Oriental Arabic Majlis in Oregon, Made to Your Walls

How does a single wall, or one L, turn into a piece list?

NAHB's analysis of Census construction data puts about nine in ten new single-family homes in the Pacific states on a slab, so Oregon seating mostly lands on living-room walls rather than in a basement, and room sizes for each shape are in our Yemeni and Arabic majlis guide for American rooms.

A majlis has no fixed piece count, because the pieces follow the wall. No seat is longer than about 75 in (190 cm), so a longer wall splits into equal seats, and each seat takes two backrests of about half its length.

On an L, the second wall gives up about 27.5 in (70 cm) to the corner, the depth of the first run, so a small L is often one seat on the short side and two on the long side. Say whether armrests go at one end, both ends or neither.

How do you measure an Oregon room when nobody visits your home?

1. Ask us for a design consultation — we can talk through your room on a video call.
2. Run the tape along the floor from corner to corner and read each number aloud in one unit.
3. Mark window sills, floor registers and the swing of every door on a rough sketch before the call ends.
4. Send the numbers with a photo of each wall, in feet and inches or in metric; a phone measuring app is fine.
5. Check the drawn layout piece by piece against your sketch, and ask for changes before anything is cut.

Keep the measuring guide and worksheet open during the call, then try your numbers in the majlis planner to see seats, backrests and corners.

Does a small room want a thin seat or a taller one?

Thickness changes how high you sit, not how much floor the seat covers. A 4 in (10 cm) seat keeps the low line of a majlis and leaves a small room open, while 8 in (20 cm) and 12 in (30 cm) seats sit higher and look more like a sofa. At 16 in (40 cm) a raised majlis reaches about the seat height of a regular living-room sofa, and the backrest then brings the total height to about 31.5 in (80 cm).

Depth matters as much in a narrow room: seats are about 27.5 in (70 cm) deep on floor sofa sets and 29.5 in (75 cm) on raised majlis, and they can be reduced to about 19.5 in (50 cm) to 23.5 in (60 cm) when the floor is tight. In a narrow room I check depth before length.

Moving house or hosting for Eid: when do you measure, and when do you order?

Measure after you have the keys, not from a listing photo. One Oregon family that was moving within two weeks waited, then sent photos of the new room, about 132 in (335 cm) on each side, before choosing a fabric.

In a square room of that size an L keeps the first wall whole and gives up about 27.5 in (70 cm) on the second: 132 in (335 cm) becomes two seats of about 66 in (168 cm), and 104 in (265 cm) becomes two seats of about 52 in (133 cm).

Ramadan and Eid are the busiest time of year in the workshop, so orders for those dates are best placed early. Production time depends on your layout and the season — ask us for the current schedule.

Can an Afghan-style toshak set follow a color you already have in mind?

Afghan-style floor sets, a toshak mattress with back cushions, can be made at 4 in (10 cm) thickness, and the color is chosen from the fabric range by name and swatch number. Send a photo of the color you have in mind, and the designer suggests the closest fabrics.

Greens can shift on a screen, so ask for daylight photos of the actual fabric before you choose between sage and olive. Ask us about fabric swatches and a foam sample before you order. See our Afghan toshak floor sets for the full range of the style.

How do the boxes reach Oregon, and when can you call the atelier?

A set ships in several vacuum-packed boxes, each with its own tracking number, and the boxes can reach you on different days. Most of Oregon keeps Pacific time, ten to eleven hours behind Istanbul, so a morning call from Portland lands in the Istanbul evening. Book ahead and name the hour that suits you.

Which communities does Oregon's census count, and how big are they?

The census counts Oregon's Arab-world households under several ancestries, and Afghan and Somali households are tallied separately.

Rainy winters and a six-month porch season: where does the majlis live?

Portland station normals show a January high near 48°F (9°C) and a July high near 82°F (28°C), with about 37 in (94 cm) of rain and 4.5 in (11 cm) of snow a year, so winter seating stays indoors. A covered porch has the six months from May to October; standard upholstery is for indoor rooms, so ask about the water-repellent outdoor fabric before a set goes outside.