 Nursery and guest room spare bedroom makeover |
Spare Bedroom Makeover This is a spare bedroom that my wife, Peggy and I redecorated. She wanted to use the room as a nursery for our grandchildren and as a guest room. She started by making a floor plan and choosing a color scheme. I painted the walls and the results were just what we wanted. |
How To Make A Floor Plan
When it comes to decorating a new room or redecorating a room, creating a floor plan should be your first step. Working with a floor plan is much more practical than physically moving all the furnishings around the room or guessing where everything will go. It may take some effort at first, but once you do it, you'll be glad you did.
Making a Floor Plan
First, for an existing room, you may want to take pictures of the room from different angles before clearing it out. This way you can refer to them while working on your floor plan.
Materials needed:
Notebook for sketching a rough floor plan and writing down measurements
25-foot tape measure
Graph paper (free printable graph paper link)
Furniture templates (free printable templates link)
Pencil
Ruler
Tissue paper or tracing paper
Paper or card stock
Scissors
Make a rough drawing of the room to use as a reference while you measure the room.
1. Measure and write down the length and width of the room. Make a rough drawing of the room using these measurements.
2. Measure the width of wall obstructions, such as doors, closets, windows, alcoves built-ins, fireplaces, etc. along each wall, write them down and indicate them on your drawing.
3. Measure and indicate on your drawing the opened width of the doors and windows
4. Measure and indicate on your drawing the items that protrude into the room, such as built-ins and fireplaces.
5. Measure and indicate on your drawing where the electrical outlets, cable jacks, heat registers, etc. are in the room.
Make an accurate floor plan
Transfer all the information from your rough drawing onto graph paper, using a pencil and ruler. A ¼" square = 1 foot on the graph paper. For small rooms you can use two ¼" squares (1/2") to represent a foot.
Elevations
A detailed drawing of each wall is an elevation. For a more accurate and helpful floor plan, make elevation drawings of each wall. This information is helpful in determining furniture placement and calculating how much paint or wallpaper you will need.
1. For each wall, draw a box with its width and height measurements.
2. Measure and indicate in each box, the width and height of the obstructions (doors, windows, closets, built-ins, fireplace, cutouts, etc.) making sure to include the floor to obstruction measurements.
3. Make accurate elevations onto graph paper like you did with your floor plan
Analyzing your furniture placement and traffic patterns
To analyze your furniture placement and traffic patterns on your floor plan, you need to make paper cutouts of your furniture. Use this link for free printable furniture templates
Now you can use your furniture cutouts to try different furniture arrangements on your floor plan to see what does or does not work. Make sure you consider the traffic patterns when arranging the furniture.
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Making a Floor Plan
First, for an existing room, you may want to take pictures of the room from different angles before clearing it out. This way you can refer to them while working on your floor plan.
Materials needed:
Notebook for sketching a rough floor plan and writing down measurements
25-foot tape measure
Graph paper (free printable graph paper link)
Furniture templates (free printable templates link)
Pencil
Ruler
Tissue paper or tracing paper
Paper or card stock
Scissors
Make a rough drawing of the room to use as a reference while you measure the room.
1. Measure and write down the length and width of the room. Make a rough drawing of the room using these measurements.
2. Measure the width of wall obstructions, such as doors, closets, windows, alcoves built-ins, fireplaces, etc. along each wall, write them down and indicate them on your drawing.
3. Measure and indicate on your drawing the opened width of the doors and windows
4. Measure and indicate on your drawing the items that protrude into the room, such as built-ins and fireplaces.
5. Measure and indicate on your drawing where the electrical outlets, cable jacks, heat registers, etc. are in the room.
Make an accurate floor plan
Transfer all the information from your rough drawing onto graph paper, using a pencil and ruler. A ¼" square = 1 foot on the graph paper. For small rooms you can use two ¼" squares (1/2") to represent a foot.
Elevations
A detailed drawing of each wall is an elevation. For a more accurate and helpful floor plan, make elevation drawings of each wall. This information is helpful in determining furniture placement and calculating how much paint or wallpaper you will need.
1. For each wall, draw a box with its width and height measurements.
2. Measure and indicate in each box, the width and height of the obstructions (doors, windows, closets, built-ins, fireplace, cutouts, etc.) making sure to include the floor to obstruction measurements.
3. Make accurate elevations onto graph paper like you did with your floor plan
Analyzing your furniture placement and traffic patterns
To analyze your furniture placement and traffic patterns on your floor plan, you need to make paper cutouts of your furniture. Use this link for free printable furniture templates
Now you can use your furniture cutouts to try different furniture arrangements on your floor plan to see what does or does not work. Make sure you consider the traffic patterns when arranging the furniture.
Return To Home Page
