Welcome back my design loving friends. Today we will be talking about Floor plans. This may seem like a boring topic, but I assure you it is a necessity when it comes to designing a room. Therefore, I will try my best to keep it interesting. 

What is a floor plan you ask?

A floor plan is a way to draw out the size of your room, your Furniture, windows, doors, etc on paper and in scale. It's the first thing designers do when trying to figure out a good room layout. It's actually the first thing I do on ANY project. If you don't have a floor plan, then all you're doing is guessing if furniture will fit in your room. Not only that, but often, there are many ways to arrange furniture and lighting in a room so a floorpan is a great way to test out different furniture arrangements. Beat's getting your friends together to move all your furniture around 50 million times, am I right?

There are many ways to do this. You can use grid paper and draw your room out by hand. I particularly like this method because anyone can do it. However, for the sake of this blog post and saving time I am going to opt for the faster method which is by using software like Autocad. What I like to use at home is called Draftsight. It's amazing because it's free and its just like Autocad except without the fancy 3D stuff. Spoiler alert- in the near future I will be doing another advanced blog series about interior design and in that series I will show you step by step how to draw your room on graph paper, and create multiple floor plan layouts. But, I will leave you in a little suspense on when that blog post will be available. Mostly because I don't know yet. Ha!

Ok, so now, how do I draw my floor plan?

So I am going to assume that you can use some sort of software to create a floor plan to scale. Some people use HomeStyler, RoomSketcher, Gliffy, or some other Microsoft Office program. It doesn't matter to me what you use, as long as you can create your floor plan to scale. That is the key here.

Below is an example of a room that I have designed for one of my e-design clients. First, they provided me the measurements of all the walls, window's, etc. The first step is to create the floor plan without anything in the room except for the windows, doors and any millwork. It's important to get this part as accurate as possible. Measure a few times to make sure that your drawing reflects your room accurately. 

Some things you want to consider are:

1. The threshold/door casings that lead to other rooms. Make sure you indicate that on your plan because that will effect where your furniture can go.

2. Show your windows in the room. This will also dictate your furniture placement and you want to think about window treatments.

3. Fireplace, built-ins, counters, etc. Make sure you draw these items in! This is very important.

4. Any doors, and show which way they swing. The one on this plan hinges on the left side and closes on the right.

Once you've got your floor plan done (and checked it) the fun part begins. 

Now, experiment with different furniture layouts. 

I love this part. For me, this is the equivalent of a little girl playing with a doll house. There are normally so many options for furniture in a room! And if there isn't, well, I love the challenge!

The step by step process..

First measure any furniture in your room that you want to keep. Write down the measurements and label them clearly.

Next, start shopping. Look at furniture that you like and write down some measurements. Start with the big items (like sofas, lounge chairs, consoles, etc) then tackle the smaller items (side tables, coffee tables, lamps, ottomans, etc). Label them so that you know what is what and make sure you bookmark them or save them for later. 

Then you can start drawing them out on plan. Have fun with it. Rotate your furniture different ways, be creative. This will also help you determine if the furniture you've been eyeing will actually fit in your room, or if you may need to find something smaller. Below are some examples of furniture layouts that I did for my e-design client.

This layout is centered around the fireplace and you have view of what's outside the windows. 

This layout is centered around the fireplace and you have view of what's outside the windows but is also a good conversational type layout.

 This layout is more open to the dining room. This way your dinner party can flow easily from one room to the next. It is also mainly a conversational layout.

This layout is centered around the fireplace and you have view of what's outside the windows. It's very similar to the first layout, just the chairs have moved and the bench is gone. I also like the addition of the sofa back console.

This layout is also centered toward the fireplace and windows. This one was actually my favorite.

So, now you can see how many possibilities there are. There are actually even more- I never played with using a sectional sofa. For this client, this was their formal living room so I decided that a sectional would make it too casual in feel. 

Lastly, add your finishing touches.

Once you've narrowed it down and decided on your favorite furniture layout, start thinking about the windows, accessories, etc! Notice that I included the rug size in the first step. I wanted to make sure that my furniture options fit on a rug so I included that as non-negetobile and important. If an area rug isn't as important to you then you can leave it until this step to see if you find something that fits, or just not include one.

Think about your drapery. Do you want long drapes, blinds, window shades, etc? Do you want throw pillows? What about artwork, mirrors, and room accessories? Once you've decided on all of that, you can complete your floor plan. See below for my final plan for my e-design client.

 There we have it. The wriggly lines at the windows are how I show drapery. I've included some artwork on the walls, mirror above the mantel, and throw pillows on the sofa and bench. And some nice little decor items at the mantel. I didn't go too crazy because I wanted to stay in budget, but these few items went a long way to completing this room look. And just for fun, I'll also show you the furniture style board for this project:

So in conclusion- why are floor plans so darn important? Because, with out them you could buy the wrong furniture! You want to make sure everything will fit and still leave room for you to move around comfortably (hint: a coffee table should be 18" away from a sofa. These sorts of details will be covered in the advanced blog series). Also, it's nice to know that you have tried all the furniture layouts possible for your room and that you have found the one that suites your needs best.

Stay tuned for the next blog post in our Rules of Interior Design series!

And don't forget, you can leave comments below to let me know what you thought of this blog post, and also, what else you would like to learn about in this series!