Floor plans are very helpful to visualize how much space you have and where to place your furniture. Here are some very helpful steps if you don't know where to start:
You will need:
Tape measure
Graph paper
Pencil
Calculator
1. Measure the length of the longest wall first. It will be easiest using a tape measure.
2. You are going to need to scale this measurement down to fit the graph paper you have. Count the number of squares on the longest side of your graph paper - this is the side where you will put the longest wall. In order to scale this down, divide it by a small number - you will have to divide all your measurements by the same number for it all to be scaled evenly.
You may not need to divide if your measurements are less than the number of squares on the graph paper. For example, if the longest wall is 27 feet and if the graph paper is 35 squares long each foot could equal a square and it would fit the paper.
If your measurement of the longest wall is tiny such as 12 feet, 12 squares may be too small to come up with a helpful floor plan. Try doubling this number where it would then be 24 feet (24 squares). Now you just have to double all further measurements to come up with an evenly scaled floor plan.
3. Now measure the lengths of the other walls and convert it to the scale you came up with.
Helpful tip: How to add and subtract feet and inches:
When adding feet and inches use a carrying and borrowing system. You will have to be able to convert feet to inches or inches to feet in order to have enough of each unit. For example:
4 ft 5 in
+ 6 ft 10 in
10 ft 15 in
Even though this is simple addition you will need to convert those extra inches into feet since there are only 12 inches in a foot. So take 12 of the inches and add them to 10 ft. Now you have 11 ft and 3 inches.
When subtracting feet and inches we use the same type of system:
12 ft 5 in
- 4 ft 7 in
This cannot be done as it is shown because there are not enough inches where 7 can be taken away from. Instead of converting inches to feet we now convert feet to inches. So what we do here is take a foot away from 12 and add those 12 inches (that are in 1 foot) to the 5 inches. Now it is much easier to subtract. So you then have:
11 ft 17 in
- 4 ft 7 in
7 ft 10 in
Now back to our floor plan steps:
4. Measure each window and door opening and convert this to scale.
5. Incorporate all of the walls, windows and doors into your floor plan.
6. Measure the lengths of all built in fixtures such as cabinets and counters and incorporate them into your floor plan.
7. You can also add the measurements of pieces that are not permanent such as sofas or bookshelves, adjust to scale and incorporate that into your floor plan. What you can also do is measure them on separate graph paper and cut them out so you can position them around the floor plan you have drawn if want to look at furniture placement and space planning.
Your floor plan should then be complete in those 7 steps! Hope this can help solve your floor plan and space planning dilemmas :)
You can check out this link for more detailed instructions with pictures.
Xo,
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