Start with the wall, not the catalog
Run a tape along the floor between whatever the piece has to sit between, take the smaller of the two numbers if the wall is not square, then press it below. Everything that will not clear that span drops out of the list.
Pick a width and this shortens to what actually clears your wall. For now, the pieces the most owners have lived with.
Three numbers worth writing down
Wall width is the one that decides, but two more save a return trip. Depth is what sticks out into the room: anything past sixteen inches starts to crowd a walkway or a chair pushed back from a table. Height matters when a window sill, a light switch or a row of upper cabinets sits above the spot, and it is the number people forget until the case is already standing there.
Our listings give all three as outer dimensions with the doors shut, so what you read is what the piece occupies. Baseboard is the usual surprise. Trim thicker than half an inch holds a flat back off the wall, and the case ends up sitting that much further into the room than the depth figure suggests.
Then check
- The doorway and any turn on the way in. A boxed flat pack is long, not bulky.
- Whether a drawer or door can open fully once the piece is in place.
- Where the studs run, if the piece is tall enough to want an anchor.
- Floor level. A case on a sloped floor needs shimming before the doors line up.
The house notes walk through each of these with the tape in hand.