welcome to the how-to guide for preparing a floor plan! 

The floor plan is an important tool in helping me to determine appropriate sized furniture and furnishings with my e-design clients. However, don't get hung up on making the sketch or recorded dimensions 100% accurate, this is really just a preliminary outline. Between the floor plans and pictures of the room, there is usually plenty of information to work off of to determine what items will be needed for the space.

Follow these six steps below to develop your own plan for your room!

 
Floor Plan - How To
Step 1:
Step 1:

Draw the overall shape of your room. Be mindful to include any bumps or jogs in the perimeter walls!

Step 2:
Step 2:

Identify where you have openings in your walls, doors, windows, etc. and draw those in.

Step 3:
Step 3:

Draw in the doors and windows in your plan. Be sure to show which direction the doors swing in! This will be important in determining the furniture arrangement and flow through the space.

Step 4:
Step 4:

Begin by identifying the overall dimensions of your space. To do that use a tape measure and go from one side of the room all the way to the other side. Draw a line on your sketch that stretches across the entire room and write the dimensions directly above or below that line. For most rooms, as long as you dimension to the nearest 1/2” that should be precise enough.

Step 5:
Step 5:

Next begin dimension to every break in the wall. For example the top wall in this sketch has 2 windows, so I measured from the wall to the edge of the window (3’0”) and continued measuring across the wall at every interruption. Write down the rest of the dimensions. Of course you will be rounding the dimensions to the nearest 1/2”, but they should add up and come close to those overall dimensions from Step 4.

Step 6:
Step 6:

Lastly, give me some information about the sizes of your windows and doors in the room. This is particularly important if you are looking to include window treatments in your design package. Make sure to tell me how wide any trim is around the windows, so I can factor that into what size curtain rods, etc to purchase.

 

And that's it! Once you have completed your floor plan, please email it to me at johanna@rootedbydesign.co along with the photos of your space. Be sure to include your name/project address in the subject line!