How to Choose Home Decor for Lagos Apartments and Family Homes

Before ordering a sofa, mirror or side table, write down three things: the space available, the route the item must take into the room, and the amount you can spend after delivery and any installation. A piece can fit a photograph and still fail one of those checks.

This guide gives you a room measurement sheet, a worked layout example and a budget worksheet for choosing home decor for a Lagos apartment or family home. The same process works whether you are furnishing an empty room or changing a few pieces around furniture you already own.

Start with one room and one problem

Choose the room you want to improve and finish this sentence: “This room would work better if ______.” Be specific. “There is nowhere to put a drink beside the sofa” points towards a small table. “We cannot find the remotes and chargers” points towards storage. “The corner is hard to read in” calls for a closer look at lighting.

List what you are keeping before listing what to buy. Record the sofa, dining table, curtains, large artwork and other pieces that already set the room’s size and colour. In a shared family room, ask everyone who uses it what needs to stay easy: moving between doors, opening cupboards, reaching a socket or clearing space for a particular activity.

Copy this room measurement sheet

Use one unit throughout your sketch. Centimetres work well for furniture; 100 cm equals 1 m. Measure the actual room rather than relying on a property listing. A quick sketch on paper is enough if you label every measurement.

Width is the dimension along a wall; depth is how far the item projects into the room. Check how the seller labels them. A narrow cabinet with deep drawers may need more operating space than its closed dimensions suggest. Ask for missing measurements before ordering, including the space needed for doors, drawers, reclining parts or removable trays.

A worked example: a 3.2 m × 4 m living room

This is a hypothetical planning example, not a customer project or a recommended clearance standard. Imagine a rectangular room measuring 3.2 m wide and 4 m long. Its floor area is 3.2 × 4 = 12.8 m². For this first sketch, put a sofa against one short wall and a media cabinet against the opposite wall. The real positions of doors, windows and sockets could require a different arrangement.

The room is 320 cm wide. Centring the 200 cm sofa leaves (320 − 200) ÷ 2 = 60 cm on each side. That number describes the remaining space; it does not tell you whether either side is a suitable route for the people who use this room.

Along the room’s 400 cm length, the sofa and cabinet occupy 90 + 35 = 125 cm. The space between their fronts is therefore 400 − 125 = 275 cm. If you sketch the coffee table with a chosen 45 cm gap from the sofa, the remaining distance between the table and cabinet is:

400 − 90 − 45 − 45 − 35 = 185 cm.

Now test that sketch in the actual room. Mark the furniture footprints with paper or tape suitable for your floor finish. Open the door and drawers. Sit down, stand up and use your normal route through the room. Check with everyone who uses it, including anyone using a mobility aid. Change the arrangement if the measured gaps do not meet their needs. If the coffee table gets in the way, a smaller side table may solve the original problem with less floor space.

Check the whole delivery route

A table that fits your room may still be difficult to bring through a staircase or narrow landing. Measure the route from the delivery point to the final position, especially in an upstairs flat or a building with a lift.

• Record the clear opening of entrance doors and internal doors, rather than the outside dimensions of their frames.
• Note narrow corridors, stair turns, landings, lift doors and the space inside the lift.
• Check building access arrangements, delivery hours and whether anyone must approve lift use.
• Ask the seller for the packaged width, depth, height and weight. Confirm whether the item arrives assembled and which parts, if any, can be removed by the delivery or assembly team.
• Share photographs and measurements of tight turns with the seller or delivery team before paying.

A package being narrower than a doorway is only one check. Its length and the space available to turn it can still prevent access. Do not assume a large item can be tilted, dismantled or carried upstairs unless the team handling it has confirmed that approach.

Choose the finish you can look after

Material names alone do not settle the care question. Two items described as “wood,” “metal” or “leather” can have different coatings, construction and cleaning instructions. Before choosing, ask what the surface is made from, how it is finished and which care instructions apply to that exact item.

Follow the manufacturer’s care and fitting instructions instead of applying a general cleaning recipe to every finish. If a product needs wall fixing, ask what installation is required and whether the fittings suit your wall. In a rented home, confirm permission before drilling. For a substantial or uncertain installation, get a suitable installer to assess the item and location.

Make a budget that includes the whole job

Divide your list into “needed for the room to work” and “finishing touches.” Deal with the missing function first: seating, a usable surface, storage or lighting. Then decide which decorative pieces add something the room still needs. Keeping an existing item can leave room in the budget for the improvement that matters most.

Room commitment = all item subtotals + delivery + installation/fittings + your reserve. Keep that figure within the total amount available. If a quote already includes delivery or installation, do not add the same charge twice. Compare the complete cost of each option rather than its displayed product price alone.

Use a short colour and shopping list

Choose a main colour already present in the room, a supporting tone and an optional accent. For example, you might keep a grey sofa, repeat warm wood in a table and use green in a small accessory. This is a way to narrow choices, not a rule that every object must match. Check samples where available; a screen photograph cannot confirm an exact colour match.

Take your maximum dimensions and budget to the furniture collection, lighting collection or accessories collection. Shortlist only items that address the room’s problem. Read the online shopping checklist before ordering, and use the contact and support page to ask for missing product or access details.

Save or print this before-order checklist

• Room problem I want to solve: ____________________
• Maximum item width × depth × height: ____________________
• Doors, windows, drawers and daily routes checked: yes / needs another check
• Packaged dimensions and delivery access confirmed: yes / waiting for details
• Material, finish, care instructions and any fitting requirements checked: yes / waiting for details
• Total cost including delivery and any installation: ₦____________________
• Current availability, delivery arrangements and return conditions read: yes / needs confirmation
• Unanswered questions sent to the seller: ____________________