Creating floor plans to enable you to design a room with furniture is easy, and you can use several methods to do it. The Internet and bookstores offer a selection of online "Floor Plan Creators," which are room design kits and furniture templates available for purchase. To save money, try creating a floor plan and designing your room with furniture yourself with a measuring tape, pencil and paper. In addition you have the option of hiring an interior design/home staging firm. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Do-It-Yourself
1. Measure the room. Using gridded paper, draw the room's outline, appropriating 1 grid box to every 6 inches. Include all windows and doors--including which way they open and close--in their exact locations. Also include items such as fireplaces, heating units and any electrical and phone outlets if you do not want them covered.
2. Measure length and width of the furniture pieces that will go in the room. Do not forget to include rugs, side/end tables and floor lamps. Using another piece of gridded paper, draw each furniture item's outline, appropriating the same 6 inches to 1 box. Cut out each outline, and write its name on it.
3. Try out several placements of your furniture pieces (cutouts) within your room (room outline). Remember that you will need ample walking space around seating areas and tables.
Online Floor Plan Creator
4. Measure both the room and the furniture you will be designing.
5. Search the Internet for online floor plan creators (i.e. www.floorplanner.com, www.gliffy.com, www.smartdraw.com). Some sites will have free software, or you can choose to purchase more extensive versions.
6. Follow the instructions within the software to create a design of your room. Print out your finalized room.
Hire a Professional Interior Design/Home Staging Firm
7. Using the Internet or the Yellow Pages, search for Interior Design firms or Home Stagers within your area. Many firms will give you a free quote before you commit to using their services.
8. Explain to the firm that you are looking to find help in staging a room.
9. Ask for references and to view examples of their work before committing to their services.
Kits or Templates
10. Look in the Interior Design section of your local bookstore for room and furniture layout kits and/or furniture templates. Both are also available online.
11. Measure the dimensions of your room and the furniture pieces. Each kit should have graph paper to sketch out your exact room size and a collection of many types of furniture pieces to scale. Templates function as stencils and have several sizes to match your scale.
12. Follow the instructions in the kit to play with the placement of the furniture within the room. If using a template, stencil out furniture placement using a pencil. Erase and reposition until satisfied.
Tags: furniture pieces, room furniture, your room, floor plan, Floor Plan