A sectional sofa is a sofa built in two or more pieces that join, usually at a corner, so the seats run along two walls or around a room. Choosing one well comes down to five decisions, taken in order. Maker and price come after those, because a sectional that doesn't fit the room is the wrong one at any price.
Merit Home Furniture has 61 listings in its sectionals collection, from six makers, and a complete Ashley set starts at $1,149 before applicable taxes. When someone asks me about a sectional, I start with the room rather than the catalogue. We work from your measurements, draw it, and pick the pieces to suit it. On the Island that matters, because so many homes are character houses, cabins and small condos with rooms that are anything but square.
How do you choose a sectional sofa?
Choosing a sectional sofa in that order matters because each decision narrows the next. Taken backwards, fabric first and tape measure last, they're how a sectional ends up facing the wrong wall or stuck on a landing.
- The room sets the size: each wall the sectional will sit against, the depth of the room, and the paths people walk.
- The way in sets which pieces can arrive at all: the narrowest door, hallway and stair turn between the truck and the room.
- The shape follows how the room gets used, whether that's a chaise, an L, a U, a modular set or a reclining sectional.
- The side is which end the chaise or long arm sits on, and it's fixed the day the order goes in.
- The inside and the cover decide how it sits after years of use: seat depth, foam density, springs and fabric.
Measuring the room and the route in for a sectional
Measuring for a sectional means two sets of numbers: the room it will live in, and every opening on the way there. The sofa mistake we see is skipping the doors and the elevator. The BC Building Code 2024 sets a floor for new homes. The main entrance only has to take an 810 mm door, about 32 inches, and most rooms a 760 mm door, about 30. Those are door sizes, so the clear gap with the door open is narrower, and an older house or cabin can be tighter still.
- Measure each wall. Run the tape from the corner to the nearest door or window frame, not to the end of the wall.
- Measure the depth and the walkways. Go from the wall to where the coffee table or the path will be. For a path used every day, the code's usual minimum hallway inside a home, 860 mm (about 34 inches), is a fair yardstick.
- Tape out the footprint. Mark the outline on the floor with painter's tape and leave it down for a day or two, with the doors opening across it.
- Measure the way in. Take the narrowest door with it open, between the stops, then each hallway and the turn at the top of the stairs. Stairs in a house can be as narrow as 860 mm, with as little as 1,950 mm (about 6 feet 5 inches) of headroom. In a condo, add the elevator's door and depth.
- Hold up the biggest piece. A piece usually goes through a door on its end or its side, so its depth and height are the numbers that meet the door frame.
There's more on measuring for a sectional elsewhere, and on getting a sofa through the door when the turn is tight.
What is the 2/3 rule for sofas?
The 2/3 rule is a rule of thumb for proportion: a sofa looks right when it covers about two-thirds of the wall behind it. A sectional can still run the whole wall if the walkways clear, since the rule is about looks and the tape is about fit. Standard sofa sizes are worth setting beside it before settling on a length.
What type of sectional should you get? Chaise, L, U, modular or reclining
The type of sectional to get follows from how many walls the room has free and how the room gets used.
| Shape | What it is, and what the room needs | Examples on our site |
|---|---|---|
| Chaise sectional | A sofa with a chaise, an extended seat for your legs, on one end. It needs one long wall and depth at the chaise end. | Island Living Sombrio, curved, 128 in long; Ashley Altari, 110 x 90 in |
| L-shape | Two runs of seats meeting at a corner, often through a wedge, the angled corner piece. It needs a free corner and two walls. | Bovarian 3-piece, 128 x 99 in; Island Living Strathcona, 104 x 104 in |
| U-shape | Seats on three sides. It needs three walls, or floor to float it with a walkway around. | None of our complete sets; a U is built from pieces, the way La-Z-Boy and Ashley's single sectional pieces are sold |
| Modular | Armless pieces that join in any order, for rooms with odd angles or plans to rearrange. | Ashley Elyza, three-piece sets whose pieces, Ashley says, "can float anywhere sides are finished"; Island Living Rathtrevor, three in-stock pieces that make a chaise sectional |
| Reclining | Seats with footrests, manual or power. They need room to recline, and power pieces need an outlet. | Ashley Trail Boys reclining pieces, carried at our Campbell River store, call for our best price |
| Sleeper | A sectional with a pull-out bed, which needs clear floor in front when it's open. | La-Z-Boy's Kennedy queen sleep sofa piece; two Primo sleeper sectionals with a storage chaise, carried at our Campbell River store; and more among the sleeper sofas |
An odd-shaped room is where separate pieces beat a fixed set. An angled wall or a bay window across from a chaise doesn't get in its way. Armless modular pieces can stop short of a door or a stove and pick up again past it.
What room is best for a sectional sofa?
The best room for a sectional sofa is one where people sit side by side facing the same thing, a TV or a wood stove. It also wants the walkways running past the seats rather than through them. For a small or square room, the compact options are in sectionals for small spaces.
Left-facing or right-facing: which way a sectional faces
A sectional's facing is the side its chaise or long arm sits on, and makers don't all describe it from the same spot. Ashley's own descriptions, carried on our pages, define left-arm and right-arm by where the arm is when you face the piece. La-Z-Boy names its pieces from the seat, so its left-arm sitting recliner has the arm on your left while you sit in it. Stand in front of that La-Z-Boy piece and the arm is on your right.
On Merit's Ashley pages the title names the hand, as on the Clarington left-arm facing corner chaise, carried at our Port Alberni store. Telling left-facing from right-facing gets a full guide of its own.
When a sectional is ordered through us, we draw which way it faces right on the invoice, with the measurements beside it. Then we ask you to go home and measure the room again to be sure it fits. A drawing is much harder to misread than the words left and right.
Sectional cushions, fill and frames: what the spec lines mean
Sectional cushions are rated by foam density, the weight of one cubic foot of foam, given in pounds. The Polyurethane Foam Association, the foam industry's trade body, says higher-density foam generally keeps its original support and comfort longer. It also treats firmness as a separate measure, so a soft seat can still be a dense one.
| Maker | Seat cushions | Springs and frame |
|---|---|---|
| Decor-Rest | 1.9 lb standard foam with a firm option, or 2 lb or 2.5 lb high-resiliency foam, depending on the model | 8 gauge sinuous springs in the seat and 12 gauge in the back; air or kiln dried maple or birch frame |
| Island Living in-stock, the eight we list | Foam of 1.8 to 2.25 lb density | No-sag springs or elastic webbing, by style; kiln dried hardwood and plywood frame |
| Ashley | Foam wrapped in poly fibre on the complete sets, high-resiliency foam on the Arroyo sofa chaise, feather fill in the Elyza cushions | A reinforced frame on every complete set's page; no foam density given |
| La-Z-Boy | High-grade foam seats with blown-fibre backs | Not listed on our pages |
Back cushions come loose, semi-attached or tight. Loose ones can be turned and plumped, which evens out the wear. Feather blends are soft, and loose fill can flatten or shift; Decor-Rest channels its larger pillows to prevent exactly that. If a seat feels too soft when you try it, the firm foam option in the table is worth asking about.
Sectional seat depth and the fist check
A sectional seat should hold your thighs without pressing behind your knees. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) gives a quick check for chairs. With your feet flat on the floor, a clenched fist, about 5 cm or 2 inches, should fit between the front of the seat and your calves. It's written for office chairs, and it still makes a fair first test on a sofa. Seat depth runs 21 to 27 inches on our Decor-Rest pages. Longer legs suit the deeper end, and on a deep seat a shorter person may want a cushion at their back. What makes a couch comfortable goes past depth, too, into seat height and how far the cushion gives.
Choosing sectional fabric or leather for an Island home
Sectional fabric is worth choosing for wear first and colour second. One common wear test counts double rubs, the back-and-forth passes a machine makes across the cloth. The Association for Contract Textiles sets 15,000 double rubs as its guideline for low-traffic commercial seating and 30,000 for high traffic. It also says abrasion results aren't necessarily a reliable guide to how long a fabric lasts. None of Merit's sectional pages lists a rub count, so it's worth asking for one on the cover you like.
Each Island Living in-stock sectional comes in the cover named on its page, such as the Clayoquot in Merino Cotton or the Sombrio in Juny Fern. Decor-Rest and La-Z-Boy offer a wide choice of fabrics and leathers. Decor-Rest covers its fabrics for one year against seam slippage, fraying and dye transfer.
Leather has one Island catch. Near a wood stove, it wants a leather conditioner at least twice a year to keep it from cracking early, within its maker's care terms. Caring for leather on the coast is mostly that routine. Choosing between fabric and leather also turns on pets, spills, sun and what each maker's warranty allows. A swatch can look different under your own lights, which is also why a floor model can look different at home.
Sectional sofas at Merit by maker, with prices and where they're made
Prices on Merit's site aren't like for like across makers, so the table says what one listing actually is. The figures come from the live product pages on October 16, 2026, before applicable taxes.
| Maker and listings | Price on our site, and what it buys | Where it's made |
|---|---|---|
| Ashley, 17 | $1,149 to $2,899 for one of 5 complete sectionals; 12 single pieces, $1,449 and $2,899 on the 2 Duncan orders and call for our best price on the rest | Not stated on our pages; Ashley lists manufacturing and distribution centres in the US and Vietnam |
| La-Z-Boy, 12 | $599 to $849 on 7 pieces, each one modular piece of a sectional; the other 5 are call for our best price | Two of our pages say handcrafted in the USA with US and imported parts; La-Z-Boy's plants are in the US and Mexico. |
| Decor-Rest, 15 | From $1,099 to $2,249 in the entry fabric on 11 sectionals, with many fabrics and leathers to choose from; 4 single pieces carried at our Campbell River store, call for our best price | Woodbridge, Ontario; the 11 sectionals are tagged Canadian Made |
| Island Living, 11 | Not shown online, by Island Living's policy, so ask us for a price | 8 in-stock pieces made overseas for Island Living, not Canadian-made; 3 made to order, which Island Living builds in Burnaby |
| Elite, 4 | Carried at our Port Alberni store, call for our best price; each is a set, or a sofa with its loose chaise | Not stated; two of our pages name Elite Sofas of Delta, BC |
| Primo, 2 | Carried at our Campbell River store, call for our best price; both are sleeper sectionals with a storage chaise | China, by our pages |
The complete sets among Ashley's 17 listings include the 110-inch Altari and the 143-inch Ambee 3-piece, and everything else we list from Ashley sits in one collection. A La-Z-Boy sectional costs the sum of its pieces in the cover you pick. Eight of the 11 Decor-Rest sectionals built to your layout start at $1,099, and the sofas and chairs are in Decor-Rest's range too.
Island Living's Burnaby-built sofas and chairs are in the Island Living range on our site. Island Living also builds sectionals to order in Burnaby, and three are on our site, the Shawnigan, Qualicum and Tofino, sold through our Duncan store. Decor-Rest is the other Canadian-made sectional we list, and Canadian-made sectional sofas covers it piece by piece.
Is $3,000 a lot for a sectional?
On Merit's site, $3,000 is more than any complete Ashley sectional, and a sectional built from separate pieces can pass it. The way I'd put it, a $1,000 sofa is worth $1,000 and a $2,000 sofa is worth $2,000. So compare what the money buys rather than the total. The difference shows up in the spec lines above, mostly in foam density and the frame wood. If that's more than you'd want to pay in one go, Fairstone® handles our financing, and we can walk you through how it works on a sectional. We offer financing!*
*On approved credit. Terms and conditions apply. An annual fee will be charged to your account as set out in the Retail Credit Agreement. See our Financing page for more details about our plans.
Sectional lead times, the 24% deposit, delivery and warranty
A sectional's timing and money terms matter most on a special order, which is a sectional ordered in the cover and layout you choose. These are the terms at Merit's Duncan store.
| What | Our terms |
|---|---|
| On display in Duncan | Display models, so call to ask what's set up; a Island Living in-stock piece is ready for pickup or delivery in 2 to 3 weeks when Island Living has it in Vancouver |
| Special order | Ready for pickup or delivery in 4 to 6 weeks for Ashley, 8 to 10 for Decor-Rest and La-Z-Boy, and 6 to 8 for a made-to-order Island Living |
| Deposit | 24% on a special order, paid when the order goes in |
| If it runs late | Loaner furniture at no charge while you wait, and usually a discount to carry on; cancelling is an option |
| Exchanges | Invoices say all sales are final, but we encourage exchanges up to 30 days, case by case |
| Delivery | $150 across the Island, assembly included; some Gulf Islands by ferry, call for details |
| Maker warranty | Set by each maker. Ashley: 1 year on the 2 Ashley pages that state one. La-Z-Boy: its Limited Lifetime Warranty, named on 10 of its pages. Decor-Rest: lifetime limited on frames and springs. Island Living in-stock: a lifetime pro-rated warranty on the frame, and one year on all other parts, foam and fabric included. |
| Our part | Merit backs the maker's warranty, orders the parts and does the repair. A maker's warranty doesn't cover accidental damage, such as stains, rips, tears, cuts and burns. |
| Cover for accidents | SmartOne from Zucora, an extended warranty that covers accidents for up to five years from purchase; it sends someone to your house and covers the electronics in power recliners |
What happens when a special order slips is covered in special-order lead times, and the deposit terms are on returns and deposits. Who fixes what under a warranty is in the table: the maker sets the terms, and we order the parts and do the work.
Downsides of a sectional couch, and when a sofa is the better buy
The downsides of a sectional couch are real, and in some rooms they outweigh the comfort.
- It fixes the layout. An L made for one corner may not suit the next room or the next house, where a sofa and chairs can be moved around. Modular pieces soften this.
- It's heavy. Ashley's complete sectionals weigh 238 to 326 lb in total, carried in pieces, and the biggest piece still has to make the stair turn.
- The corner seat faces the diagonal and has no arm, so it's worth sitting in before choosing an L.
- The middle seats end up far from any side table, and a coffee table has to reach across a chaise.
- A wrong-way or wrong-size special order is a long wait to put right.
A sectional is the wrong buy for a room with doors on two walls or a room meant for conversation, and often for a small square room. There, a sofa with a chaise, or a sofa, a chair and an ottoman, does the same job and moves more easily.
Where the sectional figures come from
- Province of British Columbia, BC Building Code 2024 (Revision 2), Division B, Articles 9.5.4.1, 9.5.5.1, 9.8.2.1 and 9.8.2.2, checked September 2026.
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, How to Adjust Office Chairs, checked September 2026.
- Polyurethane Foam Association, Foam Performance, checked September 2026.
- Association for Contract Textiles, Abrasion, Low Traffic Woven Fabrics and Abrasion, High Traffic Woven Fabrics, checked September 2026.
- Decor-Rest Furniture, How it's Made, Decor-Rest Furniture, company history and Woodbridge address and Decor-Rest Furniture, Warranty, checked September 2026.
- La-Z-Boy, Trouper Left-Arm Sitting Recliner and La-Z-Boy, American Heritage and plant locations, checked September 2026.
- Ashley Furniture Industries, global manufacturing and distribution centres, checked September 2026.
- Merit Home Furniture's live product pages for all 61 listings in its sectionals collection, re-read with prices on October 16, 2026, and its delivery, returns, warranty and financing terms.
Planning a sectional for an odd-shaped room with us
Bring the wall lengths, the door and stair numbers and a rough sketch of the room to the Merit showroom nearest you, odd corners and wood stove included. For a Nanaimo room that's the Norwell Drive showroom. We check the fit before anything is ordered, and nobody will follow you around while you think it over. If you'd like me to go over the drawing, ask for me at the Duncan showroom on Ingram Street, open Monday to Saturday, 9 to 5.
Call the Duncan store, (250) 746-5527
All 61 sectional listings are on the site, and every sofa and sectional guide sits on one page.