Buying furniture online? Do your homework

NEW YORK - You fell in love with a sofa online. But when it arrived you found it doesn’t fit or isn’t as comfy as it appeared.

Online furniture sellers photograph their goods under studio lights, which can make fabrics and colors look different on screens than in person, says Shelby Girard, head of design at online interior design service Havenly. On top of that, it’s hard to tell how a piece of furniture will fit your room.

But there are ways to make sure you get what you want — and possibly save some money — if you do the research.

Here are some tips for buying furniture online: showrooms or pop-up shops in big cities.

If you can’t get to a store, some sites will send you fabric swatches, pieces of rug or wood samples for free. This can help you rule out rough materials or wood stains that don’t match the rest of the room.

Another way to figure out how an item will look in real life: social media. Do a search on Instagram for an item you are thinking of buying, says Girard. The posts can show how a sofa may wrinkle or other signs of how it looks overtime. Some companies, such as West Elm, post photos from customers directly on their site.

Besides Instagram, you can also try to look up the item on Pinterest.

Size it up

Make sure you know the dimensions, even for the small stuff. Vases, candlesticks and other decorative pieces can be surprisingly bigger or smaller than they appear online, says Girard.

For big items, you’ll want to buy painter’s tape. Use the blue adhesive to create an outline on the floor to give you a better sense of how the furniture will fit in your room.

You can also try apps that will virtually drop furniture into your house and see what it could look like. Ikea Place, for example, uses an iPhone or iPad’s camera and augmented reality technology to show its sofas, desks and other items in your room. Wayfair has a similar feature that is built into its app.