Today we've invited new Apartment Therapy Los Angeles contributor Marcia Prentice to share her first post for us, an informative Home Hack which may help reduce a lot of the guesswork involved in rearranging and decorating a new space from scratch using some simple and affordable preparation.
What You Need
Equipment [OR] Tools
- Paper (preferably a 24" x 18" sheet)
- pencil
- scale ruler
- straight edge
- eraser
- drafting dots/tape (or a low adhesive tape)
- measuring tape
- tracing paper
- 30-60-90 triangle and T-square are optional
Instructions
When moving into a new home/apartment, one is faced with the daunting task of decorating a new, open area and purchasing all new furniture. With anything in life, is it always best to have plan before setting forth. Before purchasing any furniture and accessories, layout your space on paper, so you you'll know how to fill in the space effectively and within the limits of your new home while avoiding layout mistakes, such as positioning lighting too far from outlets or in the way of a door swing. By mapping out all relevant pieces in your home in advance, you'll reduce stress and physical labor decorating your home.
1. Measure the entire room including ceiling height, doors, windows, built-ins and any niches. Also, locate all outlets, phone jacks and cable jacks.
2. Using the scale ruler and a straight edge (preferably a T-square and 30-60-90 triangle), draw your floorplan to ½" scale (the scale could be smaller or larger depending upon the size of your space and the size of paper being used). Each number on the ½" scale indicates one foot.
Draw in outlets, phone jacks, cable jacks, built-ins, openings and niches. Include all doors, with the appropriate door swing and windows. Draw a border around the frame to indicate wall thickness (the average is 5") and write in all major dimensions.
3. Once the core floor plan is drawn, draw furniture blocks on tracing paper using the same scale as the floor plan. For a sofa, draw 6'x3' rectangle according to ½ scale - keep it simple, using the average sizes for furnishing for the foundation of your plans. If you find you want a slightly smaller or larger piece, you can always create another furniture block. Draw as many different blocks as you see fit for your space and for layout experimentation.
4. Arrange your furniture blocks on the floor plan to determine your space plan. Repeat this step until you find the desired layout, paying particular attention to door swings, the location of outlets, spacing between furniture, and traffic flow. For example, the standard distance needed for a walkway is 3 feet.
5. Now that you have created a furniture placement plan it will be much easier to of shopping with a set list to fill your space. Bring the floor plan while shopping, with furniture blocks taped on (or better yet, snap a digital photo or use your mobile phone's camera). This way you'll always have a plan to reference when choosing which size furniture best fits within the dimensions of your room.
Additional Notes: An additional step one can take is using painter's tape on the actual floor of the room to designate placement and location before actually moving/purchasing major pieces.
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(Top photo: Flickr member thundertype licensed for use under Creative Commons; Plan images: Marcia Prentice)
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Who buys all new furniture when moving?! Aren't we in a recession here?
That said, I think having measurements of space and furniture when shopping is a good idea.
all new furniture?!?
but yes, a layout with measurements is a good idea regardless...
I love this article!
I have a bit of a design dilemma, so I own my condo and above me is another unit. The guy who lives above me is a very odd tenant, If I open a drawer in my main room(the entrance to my place) he knocks on the floor.
Well for the past two years I made it so my living room is in my second bedroom and my main room has basically ended up being for storage and not really for use. I would love to make my main room the living room, but as my second bedroom already has everything set up and a tv wall mounted, I would love to try and do something different with the main room. I was wondering if anyone thought it would look alright if i designed my main room with a dining table type set-up?
Who buy all new furniture when moving? My mother. Over and over again. And not only new furniture-- all new accessories, rugs, lamps, etc, and always a boatload of new chatchkes to match. She's a *tad* excessive. The houses I grew up in always looked very clean and completely uninhabited.
Sorry to hijack the comments. Measuring is good. Tracing paper is a great idea.
UNRELATED - i have been looking for that Montreal Olympics poster with Amik the beaver since the earlier post on the olympics! only place i have found it so far is for 300 bucks on ebay for an original. anyone know of/see any repros?
All new furniture or not - thank you for this post! As someone who can really work herself into a frenzy overcomplicating things.. this really helps me grasp a starting point!
And... I am pretty sure the same method can be applied to the furniture I already own;)
I hear you, skyesage - every time I visit my mom I walk into a completely new living room/ kitchen/ bedroom/ bathroom. It's exhausting! But to be fair, it's probably not like most of the apartment therapy readership.
Hi Kaths3...
Regarding your design dilemma, I first have to say that your neighbor above you is a little weird. Have you ever tried talking to him? To help you with your challenge, I would think that having a dining table in your main room would look ok as long as it is a large enough open space.
... how is this a home hack?
The better homes and gardens website has an online tool to do this. You can make the shape of the room, add furniture of different sizes, and change the colors to fit your pieces.
I just did a floorplan using www.Floorplanner.com and was really impressed with how easy and fun it was to use, and how great my floorplan turned out. Among other things, it makes it really easy to draw everything to scale. Highly recommended!
Reminding me to not go out there and just wing it...
The plan is better.. I'll stay focused on the my design and not switch half way through to another half ass plan in my head.. "The Plan" is gooooood! Saves money too, all pluses.
Always informative AT
R.L.
I think it's a great ideal. It really sucks when you buy or need to arrange furniture and you spend the whole day moving things around. Great job.., Marcia... thanks for the tip.
Los Angeles, CA
Great Post! I always run into trouble when I just try to "eyeball" a table here, a couch there.... Always ends up too crowded. Having interchangeable shapes to place around a floor plan is an awesome idea.
Thanks for the useful strategy!
Thanks Sean, you are right on. That is the usual strategy many people take, but if you spend a little time planning you will have a much more aesthetically pleasing arrangement.
Gotta love that circa '76 beaver!
Sneakers, I think this is the wrong time to hunt for one of those... wait until the Olympic brouhaha dies down, say in 6 months, and then try looking. Olympic memorabilia is now fetching top dollar because the Olympics are on -- well, in a few short days.
This post will be a big help to my wife and I as we are looking to purchase a new, larger home! With the added space to fill, we will need to purchase new furniture and these tips will really help us!
my mom starts doing so when i was 5 and we did my first move into a new house.
it was like a game for me, i got my room to fill with my furniture :)
always old furniture, not so much money for buy new every time (i moved 4 times... ^^ )
This is a helpful post, but for those who don't have drafting tools, just do the same steps using grid paper.
We are moving into a new house in a couple of weeks. I took some rough measurements of each room and noted the window/door placements I then found this cool and free website that allowed me to create the floor plan and then place furniture to see how it will work. You can resize each of the standard pieces to match your furniture sizes. The software was fairly easy to use -- and it was fun to do. Here's the link:
http://www.floorplanner.com/
Wish I had read this yesterday morning before buying my new sofa. I'm one of the strange creatures buying all new furniture (product of divorce - lost everything because sticks of furniture aren't worth fighting over). I purchased a sofa based on cuddleability with my kiddos. Now that I look at the space, I'm not 100% sure it'll work. I have an issue with a less than 3 foot walkway between the chaise's edge and the wall. I have measurements for the sectional, so I'll have to set up a room plan to see how I can fit the rest of the necessities into the room in a comfortable and uncluttered way. Kind of worried I may have to cancel the couch!
Google Sketch-Up is also an excellent free online tool for planning, but it can do full 3D models. I took extensive measurments of my new condo at the home inspection, and went home and built a full model of it to play with paint colors, flooring, and of course furniture placement so I could make the major decisions necessary before I moved in.
I furnished "for now" using existing pieces and Craigslist finds, but when I'm ready to buy any major new pieces you can bet I'll have my netbook in my bag and will sit right down and add the piece to the model to see how it will fit.
well, not buying all new furniture. but when i bought my house, i did finally have room for a couch. so i made up a floor plan to experiment with different size couches. that way i could make the most of my space. and it has been fun to use this to experiment with different kitchen arrangements, as i consider a distant future, small scale kitchen reno.
I just did this for my living room and it worked great! My living room is small and I just wasn't satisfied with the original arrangement we came up with when we moved in....the only way I could convince my boyfriend to help me rearrange the furniture was to make a scale plan. Now the arrangement is much improved.
To those inquiring about the Montreal 1976 Olympics posters: All of these are original prints, with a copyright of 1974 on them. I got them all on EBay, and surprisingly, the three smaller ones were $10 each! The larger one, seemingly more "collectible," was just under $100. I had them framed locally. Try searching EBay -- but another post here is correct, try after Olympics 2010 are over.
Melindac...I agree. If you are picking out furniture as a couple, your boyfriend will be very impressed if you take the time to plan out the layout first. Then, you both will be happy because he will be more excited when it comes to furniture shopping. ;)
I have an iPhone app for doing this. I think it's called "Mark On Call". I've found it to be really useful. Just enter furniture measurements, snap a photo of the material on it to use as a color fill-in, and then move it around to your desire. I think it was like $2-$5. I recommend it if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
I like the advice, I actually did something very similar for my apartment. The only difference was that i used a piece of graph paper with the 1/4" blocks and made one block equal to 1 foot. Your system seems better as it is a larger scale.
I am curious how you would begin the planning process in terms of picking furnishings. Would you design a layout with the ideal scale of furniture to fit the layout then go and find furniture that fits, or would you start off with a few pieces then build the rest of your layout around it?
Somewhatperplexed...
Regarding how you would ideally start the process, first layout your space with an idea of the type of furniture pieces you want to use. The sizes and particular pieces don't have to be set in stone, but it is good to get a solid idea and know what you are working with as far as space is concerned. Laying out your space is more functional, while picking up individual pieces is more aesthetic. Knock out the function part first, which will make things easier and the aesthetic aspect much better.
When you are shopping for furniture after you lay out your space, if you find an inspiration piece, style, or color, you can build the rest of your pieces around that particular item. This process is the most effective and you will really enjoy the designing process vs. being frustrated by the technicals.
Why is this a "hack"????? Ugh.
thanks for the tips on the posters guys! thats common sense - i don't have a tv and sometimes if i don't pick up a paper often enough i get a little out of touch with what's going on outside of work and school....oops!
Great idea and suggestions Marcia! I'm always looking for ways to make life simplier and more time efficient. This also saves on the back pain when you're moving paper instead of furniture. I plan on moving soon, so I'll certainly be using your advice. Thanks
Grid paper a great short cut as are the on-line tools.
Suggest you aways carry a small tape measure and remember to measure the door ways, halls and stairs. It is very expensive to pay for delivery (or rent a truck) and not be able to get your furniture into your space.
For the thoroughly organized: keep a small paper book with room dimensions, doorways, current furniture dimensions, etc. Especially when looking for a new space, this will be a lifesaver. (school of hard knocks experience) :)
Love that TV Console. Where is it from? Does anyone know of any similar ones that are budget friendly?
Huh. When I was a kid, we always used graph paper -- a lot easier, you can just count the squares. (We just had the same old beat up furniture everywhere we went, but the technique works regardless.)