Furniture stores Mallorca and Andalusia

The main criterion is that the spine stays aligned in your habitual sleeping position, which depends on body weight and on whether you sleep on your side, back or front rather than on the price bracket of the mattress.

Each diner needs between sixty and seventy centimetres of frontage and about forty centimetres of depth, so a rectangular table for six people needs roughly one hundred and eighty centimetres by ninety.

Professional assembly is usually charged at between eight and fifteen per cent of the price of the item, or at a fixed rate per piece, and covers assembly, levelling, wall fixing and removal of packaging.

Furniture held in stock arrives within days, catalogue items ordered from the manufacturer take four to ten weeks, and bespoke pieces take eight to sixteen, with the lead time recorded in writing on the order.

In a coastal setting the materials that last are aluminium with anti corrosion treatment, teak, polyethylene fibre and marine grade stainless steel, while painted iron and softwoods degrade within a few seasons.

Upholstery durability is measured in abrasion cycles, and for a sofa in daily use the figure should not fall below thirty thousand, a specification the retailer should be able to provide alongside the rest of the technical data.