Don’t you hate it when you purchase a beautiful piece of furniture, only to find that it’s either too big or too small for your living space? Furniture can be a significant investment and oftentimes, it is cumbersome or costly to return. A to-scale floor plan can really help you visualize the flow and function of a room and give you confidence that the furniture will fit.
The first step to drawing a floor plan is to measure your room. Before you start, you will need a measuring tape or a laser measure. For most homes, measuring tape will suffice. A laser measure is useful for rooms with far distances however, it’s not a necessity.
Steps to creating a floor plan:
1. Draw the shape of your room. Try to be as accurate with the proportions of the room as possible.
2. Draw the windows and doors into your floor plan outline. Make sure to include the frames around the window and doors and the actual width of the door and windows in your drawing. Also, it’s important to note which way the door swings open (to the left or to the right).
3. Draw in any built-in furniture (like built-in seating or shelving). Again, try to draw the furniture in proportion to the room.
4. Now that you have a rough floor plan, measure all the surfaces (walls, windows, doors, built-in shelving, etc.) and add the measurements into your drawing. This is usually easier as a 2 person job although it is not required. We usually prefer to measure in feet and inches however, it’s up to you on the best unit of measurement to use.
5. For rooms with features like a window on a wall or boulder on the ceiling, include an elevation drawing to show the dimensions of room features.
Now that you have the measurements to your floor plan, you are ready to create a to-scale floor plan. Sketch-up is a program you can use to sketch out the floor plan to help with spatial planning. You can also do this by hand by creating a scale (i.e. 1 foot / 12 inches = 1 inch) and drawing this out.
If drawing a floor plan isn’t something you feel comfortable with, we can help! Check out our virtual at-home decor packages here!