There is no official standard. Published listings for floor seating sets show seat mattresses about 160 to 170 cm long, 60 to 70 cm deep and 14 to 15 cm thick, backrests about 40 cm high and armrests about 50 by 25 cm. Sofhu does not sell fixed sizes: every set is cut to your wall measurements.
- Official standard
- None; sizes vary by maker and region
- Seat depth in listings
- 60 to 70 cm (about 24 to 28 in)
- Mattress thickness in listings
- 14 to 15 cm, some up to about 20 cm
- Sofhu sizing
- Made to measure from your wall lengths
- Cushion thickness
- Selectable on request
- Conversion
- 1 inch = 2.54 cm; 1 foot = 30.48 cm
On this page
People ask for standard majlis dimensions as if there were a rulebook. There is not. A majlis is sized by the room it lines, and every workshop and every region cuts its mattresses a little differently. What does exist is a set of typical figures that turn up again and again in published listings. They are collected below in centimetres and inches, each with a note on where it comes from.
Read the chart as a sense of scale, not as a specification. Sofhu does not publish fixed sizes, because each set is cut to the customer’s wall measurements.
One distinction first. Sofhu makes two products that people call a majlis. The Arabic floor sofa is the low set of seat mattresses, loose back cushions and armrest blocks, and it is what the listing figures below describe. The Arabic majlis is raised to sofa height, with a solid upholstered base and fixed backs, so its seat height is closer to an ordinary sofa.
Majlis dimensions chart in cm and inches
| Part | Centimetres | Inches | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seat mattress length | 160 to 170 | 63 to 67 | Jordanian listings for floor sets |
| Seat mattress depth | 60 to 70 | 24 to 28 | Same listings |
| Seat mattress thickness | 14 to 15, some to about 20 | 5.5 to 6, some to about 8 | Same listings |
| Backrest (length × height × thickness) | 160 × 40 × 8 | 63 × 16 × 3 | One Jordanian listing |
| Armrest (length × width × height) | 50 × 25 × 25 | 20 × 10 × 10 | Same listing |
| Raised Moroccan banquette depth | 60 to 70 | 24 to 28 | Moroccan listings |
| Raised Moroccan banquette overall height | about 70 | about 28 | One Moroccan listing |
| Raised banquette module length | about 187 to 252 | about 74 to 99 | Moroccan listings |
For comparison, furniture guides usually put an ordinary Western sofa seat at 20 to 24 inches deep (about 51 to 61 cm) and 17 to 19 inches high (about 43 to 48 cm).
These are classifieds and marketplace figures from two countries. They are not a standard, and they are not Sofhu’s own measurements. A real set for your room will differ.
Majlis seat depth, and why it is deeper than a Western sofa
The seat is deeper because people use it differently. On an ordinary sofa you sit upright with your feet on the floor, and a seat much deeper than your thigh leaves your back unsupported. On a floor sofa you sit cross-legged, or with one leg folded under and one knee up, or leaning on an elbow. All of those postures need room from front to back.
The 60 to 70 cm in the chart is the full mattress depth, wall to front edge. The backrest stands on the back of the mattress and takes a share of it, about 8 cm in the example listing. So the sitting surface in that example is closer to 52 to 62 cm.
Depth is also the number that decides how much of the room the seating takes. On a U-shape, two facing rows eat twice the depth out of the room’s width. In a narrow room, a few centimetres less depth on each side gives back a useful strip of floor in the middle. If your room is under about three metres wide, mention it when you ask for a quote so the depth can be considered along with the layout.
Backrest and armrest sizes
The backrest in the chart is 40 cm high. Standing on a 14 cm mattress it reaches a little over half a metre from the floor, which is below most window sills. That is one reason a floor sofa works under windows where a tall sofa would block the glass.
Backrest height and seat height should be read together. A thicker mattress lifts the sitter, so the same 40 cm backrest supports less of the back. The majlis seat height guide compares floor-level, mid and raised seats.
Armrests vary most of all. The 50 × 25 × 25 cm block in the listing is a plain rectangular bolster. A round bolster with rosette ends, a sculpted wedge and a flat tray-top arm each have their own footprint. What matters for planning is the width along the row: every armrest placed between sitters takes that much seat away. Our guide to how many backrests and armrests you need works through the count, and parts of a majlis set names each piece.
Module lengths and how a majlis sofa size adds up
The overall size of a majlis is simply its seat lengths added along each wall. Ready-made kits build that from identical modules. One Jordanian listing, for example, offers four mattresses, six backrests and four armrests for a room of about 3.5 by 3.2 metres.
A made-to-measure set works the other way round. The wall is measured first and then divided into mattresses that fit it exactly, so no gap is left at the end of a row and no piece sticks out past a door frame.
Three things to keep in mind when you add up lengths:
- Corners are counted once. Where two rows meet, one of them stops short by one seat depth. A wall of 350 cm with a seat 65 cm deep running along the neighbouring wall has 285 cm left for its own mattresses.
- Long walls are split. A single mattress the full length of a five-metre wall would be awkward to carry, turn and wash. Two or three pieces do the same job.
- Doors, radiators and low sills shorten a run. Measure to the obstacle, not to the corner behind it.
The L-shape and U-shape majlis page shows how the layouts differ, and how to measure a room for a majlis walks through the tape-measure work.
Converting between cm, inches and feet
One inch is 2.54 cm and one foot is 30.48 cm. To go from feet and inches to centimetres, turn everything into inches first, then multiply by 2.54. A wall of 11 ft 6 in is 138 inches, which is about 350 cm.
| Metres | Centimetres | Feet and inches |
|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | 200 | 6 ft 7 in |
| 2.5 | 250 | 8 ft 2 in |
| 3.0 | 300 | 9 ft 10 in |
| 3.5 | 350 | 11 ft 6 in |
| 4.0 | 400 | 13 ft 1 in |
| 5.0 | 500 | 16 ft 5 in |
The table is rounded to the nearest inch. For an order, send the figure your tape shows and say which unit it is. A wall written as “12” could be feet or a typing slip, and the difference is a seat.
When to depart from typical sizes
Typical sizes suit a typical room and an average adult. Plenty of rooms and families are neither.
- Small rooms and narrow rooms. A shallower seat or a single row keeps the floor open. Sofhu’s own customer answers mention compact models for small seating areas as well as large corner sets for large families.
- Tall people. A deeper seat and a taller backrest are more comfortable for long legs and long backs.
- Elders and anyone with stiff knees. A thicker mattress, or a raised majlis at sofa height, is easier to stand up from. Cushion thickness is selectable on request.
- Seats that double as guest beds. Here length matters more than depth, and backrests should lift off.
- Low windows, sockets and radiators. The top of the backrest needs to clear what is on the wall.
One fixed point does not change with size. Floor sofas are not freestanding and need a wall or another hard surface behind the back cushions, so every dimension starts from a wall.
If you want numbers for a particular design, the direct route is to send your wall lengths. A custom majlis is planned around them, and you can ask for the sizes of the pieces with the quote. Browse layouts on the majlis sofa sets page, then get a quote by measurement or message us on WhatsApp with your measurements in whichever unit your tape uses.
