Furniture

Furniture at FlipBuy UK: 43 pieces covering sofas and sofa beds, recliners, chests of drawers, bookcases, storage cabinets and garden dining sets. From £45.99 cabinets to full lounge suites.

How to measure before you order

Furniture is the category where a mistake is genuinely painful, and nearly every problem comes down to measuring the room but not the route.

Measure the space, then mark it on the floor with masking tape at the actual dimensions. A 3-seater sofa occupies far more of a room than the photograph suggests.
Measure the route in: front door, hallway width, stair turns, and the doorway of the destination room. The tightest point is usually a stairwell corner or a door frame with the door still attached.
Check the diagonal. Sofas go through doorways at an angle, the diagonal depth is what matters, not the width.
Leave walkways. 60cm to pass, 75cm for a main route, and 90cm in front of a sofa if there's a coffee table.
Check whether it arrives assembled. Flat-pack goes through doorways in boxes; an assembled recliner does not.

How to choose a sofa bed

Sofa beds are a compromise by design, and the right one depends on which use dominates.

Occasional guests, daily sitting: prioritise the sofa. A futon-style or clic-clac is fine for a few nights a year and much cheaper.
Regular sleeping: prioritise the bed. Look for a proper sprung or foam mattress rather than folded cushions, and check the mechanism doesn't leave a bar under the sleeper's back.
Check the open dimensions, not just the closed ones. A sofa bed needs clear floor space in front to open into, often as much again as the sofa itself.
Corner sofa beds with storage hold the bedding, which solves the problem of where to keep a spare duvet in a small flat.

How to choose upholstery

Faux leather wipes clean and suits households with children or pets. It can crack over years with heavy use and dislikes direct sun and radiators.
Fabric is warmer to sit on and quieter, but absorbs spills. Removable, washable covers make a substantial difference to how long it stays looking good.
Check the seat filling. Foam holds shape and needs no maintenance; fibre is softer but needs plumping regularly or it flattens permanently.

Furniture safety: anti-tip fixings

Tall furniture tipping onto children is a real and preventable cause of injury in UK homes. Chests of drawers, bookcases and storage towers should be secured to the wall.

Use the wall-fixing strap or bracket supplied. Most pieces include one, and it should always be fitted, not just when there are children in the house, since visiting children are the common scenario
Fix into a stud or use appropriate wall plugs for your wall type. A bracket screwed into plasterboard alone will pull out
Heaviest items in the bottom drawers. This lowers the centre of gravity considerably
Never let children climb on open drawers, which is the usual trigger for a tip

How to assemble flat-pack without ruining it

Lay everything out and count it against the parts list before starting. Finding a missing dowel at step 14 means dismantling
Work on carpet or a blanket to avoid scratching finished surfaces
Don't fully tighten until it's all together. Leaving screws slightly loose lets the frame square up; tightening as you go locks in a twist
Two people for anything large. Most flat-pack damage happens when one person tries to hold and screw simultaneously
Keep the instructions and spare fittings: you'll want them if you move

How to make furniture last

Keep wood and faux leather away from radiators and direct sun. Both dry out, fade and crack
Rotate and plump cushions weekly. This single habit is the difference between a sofa that holds its shape for years and one that sags in the favourite seat within months
Lift, don't drag. Dragging loosens joints and is the main cause of wobble in cheaper frames
Tighten fixings annually. Screws work loose with use, and a wobble caught early doesn't become a broken joint

Common questions

Does the furniture arrive assembled?

Most arrives flat-packed. Assembly requirements, tools and estimated time are on individual product pages.

Will a sofa fit through my door?

Measure the narrowest point of the route including stair turns, and compare with the sofa's diagonal depth rather than its width. Dimensions are on each product page.