Help! How do you get a Knole sofa downstairs? DIAGRAM

[CarterBeatsTheDevil]

Helping with a house move tomorrow. Friend has lovely Knole sofa (tall sides and back tied together with finials) that they do not want to leave. Removal men were unable to get it down the stairs. I have attached a rough diagram showing the space available because everyone loves a diagram, but my real question is whether it is possible to take a Knole sofa apart/fold down the sides or back? All suggestions welcome.

Diagram!

How did she get it upstairs in the first place?

I can't see a diagram

cross post...I can now. Can she take the door off and shimmey it down?

Pivot?

PIVOT

Haha, bet you to it! 🤣🤪

Sorry just have the urge

Most knoll sofas have hinged arms. It should be possible to locate the hinges and remove these.

If it needs to be reduced further in size then she will need to turn it upside down, remove the cloth covering the base (usually just stapled on and easy to restaple) and have a look at how it was made. If she is lucky it was bolted together and can be unbolted. If it was glued then I'm afraid she is stuck.

I think op the question really is, how did she get it up there in the first place?

Just came to say PIVOT but I've beaten to it!

How many stairs? In our old flat we had to get sofas in/out through the window because the angle of the front door was very narrow. We balanced it on planks of wood and slid it down to the street. But it wasn’t very high.

Bahahaha! Came for the PIVOT! and was not disappointed! Sorry, not helpful....

10/10 for all the PIVOT!!!!ers

We're going to try and unpeel it to look at how the back is fixed on tomorrow. Part of me thinks that the removers are being wusses but it is quite a steep narrow staircase and I have a horrible feeling that a section of bannisters might have been taken out. But that was years ago and it's not obvious where. What I can say is that they wouldn't have thought twice about it back then as the house was bought as a bit of a project and needed a considerable amount of updating. So that doesn't mean that they couldn't have taken the sofa apart or that they tried to.

@TooManyDogsandChildren we'll have a good nose around it tomorrow but THAT SOFA IS NOT BEING LEFT FOR THE HOUSE CLEARERS

The arms will fold down but apparently the back remains an issue. This baffles me a bit because I would have thought that it would be possible without the arms on to maneouvre it down the stairs, but to be fair I am not a removalperson and perhaps I do not understand how the space works in practice as opposed to in my head.

@WeAllHaveWings

Pivot?

You beat me!

We took the window out as had been suggested, and then left the sofa when we left.

A lot depends on how long the sofa is. If it's a two seater, then you should be able to put it on it's end and walk it through, and then down the stairs.

Defo take the door off. Easy to do.

Oh, and you may need to pivot.

Contact a supplier of Knole Sofas. Brights of Nettlebed may be able to help you. 01491 641115

Dammit, should have known I was too late.

Came on to say pivot too lol.

The arms and back will drop down. Lovely sofas.

Thanks all. Friend is a bit too advanced in years to be anything other than a bit disturbed if I scream "PIVOT!!!" at her but I might do it anyway

Interestingly that Friends episode was produced by Wendy Knoller,!

Well. Taking off the back was not workable, but the workmen were able to get it downstairs anyway. A happy ending for all (apart from the sofa, which currently looks as if it has been ripped apart by the Drugs Squad, but apparently it needed reupholstering anyway).

Also: they did it by turning it on its end and PIVOT!!!ing. Thank you, PIVOTers, you were right all along