Reading a Sectional Listing: LAF, RAF, Pieces

Sectionals are the biggest thing most people buy from us, and the listings are the hardest to read. A dropdown that says 5 Pc. Right Arm Facing Corner Chaise Sectional is perfectly precise and completely unhelpful if nobody has told you what the words mean. This is the decoder.

Piece count

A sectional is sold as a set of separate pieces that join up. "4 Pc." is four of them; "10 Pc." is ten. More pieces means more seats and more length, and it is the main thing moving the price.

The Emilia, from Unique Piece Furniture, shows how it scales: the 4-piece is $3,809.98 and the 6-piece is $5,459.98, in the same light brown. The Elyza runs up to a 10-piece at $5,779.98. Same sofa, more of it.

Pieces are usually some mix of:

• Armless chairs — a single seat with no arm, used to extend a run.
• Arm pieces — a seat with an arm on one side. These go at the ends.
• Corner — a square seat that turns the run 90 degrees.
• Chaise — a long seat you put your legs up on, usually at one end.
• Ottoman — sometimes counted as a piece, sometimes not. Check.

The exact pieces in a configuration are listed in the product description. Count them before you compare prices across listings, because a "5-piece" that includes an ottoman is a four-seat sofa, not a five-seat one.

LAF and RAF — the part everyone gets backwards

LAF is left arm facing. RAF is right arm facing. They tell you which end the arm is on — and the direction is always as you stand in front of the sofa, facing it. Not as you sit on it.

So a Right Arm Facing Corner Chaise has the chaise on your right as you look at the sofa, with an arm on that end. Sit down on it and the chaise is at your left. This is the single most common reason a sectional arrives "the wrong way round."

How to choose: stand where you will look at the sofa from — the doorway, usually. Decide which side the chaise or the short return should be on from there. If it needs to be on your right, you want RAF. Left, LAF.

Some sectionals — the modular ones in particular — do not have this problem because every piece is symmetrical and you arrange them yourself. If the dropdown does not offer LAF or RAF, that is usually why.

The three shapes

L-shape. A long run with a return at one end — a chaise or a corner and one more seat. The most common shape and the one that fits most rooms. The Home Furnishers L-shaped modular sectional is $598.95, the L-shaped slipcovered sectional is $765.95, and the slipcovered L-shape four-seater is $963.95 in cream or green.

U-shape. A run with a return at both ends. Needs a wide room and a lot of floor in front of it, because you sit facing each other across it. The larger Emilia and Elyza configurations get to this shape.

Straight modular. Armless pieces in a line, with or without end arms — the 114-inch modular from Home Furnishers is $394.95 and is this shape. It is the cheapest way to a long sofa and the easiest to rearrange later.

Measuring: three numbers, in this order

1. The wall. Measure the wall the long side will sit on, then subtract room for anything at either end — a side table, a lamp, a doorway that needs to open. What is left is your maximum overall length. Compare it to the overall width on the listing, not the seat count.

2. The return. Measure how far into the room the chaise or corner side can come before it blocks a walkway. Three feet of walkway past the end of the chaise is comfortable. That is your maximum depth.

3. The door. Sectionals arrive as pieces, which is good news: each piece is smaller than a one-piece sofa. But the largest piece — usually the chaise — still has to come through your narrowest door and round your tightest corner. The listing gives per-piece dimensions or overall dimensions; if it only gives overall, email us and we will ask the maker for the chaise on its own.

Slipcovered or fixed

Several of the Home Furnishers sectionals are slipcovered: the fabric is a removable cover over the frame and cushions rather than upholstery fixed to them. The listings describe the covers as removable. What that gives you is a cover that comes off for cleaning and a look you can change by replacing it. What it costs you is a slightly softer, less tailored line than fixed upholstery. Neither is better; they are different sofas.

Delivery — read this part

A sectional is furniture, and furniture moves by freight, not parcel. Our shipping policy is plain about what that means: it takes longer than parcel delivery, the carrier will usually contact you to schedule a delivery window, and the estimate at checkout is an estimate. Have someone home for the window, and check every piece against the packing list before the driver leaves — anything damaged or missing goes to sales@stationhomedesign.com straight away.

Returns are 14 days from receipt, in original condition and packaging. On a sectional, that means keep the boxes until you are sure.

The short version

• Pieces set the length and the price.
• LAF/RAF is decided facing the sofa.
• Measure the wall, the return, then the door.
• Freight, delivery window, keep the boxes.

Send sales@stationhomedesign.com your wall length, the side you want the chaise on from the doorway, and the listing. We will confirm the configuration before you order.