Show us your home. Leave with a plan - 30 minutes free consultation

Book a Free Consultation

We ran the Sofa Design Clinic through August, expecting it to be a fortnight. It went so well we extended it into September — and then the team sat down and decided something simple: why stop?

So the consultations are staying. All year, free, in the Douglas showroom or over video.

What it's for

You don't get stuck on whether you want a new sofa. You get stuck on the choosing — which frame, which fabric, which configuration, and whether any of it will actually work in the room you've got. Same with a dining table: which size, which shape, how many it really seats once the chairs are pulled out.

That's the part a website can't solve for you. It needs a room, a tape measure and somebody who does this every day and who cares. 

Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation to buy anything at the end of it.

Sofas, dining tables, chairs and armchairs — anything we make to order.

Who you'll be sitting with

Our design team start where the piece has to live: your space, and the character your home already has. 

We'll tell you honestly what will work and what won't. If a frame you've fallen for is too deep for the room, you'll hear it — and you'll hear why, and what would work instead. That's more useful than being agreed with, and on something you'll own for a decade, it's the whole point of sitting down with someone.

What your thirty minutes looks like

We start with your room. Dimensions, the wall it's going against, where the door and the window are, and where people actually sit. Everything else follows from this.

Then the shape. For a sofa: corner, modular, three-seat, chaise on the left or the right. For a table: length, width, and how many chairs it comfortably takes rather than how many it technically fits. We work it out from your room, then build the piece to suit.

Then you sit on things. Depth, seat height, back support, how a chair feels after five minutes rather than five seconds. 

Then fabrics and finishes. Our swatch library is staged by mood and colour rather than supplier code, so you can hold them, carry them to the window, and see them against your own photos. Wood samples too, for tables and chairs.

You'll leave with a written sheet — model, configuration, fabric or finish, and your price held — plus swatches to take home and live with for a few days.

What to bring

The more you bring, the more we can do in half an hour. Nothing is too rough or too half-formed.

• Photos of the room — including the ugly angles, especially the ugly angles
• Rough dimensions, particularly the wall or the space the piece is going into
• Anything that fixes the colour — a paint chip, a curtain offcut, a cushion, a floor or wood sample. Anything in the room you already love and want the new piece to sit beside
• A friend, your partner, whoever else gets a say. That last one matters more than people expect. Deciding on a sofa alone and then selling it to someone at home is a much harder job than deciding together in the first place.

How to book?

Use the calendar below to pick a date and time. Booking through the form means you get a confirmation in writing, so there's no confusion about when you're coming in.

Select a date and time to book →

Prefer to talk to someone? Call us on 021 4898171 or email customercare@podfurniture.ie and we'll sort it out with you.

The details

• Where: Pod Furniture, Unit 102-107-108 St Patrick's Mills, Douglas, Cork, T12 R261
• How long: 30 minutes
• Cost: Free, with no obligation
• Parking: Free for customers
• Delivery: Free over €399 in the Republic of Ireland, including assembly
• Can't get to Cork? We run consultations over video too — book the same way and let us know.

Why book a consultation with Pod?

• We're small, and that's the point.
  Pod is family-run. We're not a chain, and we don't have a head office deciding what you should want. It means the person who sits down with you can actually make decisions — about the configuration, the fabric, what's worth spending on and what isn't. That's harder to find than it used to be.
• A designer who starts with your room, not our catalogue.
  The first question isn't which sofa you like. It's what the space is doing — the wall, the door, the window, where people actually sit, and the character your home already has. The piece follows from that. It's a slower way to start and a much better way to finish.
• Honest advice, including when it isn't what you hoped.
  If a frame you've fallen for is too deep for the room, you'll hear it — and you'll hear why, and what would work instead. Being agreed with is pleasant. Being told the truth is useful, and on something you'll own for a decade it's worth more.
• Furniture built to last, from makers we know.
  We work with a small number of European manufacturers — SITS, Furninova, Vilmers among them — chosen for how they build rather than how cheaply. Most of what we sell is made to order, so it's built for your room rather than picked off a warehouse floor.
• Sit on it before you commit.
  Depth, seat height, back support, how a chair feels after five minutes rather than five seconds. None of it reads off a screen, and it's the reason the showroom exists.
• Free delivery and assembly.
  Orders over €399 are delivered free anywhere in the Republic of Ireland, assembled and in place — not left in a box in the hall. Full details in our delivery policy.