When buying, renting or remodeling a home or apartment consider the size of staircases, doors, foyers and elevators before you begin construction or buy furniture. It will come in handy when you actually move in to your home.

One of the most overlooked issue is how to get furniture and bedding into a new house, apartment or newly remodeled home. This is no joke as the photo on the left illustrates.

In fact, the Internet is full of stories of people who either have large furniture and/or recently bought it. When they move, they are panicking and worried about being able to get the stuff through the front door, to the second floor or basement, or around a turn. If you have large pieces or heavy pieces like pianos or armoires, tell your moving company about them ahead of time. You'll meet some of these fine folks at the end of this article.

It's amazing that in the US where furniture and bedding is super sized that many homes have very narrow doors and staircases that would challenge the best moving professionals. The situation is typical not only for city apartments and brownstones or historical property, but for new housing as well. I attribute the new construction problems to shortsighted builders and architects who have no concept of their clients or how they live.

Interior designers, however, have a better idea of space and function and should be used to make sure that you can at least get typical furniture and bedding through the front door, and up and down stairs from the main level.

You might be wondering, what kinds of furniture. Lets just say that it includes a sofa, chairs, or other piece of furniture you bought or are planning to buy from furniture stores like the Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Macy's or Bloomingdales. This also should include a king size bed and mattress and in some markets, a California King size bed.

Proper Stairway Design
If you are doing a home remodel, buying a house, or renting an apartment or house, pay extra attention to the dimensions of the stairs discussed below. They'll determine if and how you can get your furniture in the place.

According to the Time-Saver Standards for Interior Design and Space Planning, the following should be considered in proper stairway design:

• Width of the stairs is not always critical, but becomes very important when there are one of more turns with straight runs,
• The minimum width for moving furniture pieces is 42 inches. This doesn't mean the entire step. Measure between the handrails, base moldings and newels as these can get in the way of moving the piece of furniture,
• Headroom on a landing is the controlling factor in negotiating turns,
• If headroom is unlimited, then it is much easier to maneuver furniture around a turn, even when the stairs are narrow,
• If there is limited headroom, then increasing the width of a landing can aid in turning furniture, and
• Narrow hallways often are more of an obstruction to moving furniture than low headroom, narrow steps and cramped turns.

If you are building a home and have a choice consider the following. An open stairway is free of walls on each side and will have a banister on each side. It is much easier to get furniture, mattresses and box springs up an open staircase. Movers can make turns on landings by lifting the items over the banisters provided that they have the sufficient headroom and are not impeded by the ceiling. They don't have to worry about walls.

Traditional stairway has one banister on a wall on the other side. They come in a variety of stairway shapes.

Typical Dimensions of a Problematic Staircase
We have an L shaped stairway that goes to the left. Here are the dimensions using the interior design space planning criteria:

Can you tell why we are can't get a queen size box spring upstairs? That headroom measurement is killing us along with the narrow second run.

The problem begins when you reach the landing area. All of a sudden, the width is reduced to 33 inches and the landing only goes back 42.75 inches. Three sides of the landing are enclosed and the last few steps are 34 inches wide. The 83-84 inches of ceiling height or headroom combined with that relatively small landing makes it impossible to get anything longer than 80 inches up to the second floor.

Doors
We covered doors in a recent article, but only discussed accessibility. Before buying furniture, always measure the height and width of the entry door as well as the door of the room that the furniture will go through. Narrow hallways can really cause problems so be sure to measure the ceiling height of the hallway as well as the width. Keep in mind that you may have to take the door off the hinges to get the furniture piece in the room, as well as the legs of the furniture if they are detachable.

Alternatives to Getting Furniture in a House or to Second Floor

If you can't get the furniture piece through the front door or upstairs, you should consider removing a window. Don't remove the window though before making certain that it can accommodate the furniture piece. Yes, this is costly and in the event of a second floor window, you may have to hire a company that specializes in these matters. you'll have to do the same thing if you ever move out.

With respect to bedding, some people recommend that you carefully cut the box spring. We have never done this, but it is routinely done.

Recommendations
Someone stated that when it comes to buying furniture, it is best to measure twice and buy once. We think this is wise. Always do the following before you move or buy furniture for you new house, apartment or townhouse:

1. Measure all entry doors to first floor (height and width),
2. Measure the size of the largest windows on the first and second floor that are closest to where the furniture piece is going,
3. Measure the interior dimensions of any elevator (length, width, height) that will be used to move furniture,
4. Take your door measurements to the furniture store and share them with the sales person. Stores like Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdale and Macys have the exact dimension of the pieces of furniture. Put the burden on them to determine if the piece can be transported into the house and to the room its supposed to be in, and
5. Check the fine print of the store's refund policy. Even if you or the store thinks the piece can go through the door, up or down the stairs, or through a window, things can and do go wrong.

Real People Situations and Resources
Some of you may think that these things don't happen to real people. Take a look at the following to get an idea of the stress associated not being able to move furniture into your home or apartment:

• News from the Mews- the story of an American couple moving their furniture into a rental home in the United Kingdom
• Second Rule for Buying Furniture (Measure twice, buy once)
• Terminology used in Stairways
• Stairway Styles (courtesy of Stairking in Australia)
• Stairs for your Cats- This is for cat owners who need to get their minds off their furniture problems. Enjoy.