Ready to unleash your inner architect and give your space a fabulous makeover? Whether you’re dreaming of a cozy reading nook or a Pinterest-worthy home office, it all starts with a floorplan. Don’t worry if you’ve never drawn one before – we’re about to embark on a fun, step-by-step journey to create your very own hand-drawn floorplan. So grab your pencil, and let’s get creative!
This guide will walk you through the steps to draw an unscaled floor plan of your room, including all the key dimensions and placements of doors, windows, built-ins and other permanent fixtures. While the drawing doesn’t need to be precisely to scale, accurate measurements are crucial. Let’s get started!
Before we dive in, let’s chat about why floorplans are the unsung heroes of interior design. Think of a floorplan as your room’s blueprint – it’s like a bird’s eye view of your space. It helps you visualize furniture placement, traffic flow, and even those tricky electrical outlets. Plus, it’s a total game-changer when you’re shopping for furniture or explaining your vision to your bestie (or that handyman you hired).
Time to gather your tools. Here’s what you’ll need:
When understanding how to draw a floorplan, these symbols are very necessary to understand.
Doors are represented by lines breaking the wall with an arc indicating the door swing direction:
When dimensioning on your floor plan sketch, use the correct symbols and abbreviations to clearly indicate feet (ft) and inches (in).
You can also use apostrophes to express feet and inches together. The apostrophe ‘ represents feet, and the double prime ” represents inches. For example: 10’3″ = 10 feet, 3 inches
6″ = 6 inches
15′ = 15 feet
Wondering how to draw a floorplan? The first step is measuring the overall length and width of the room in feet and inches. It’s important to measure to the wall surfaces, not the baseboards.
On your sketch paper, draw the basic outline of your room’s shape. If the room is a simple rectangle, draw a rectangular outline using the length and width measurements you took. If the room is more complex, composed of multiple rectangles or other shapes, sketch the overall layout of the room as accurately as possible.
As you draw the room outline, clearly label each wall segment with its measured length in feet and inches. For rectangular sections, you can simply note the length and width dimensions near the appropriate lines. For angled or curved walls, try to note the dimensions relative to the nearest corners or perpendicular walls.
Next, you’ll want to locate and measure each door and window opening in the room. Follow these steps for each opening:
Doors
Windows
Take a look around the room and locate any permanent built-in fixtures like cabinets, bookshelves, or fireplaces. For each built-in fixture, you’ll need to measure the total length, width or depth, and height of the fixture.
On your room sketch, draw a rectangular outline in the proper location to represent that built-in fixture. Clearly note the length, width, and height dimensions you just measured by writing them next to the rectangle outline, labeling each.
Next, measure the distance from each end of the fixture to the nearest room corner. Note these two distances on your sketch.
For built-ins that are not rectangular, like fireplaces or curved cabinets, carefully sketch their general shape as accurately as possible. Provide all the necessary length, width, and height dimensions to define the overall size. Again, note the distances to the nearest room corners to properly locate the fixture.
For rooms with arched or domed ceilings, measure the maximum height from the floor straight up to the highest point of the arched or domed ceiling. Clearly note this dimension on your sketch – this represents the peak height. Next, measure the height from the floor to the point where the arched or domed portion transitions and meets the flat ceiling or walls around the perimeter of the room. Note these heights as well. Be sure to label the ceiling type with the measurements.
To finalize your floor plan sketch for submission, start by clearly labeling it with your full name, the name of the room, and the date you completed the sketch. Make sure you used a dark pencil or pen that will show up clearly when scanned or photographed.
If possible, use a scanner to create a high-resolution PDF or image file of your full sketch page. If no scanner is available, take well-lit photographs holding the camera parallel to capture the entire sketch without shadows.
So, that’s how to draw a floorplan. Ready to turn that floorplan into a jaw-dropping reality? Our virtual interior design services are here to help! We’ll take your hand-drawn masterpiece and transform it into a stunning, professionally designed space that reflects your unique style. Don’t let your creativity stop at paper – click here to explore our virtual design packages and bring your dream room to life!
