Would a dining table actually fit? Five questions to ask of an old floor plan

1. What did the person who drew the table know?

Look for a dimension on the table itself. Without one, the little furniture symbol tells you somebody pictured eating here, but very little about whether your table will fit. Measure yours, including the legs. A chair can tuck under an overhang quite happily until it hits a chunky corner leg.

Then check the room dimension that matters. MBIE points out that old drawings can differ from what was built. In our example the plan says the nook is 2.8 metres wide. In the room there’s a low cupboard along one side. Measuring between the cupboard face and the opposite wall gives us 2.45 metres to play with.

2. Where does the chair go when someone stands up?

Say the table is 900 millimetres wide. Centred in the available space, it leaves 775 millimetres on either side. That’s a useful calculation, but it doesn’t tell us whether anyone can get out. Put a chair at the proposed table edge, sit down, then stand and turn as you normally would. Have someone mark where the back legs end up.

In this example, let’s say the chair reaches 650 millimetres out from the table as you stand. There’s only 125 millimetres behind it at that moment. If that’s also the way into the kitchen, dinner will involve somebody waiting. Those are example measurements, not recommended clearances.

3. What happens above the line on the drawing?

A window and a cupboard can look perfectly compatible on a floor plan. Stand where the table would go and try the window catch. Can you reach it across the tabletop? Does the window open into the place you’ve picked for a light fitting? Now try the cupboard with somebody seated. A drawer that holds the cutlery is rather more useful if you can open it after everyone sits down.

• Take a side-on photo showing the sill, handle and table edge together.
• Mark the drawer at full extension on your sketch.

4. Which seat would you give a guest?

Try each place with the kitchen door in use. The end seat might have generous elbow room yet put its occupant right behind the door. I’d move that chair first, before deciding the doorway is wrong. Turn the table through a quarter turn and set the places again. You may lose an end seat but gain four places where nobody has to get up halfway through a meal.

5. What would persuade you to change the room?

Borrow a narrower table or mark its edges on an existing one. Try serving dinner, passing a bowl across it and clearing the plates. A narrow table might solve the squeeze behind the chairs yet leave nowhere for the food. If turning your own table works just as well, you’ve saved yourself a purchase. If neither test works, you’ve learnt exactly what to ask a designer to solve.

For this nook I’d write: ‘Seat four for dinner and let someone reach the kitchen while the others stay seated.’ If you’d like a second pair of eyes on an awkward room, bring that sentence, the sketch and your table measurements to a renovation consultation.