is sourced, explained and put in the context of the room it belongs to. 199 pages of it.
Start with the room you are working on#
Each room hub carries the whole set of numbers for that space, then links to the page that goes deep on each one.
Living room dimensions
Seating geometry, coffee table distance, TV size and height, rug sizes, console and side table heights.
Dining room dimensions
Table size by number of seats, the clearance ring around it, rug size, chandelier height.
Kitchen dimensions
Island aisles, counter and cabinet heights, the work triangle and the zone model that replaced it.
Bedroom dimensions
Bed sizes against real room sizes, clearance around the bed, nightstands, closets, rug placement.
Bathroom dimensions
Fixture clearances where code and best practice disagree, vanity heights, shower sizes, small layouts.
Home office dimensions
Desk height by user height, monitor distance, chair clearance, shelf depths and spans.
Entryway and mudroom dimensions
The door, the drop zone and the first 6 ft of a house, measured.
Kids room and nursery dimensions
Cots, bunks, desks and the clearances that change as a child grows.
Laundry room dimensions
Machines, folding heights, venting and the smallest room that still works.
Media room and home theatre dimensions
Screen size, throw distance, seating rows, speakers and acoustics, by the numbers.
Home gym dimensions
Floor area and ceiling height per activity, machine footprints and safety zones.
Garage and workshop dimensions
Bays, doors, parking, benches and storage, sized for a car you can still walk around.
Outdoor room dimensions
Patios, decks, balconies, outdoor kitchens and the clearances that make them usable.
Or with the thing you are buying#
Furniture, appliances, doors, storage and trim, in the sizes they are actually made in rather than the sizes they are described in.
Furniture dimensions
Every common piece of furniture, with the sizes it is actually made in.
Appliance dimensions and clearances
Cutouts, air gaps, door swings and the millimetres that decide whether it fits.
Door and window dimensions
Leaf sizes, rough openings, sill heights and the swing that eats your floor.
Storage and shelving dimensions
Depths, spans, rods and drawers, sized from what goes in them.
Trim and millwork dimensions
Baseboard, crown, rails and panelling, proportioned to the room they are in.
Flooring and tile dimensions
Plank widths, tile sizes, joints, build-up and the transitions that trip people.
Socket, switch and services heights
The heights and spacings that services are set out to, US and UK compared.
Or with the principle#
Clearance, light, proportion, reach and access cut across every room. These are the pages designers reach for first.
Clearances and circulation
Walkways, doorways, hallways, stairs, delivery paths and accessible dimensions.
Proportion and scale
Which proportion rules hold up, ceiling height, furniture scale, hanging heights.
Lighting dimensions and levels
Lumen targets that survive contact with a real room, layers, spacing, colour temperature.
Window treatment dimensions
Curtain height and length, fullness and stack-back, blind mounting depths.
Small spaces and storage
Worked small-room plans, studio zoning, storage dimensions, tactics ranked by whether they work.
Ergonomics for interiors
The body dimensions that every interior number is ultimately derived from.
Accessible design dimensions
Turning space, reach ranges, clear widths and grab bars, across ADA, Part M and AS 1428.
Measuring and planning a space
How to measure, draw, tape out and check a layout before anything is bought.
Calculators that do the arithmetic for you#
All of them run in your browser, in inches or centimetres, and show the reasoning as well as the answer. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Art hanging height
Gives the nail or hook height, not just the centre line, allowing for the wire drop and
Bar stool height
Seat height is the counter less 11 in: a 25 in (64 cm) stool under a 36 in (91 cm) count
Bathroom layout checker
Check a bathroom against the IRC and the NKBA guidelines: 15 in (38 cm) to the toilet ce
Bedroom layout checker
Put a bed, its frame and nightstands into your actual room dimensions and see every clea
Curtain and rod size
Work out rod width and mounting height, finished panel length for the hem you want, and
Desk and chair height
Set desk, seat, monitor and footrest heights from your own stature. A 5 ft 9 in adult ge
Dining table size
Size a dining table from the number of people, then check whether your room can hold it
Gallery wall layout
Six 16 x 20 in frames at a 3 in gap make a 54 x 43 in (137 x 109 cm) block. Get the cent
Interior unit converter
Convert the numbers that come up while planning a room: 36 in is 91.4 cm and 914 mm, plu
Kitchen island fit checker
Check an island against NKBA aisle widths, see every clearance that fails, and get the l
Paint quantity
Work out gallons or litres for walls and ceiling, allowing for doors, windows, coats and
Pendant and chandelier size
Size a fixture to a table, an island or a room, set its hanging height, and space multip
Projector throw and screen size
Turn a throw ratio and a lens to screen distance into a screen size. At 156 in (3.96 m)
Room lighting lumen
Turn room size, use, ceiling height and surface tone into a lumen target, split across a
Rug size
Enter your room and the layout you want. Get the standard rug size that fits, the floor
Shelf span and sag
Enter the span, board and load and get the sag in both units. A 36 in (91 cm) chipboard
Reference tables#
The lookup pages: standard sizes, conversions, and where the same object is a different size in another country.
Standard and minimum room sizes
Legal minimum, workable minimum and comfortable size for every room in a house.
Interior dimension conversion tables
Inches, centimetres, millimetres, lumens and quantities, converted for interiors.
Interior sizes by country
Where US, UK, European and Australian standards agree, and where they quietly do not.
How this site is different#
Every number has a source
Figures come from the IRC, the NKBA planning guidelines, the ADA standards, IES lighting recommendations and the ergonomics literature. Where a number is trade practice rather than code, the page says so instead of dressing it up.
Two units, always
Inches and centimetres on every figure, because a queen mattress, a 60 cm appliance and a 2,040 mm door often end up in the same room.
Geometry, drawn
Plan diagrams are drawn to the dimensions being discussed rather than borrowed from a stock library, so what you see is what the number means.
The arithmetic is shown
Where a figure comes out of a calculation, the calculation is on the page: the reach envelope, the swing arc, the load, the deflection. You can check it, and disagree with it.
Read the editorial standards, see how we measure and check figures, browse the glossary of terms and their dimensions, or check the corrections log.