How to measure your room for a made-to-measure table

We get sent some lovely measurements. A tape measure on a kitchen floor at 10pm, a biro sketch on the back of a Christmas card, an architect's plan with the wrong scale, a single number scribbled on a bit of envelope: seven feet, give or take. All of it works, because we will always come back with questions. But if you'd like to do it properly the first time, a few things help.

First, measure the room itself, wall to wall, in both directions. Do this at floor level rather than at waist height, because skirting boards and dado rails can throw the number off by a couple of centimetres if you're not careful. Note any obstacles in the floor plan: chimney breasts, radiators, doorways, the swing of any door that opens into the room.

Second, decide where the centre of the table is going to sit. This is more important than people realise. A table centred under a pendant light looks calm. A table half-aligned with one looks faintly wrong forever. If you have a chandelier or a single hanging light, that is almost always where the centre of the table wants to be.

Third, mark out the table's footprint on the floor with masking tape. This sounds fussy but is the single most useful thing you can do. Walk around it. Pull a chair up to the imaginary edge. See whether you can comfortably get past the back of a seated person. If you can't, the table is too big for the room. (We've written more on how much clearance you actually need around a dining table.)

Fourth, measure the doorways and any tight turns into the room. A 250cm table is usually delivered in one piece; it needs to actually arrive in the room. We will always check this with you, but knowing your narrowest doorway and any awkward stairwell turn saves a great deal of fuss later.

Once you have those four numbers — room dimensions, lighting centre, comfortable footprint, narrowest access — send them over. We'll come back with a sensible proposal, often the same day. Sketches very welcome. Christmas cards optional.

(For the question before this one, how to choose the right dining table size for your room is the natural place to start.)