How to Make a Floor Plan For Moving Home

An exciting time moving into a new home isn’t it? And one of the really fun activities is planning the best house layout for your family.

This is your opportunity to be as creative as you want and to make the home interior of your dreams a reality.

From minimalist to art deco, the world of design is your oyster.

No doubt the curbside appeal of your new home was pivotal in your choice of property, and to some extent may influence the interior design, but there is no law that says you have to stick with convention, this is your opportunity to stamp your personality on your new home.

A word of warning though. It may be prudent to live in a home first before you decide on any structural changes.

Often you will discover that you will want to change your initial design having lived in a new home for a while.

Bear in mind also that any changes you make may be great for you, but how will those changes affect the resale value of the property?

You may also like to read: Everything You Need to Know About Making a Small Home Work for You. Moving to a small home can throw up some challenges when it comes to organisation but this guide has some great tips to make living in a small home not only easier but so much more rewarding.

But no matter whether you want to change the structural design of a room or find the best way to arrange furniture, you will need a floor plan.

Why Should I Make a Floor Plan?

What is the purpose of a floor plan?

This is an invaluable tool to ensure that everything you want to place in a room will fit.

You may already have key pieces of furniture that you want to incorporate into your new home, or you may need to find out if that 12-seater farmhouse dining table that you have always wanted fits in the available space.

This is when a floor plan becomes invaluable.

But first, it is essential that you ensure that any furniture you intend to take to your new home or to purchase, will actually fit through the doorways.

It would not be wise to pay to have your furniture transported to your new home only to find that it will not fit through the doors or around the bends in the stairs.

To determine the size of access a doorway will allow, follow this simple guide below:

How to Measure a Door Opening or Hallway

• Measure from top to bottom, to get the height of the doorway.
• Measure from left to right to determine the width. Remember to take your measurements from the inside of the doorframe.
• The same method can be used to measure hallways.
• Remember to take into consideration the turning angle needed to get into the doorway if from a narrow hallway.

And whilst you have the tape measure out, here is a quick guide on how to measure furniture.

How to Measure a Sofa

You will definitely need this piece of information when considering your living room layout.

• Measure the length of the sofa.
• Measure the diagonal width at the highest point (the lowest point of the frame at the rear of the settee and the highest point of the armrest at the front).

How to Measure a Wardrobe or Cabinet

Not only will this be useful for planning a bedroom layout but also when deciding upon the layout of any room with cabinets or cupboards.

• Measure the diagonal width of the unit from the top corner to the opposing bottom corner.
• Measure the depth of the unit from front to back.

The furniture width and diagonal depth must be less than the corresponding doorway dimensions to fit through.

Don’t forget to take into consideration light fittings, stair banisters, ceiling fans, and any other obstacles on the route from the removal van.

By removing the actual doors of your home you may increase the available width by a few centimeters, which may be all you need to get your furniture in.

Patio doors can also offer larger access points and even the removal of window frames could be an option.

You may also like to read: How to Protect Walls, Floors, Ceilings, and Stairs When Moving Home. This is a really useful guide to protecting your property from damage when removing your furniture. It is especially useful if you are moving home yourself as any damage you cause you will be responsible for repairing.

How do you Draw a Floor Plan?

There are plenty of free online floor planning tools available to help you create a floor layout, but somehow they are nowhere near as much fun, or satisfying, as a good old-fashioned graph paper and cardboard furniture plan.

So here we will concentrate on how to draw a floor plan by hand, but a quick search engine query will offer you plenty of options if you want to go the electronic route.

How do I Scale a Floor Plan?

It will be so much easier to work with a plan that is measured in full feet or meters rather than parts of a measurement.

So it is best to scale down the room measurements and scale up the furniture measurements.

For example, 10.25 meters becomes 10 meters for walls, and 10.25 becomes 11 for furniture.

• Count the number of squares on your sheet of grid paper.
• The longest wall measurement will be placed on the longest side of the graph paper.
• Try to work in easily divisible numbers, for example, 1 meter equals 2 squares on the graph paper.
• If using this scale means the room measurements do not fit on the graph paper, consider using a different scale, for example, 2 meters equals 1 square, until it fits nicely on the page.
• Equally, if the room is small, increase the scale on your page, for example, 1 meter equals 4 squares.

Once you decided upon a floor layout scale that you can happily work with, you will now be in a position to make a scale drawing of each room in the home.

How do you Make a Scale Drawing of a Room?

• Measure every dimension of the room, including measurements of the doors and windows from the outside of the frames.
• Note which way the doors and windows open, and measure the swing of the opening.
• Don’t forget to include the room height if you have a particular item of furniture that is tall. Be mindful of fixed drop ceiling lights or fans.
• Don’t forget to label each sheet of graph paper with the room description, such as kitchen or bedroom 1, and then make a couple of copies in case you want to have a number of alternative layouts for each room.
• Now all that remains is to make scale cardboard cut-outs of your furniture.
• These will just be squares or rectangles of card cut to the scale you used in your room dimensions.
• If you can use coloured cardboard it will make the process of laying out the furniture more prominent on the graph paper.

This is the fun part, trying to make the furniture fit, adapting the available floor space to meet the needs of your family, and considering all the different options of whether to change the dining room into a living space or playroom.

You may also like to read: How to Make a New Home More Relaxing. Whilst planning your floor layout you may want to read this guide about how to make your new home relaxing. From furniture position to colour choices to Feng Shui, this guide has lots of useful ideas.

There are just a few things to think about when planning your furniture layout and we will look at those next before the fun begins!

Things to Consider When Making a Floor Plan

• Note on your plan where the electrical points, any air vents, and telephone or TV cable entry points are.
• Will light from the window reflect onto the TV screen?
• Remember to consider the height of things like the shower cubicle if installing a totally enclosed unit.
• Bear in mind which way the cupboard doors open.
• Check that the placement of your furniture does not block natural light.
• Think about how you will move around the room, is there enough space between each piece of furniture?
• Try to keep furniture away from heat sources so that they do not block heat circulation.
• Bedrooms can be on the small side, so ensure that there is enough room for wardrobe doors to open, or consider sliding doors.
• Don’t forget to factor in smaller items of furniture such as nests of tables or footstools.

You may also like to read: The Ultimate Guide to Where to Donate Things When Moving Home. If you want to know where to donate your household goods that you are not taking to your new home then this guide is perfect for you. Each category of household goods has a comprehensive list of organsiations that will often come and pick up your unwanted things for free.

Bear in mind that there are some floor plan layout mistakes that you should make every effort to avoid………….

Common Floor Plan Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Failing to align aesthetics with lifestyle. This is a classic home layout mistake. In a desire to just fit all your furniture into the available space, you may neglect to consider your lifestyle. Do you need areas of seclusion, small and cosy areas, or large open spaces? The room layouts you create must allow you to function as a family, and be practical in their layout, as well as being pleasing to the eye.

Not considering the consequences of your choices. Will the smells from the kitchen be a problem in your open plan design? How much more will heating costs be? Can people move freely around the rooms?

Your plans exceed your budget. Will creating your perfect home mean you have to sell it to pay off the debts you incurred creating it?

Impractical design. Does your proposed layout create any safety hazards for your family? Will the room feel claustrophobic because you crammed too much into the room?

Don’t forget that you can use a simple floor plan to design your garden and patio area, and even to organize your garage or shed too.

You may also like to read: The Epic Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. Getting rid of all the things that you don’t need or that will not fit in your new home is a guaranteed way to reduce your moving costs. In this guide, we look at how to declutter every room, as well as your garage and shed, and we also look at the emotional effects of decluttering.

Bonus Benefit of Drawing a Floor Plan for your New Home

One of the benefits of making a floor plan is that your removal company can place the furniture directly into the correct rooms, and will even place them exactly where they will go in your final layout.

Not only will this speed up the unloading of your removal van but will save you having to learn how to move heavy and large furniture to get them into their proper position, which is no easy task.

Just remember to clearly label your moving boxes and furniture to identify which room the particular item is going into.

You may like to read: How to Label Moving Boxes: An Easy and Foolproof Way. Labeling your moving boxes will make it so much easier on moving day and also will make finding things and unpacking a breeze. Here is a really simple but effective method for labeling your moving boxes.

But has making this furniture floor plan layout made you realise just how big some of your furniture is and how difficult that could make moving day?

Were you considering a self-move but are now having second thoughts? Now is the time to call in the professionals, and to get a free home removal cost estimate just click here.