How To Draw A Floorplan To Scale
Visualizing a space is essential for any designer, builder, or homeowner. With a floorplan at the ready, you can quickly assess how to efficiently arrange your furniture and artwork. But drawing a scale plan of your room or home can be a daunting task. Here are a few tried and true tips to get started.
Gather material
You’ll need a few tools to get started on your floorplan. Most people use graph paper, a ruler, a measuring tape, and a pencil to plot out the space. However, if you want more precision, you may also consider using a drafting square, a protractor, and a scale ruler.
Outline the space
The first step is to outline the space you want to map. This can be done by drawing the walls, windows, and doors. Don’t forget to include any built-in furniture and unique architectural elements. Be sure to measure and mark the length and width of each element. This is when a measuring tape, ruler, and scale ruler come in handy.
Label grid points
Once you’ve outlined your space, you can begin making a grid. This grid is essential for measuring and plotting the exact size of your room. To start, you can use graph paper to mark the scale of your floorplan, usually in one-foot increments. Next, use a ruler to create a grid by transferring the measurements from the graph paper onto the floorplan itself. Then, label each square on the grid with a letter and a number.
Add the details
Once the grid is in place, you’re ready to add furniture and other details to your floorplan. Start by adding sofas, tables, chairs, dressers, bookcases, and any other features in the room. Measure each item and transfer the measurements to the floorplan. To add the unique architectural elements from earlier, use a protractor to measure out the angle of the windows, walls, and doors.
Decorate the space
When your floorplan is complete, you can move on to the fun part: decorating! If you are planning to move furniture, it helps to use scaled versions of the pieces you plan to place in the room. This makes it easier to determine where to put furniture and other items. You can also use scaled models of artwork and accessories to figure out how they’ll look in the room. It’s a great way to get a feel for how the room will look when it’s finished.
Check for accuracy
Finally, check for accuracy on your floorplan. You can do this by comparing the measurements on the grid with the measurements of the actual space. If everything looks accurate, you’ve successfully drawn a scale plan of your room or home. You can now confidently move forward to making any changes or adjustments you may want to make.
Modify exact dimensions
When you have your floorplan in place and the measurements off the grid have been mapped out, you may want to modify exact dimensions more precisely. You can do this by making a few pencil marks in the appropriate places. These can help guide you when making changes to furniture, wall art, and any other adjustments that you’re making to the space.
Experiment with colors
Once all the details are in place, you can use colored pencils or watercolors to experiment with colors. Changing colors on a scale plan can let you visualize different decor options for many rooms. If you want to save the original colors, use tracing paper to make a copy of the original colors, and then experiment with colors on the copy.
Utilize outlines and details
When sketching out your plans, don’t forget the important elements that can take your floorplan from a two-dimensional design to a three-dimensional one. Utilize outlines and details for fixtures, furniture, and other built-in elements to provide a fuller picture of what your space could be with the right furniture and coloring. These details can help paint a truer picture of your desired result.
Explore different angles
To give your floorplan an extra layer of detail and realism, explore drawing your space from different angles. This is especially helpful when drawing in furniture and wall art. By sketching several angles, you can find out which pieces look best and in what orientation they fit best in the room.
Don’t get discouraged
Drawing a floorplan can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before. Don’t get discouraged if things don’t look perfect on your first try. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it’s likely your floorplan won’t be either. With a little practice, you’ll be an expert sketch artist in no time!
