How do you measure a room for restraint furniture?

Two sets of measurements decide whether a piece of restraint furniture will work in your home. The first is the room: where the piece will go, and the space it needs around it to be used and lived with. The second is the route: every door, stair and turn between your front door and that room. Get both right, and the day the piece arrives is straightforward. Miss one, and it isn't.

To measure a room for furniture of this kind, you need a tape measure, a notepad, a second pair of hands and an unhurried hour.

What you need

• A steel tape measure long enough for the room.
• Paper and a pencil, or a notes app, for a simple sketch.
• A second person to hold the other end.
• Your phone, for photographs of anything awkward.

Measure in centimetres or millimetres, and write each figure on the sketch beside the thing it measures. A rough sketch is fine; nothing needs to be drawn to scale.

Measuring the room

The floor

Measure the length and width of the room at floor level, wall to wall. If the room isn't a simple rectangle, measure each wall separately and mark alcoves, chimney breasts and bay windows on your sketch.

The height

Measure the ceiling height in two or three places, because floors and ceilings are rarely perfectly level. Mark anything that comes down from the ceiling: beams, light fittings, a sloping section in a loft room. For a four-poster or a cross, height matters as much as floor space.

Doors and windows

Mark the room's door, which way it opens and how far it swings into the room. Mark windows, how they open, and the height of each sill. A piece of furniture that blocks a door or a window you need is a piece you'll resent.

Heat, power and the things you can't move

Mark radiators, heaters, sockets, switches and anything fixed to the walls or floor. Keep restraint furniture away from radiators and heaters, and remember that a piece placed over a socket makes it awkward to reach.

Space around the piece

Restraint furniture needs more than its own footprint. Each kind asks for clear floor in a different way.

• A bed needs clear floor on both sides and at the foot, so the partner leading a scene can reach every side without climbing over anything.
• A cross needs clear floor in front and to each side, because someone stands at it and their partner moves around them.
• A cage needs clear floor on the door side, a clear line of sight from where the partner outside will sit, and somewhere comfortable close by.

Mark where you'd like the piece to go, then mark the clear floor it needs. For the size of any piece you're considering, ask us, and we'll help you check it against your sketch.

Marking out the space

Figures on paper are hard to picture. Once you know the size of the piece you're considering, mark its footprint on the floor with masking tape, then mark the clear space around it. Live with the tape for a day or two. Walk round it, open the door, draw the curtains, get into bed. You'll know quickly whether the position works.

Measuring the route in

Every piece we make ships flat-packed, with printed assembly instructions, which helps on narrow routes. Even so, every route has a narrowest point, and that's what we need to know.

Walk from the front door to the room and measure:

• The width of every door on the way, with the door fully open. Measure the clear gap you can carry something through.
• The width of the stairs, at the narrowest point.
• The height above the stairs, especially where the ceiling drops at a half-landing.
• Every turn: the width of the landing, and how much room there is to swing a long part around the corner.
• Anything that narrows the route: banisters, radiators in hallways, low beams, a tight front porch.

Photographs help a great deal, above all of turns and landings. A photo taken from the bottom of the stairs looking up, and one from the landing looking down, tells us more than any single figure.

Easy things to miss

• Skirting boards, which take a little off every wall measurement at floor level.
• Door handles and hinges, which narrow a doorway when the door is open.
• Light fittings and smoke alarms above where a tall piece will go.
• Radiators on landings and in hallways, which narrow the route.
• Thick carpet or a raised threshold, which change heights slightly.
• Furniture on the route you can't easily move, such as a fitted cupboard.

What to send us

Email us at info@sanctumdomina.com with:

• The piece you're considering, and the finish if you know it.
• Your sketch of the room, with measurements and the position you have in mind.
• The narrowest door, stair and turn on the route in, with photographs if you can.
• Anything else that worries you: a sloping ceiling, a spiral stair, an old floor.

We'll check the route against your piece before you order, and talk you through anything that looks tight.

Floors and walls

Check that the floor is level where the piece will go. On a wooden floor or a delicate surface, plan a rug or mat beneath the piece. If anything is ever going to be fixed to a wall or floor, have a qualified tradesperson assess it first.

For bespoke work

If none of our pieces suits the room, our bespoke service starts from the same measurements, plus photographs of the room. We confirm every measurement before drawing begins, and nothing is made until you've approved the scaled drawings and quote in writing. Our guide to what to put in a bespoke brief covers the rest.

Before you order

• Have you measured the floor, the height and the clear space the piece needs?
• Have you marked doors, windows, radiators and sockets?
• Have you measured the narrowest door, stair and turn on the route?
• Have you sent us the figures and photographs?

For more on placement, see our guides to choosing a restraint bed frame, where a cross should go and where a cage should sit. Every piece in our BDSM beds, St Andrew's crosses and BDSM cages collections is made to order, with a current lead time of 8–14 weeks.