Hello everyone!
Last time we figured out how to tame your inspiration flow and stay on top of your creative game. This time let's talk about how to transfer your ideas onto paper. Why should you do that? Why can't you just repaint your bedroom brown, go on an IKEA spree and buy some random furniture that you liked at the moment or got discount for and try to cram everything into your little room? Because that would be the worst decision ever and you would end up with a bunch of stuff that you don't like, don't need and that does not fit into your room. We are friends here and I don't want my friends to make these kind of mistakes. The right way to do that is to make a floor plan and make smaller versions of your ideas, make them live.
Measure everything
This is probably the only part of floor plan making that you might need some help with because measuring long distances with a tape measure can get a bit tricky. It is not impossible to do it alone but let's just say that a certain someone somewhere lost a fingernail and got her fingers slammed a few times while doing so. The tip I find very helpful is to roughly draw out your space on paper with all angles, doorways and windows. Then you only need to add the numbers. It will be much easier than to make an awkward list of "wall nr.1 , wall nr.2 ...." (been there, done that).
Transfer your drawings to graph paper
Usually interior plans are drawn one to quarter-inch (or 1cm:1m) scale. If you are drawing more than one room keep in mind that interior walls are usually around 5" (~13cm) thick, add this measurement to your plan if needed.
Create miniature furniture models
I bet it sounds really exciting and you just got a few flashbacks of your little doll house from your childhood but you actually have to be quite accurate with this part. For these furniture models to be useful they have to be up to scale.By now you probably already have at least a rough idea of how you want your room to turn out. You may want to use some furniture that you already own (measure it) or get a few new gems (try to find their measurements online). Either way draw them up to scale on your graph paper and cut them out. It is useful to draw all the furnishings with moving parts, like doors and drawers, with marked spaces while they are open so you would be able to see if they could be opened in the place you will position them.
Arrange your furniture
Place your miniature couch, chairs and other interior pieces where you imagined them. Keep in mind that: furniture spacing is 18 inches (~45cm) recommended, minor pathways are 24-36 inches (~60-90cm) wide, these pathways are kept around seating areas and places where only one person would be at a time, major pathways where two people need to bypass each other are often 30-48 inches (~76-120cm) wide.
And you are done! You can color your floor plan if you feel the need. Play around with it and test new possibilities, it's easier to shuffle around paper furniture than real life couches. Believe me. You can also upload this floor plan to Planner5d and add all the furnishing and other design details for 3D experience.
(You can learn more about that here). Get loose and have fun with it!
Thank you!
