(4-min read)
So, you’re moving into a new place. Congratulations! Whether you’ve purchased a new house or you’re renting a new home or apartment, there is a lot of planning to do. One task is determining your furniture layout. While you can do it the hard way — eyeballing it and moving things where you think they’ll make sense — you can save your back with these methods for designing the furniture layout of your new space.
Method 1: Sketch Your Furniture Layout
This method is probably one of the most popular ways of designing your furniture layout. Why? Simplicity. For a rough idea of where to put things, all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil. If you want to be more exact, you’ll also need a tape measure.
- Start by measuring the rooms in your new home as well as your furniture.
- Sketch an outline of your floorplan. The easiest way to adjust for size is by making 1 foot = 1 inch.
- Keeping the sizing in mind, very lightly sketch a bird’s-eye view of the furniture in places where you feel it may fit best. Keep the sketching light so you can erase to draw various placement ideas.
Method 2: Use to-scale furniture cut-outs.
Enjoy arts and crafts? Even if you’re not that crafty, this method of furniture layout is still within your grasp. All you’ll need is a few pieces of paper, a pencil, a tape measure, and some scissors.
- Like method 1, measure the floorplan of your new home to make a 1 foot = 1-inch rendering.
- On a separate sheet of paper, draw a bird’s eye view rendering of your furniture to scale. Write what each piece of furniture is and which room it belongs within for easy recollection — for instance, “Sofa, Living Room.”
- Once you have your above-view furniture drawn, cut them out of the piece of paper.
- Using the cut-out furniture pieces, lay them out on the floorplan. Move them into different places to determine which furniture layout design is best. Don’t forget to account for the direction doors will open.
- Use your phone camera to snap images of your favorite layout ideas — not just the one you like the most. These second and third choices will come in handy in case your ideal layout doesn’t end up being possible.
Method 3: Use of mobile apps or computer programs.
Many different applications allow you to forgo using paper and retain a digital version of your ideas. Most of these applications will even include various furniture choices that may closely resemble your items. Other applications may be able to provide a three-dimensional preview of how the room will look with the furniture in place.
There are a handful of downsides to using computer programs and mobile applications.
- Cost: Many of these applications are free, but some with advanced features may cost a few dollars.
- Learning curve: While most of the apps are relatively intuitive, figuring out how to use them may take a few minutes.
- Not to scale: Even though the furniture options available in these applications vary, you will rarely find options that are precise to scale with your furniture. For smaller homes or apartments, this may become an issue when it comes to positioning your furniture following the layout you’ve designed in the application.
Here are a few furniture layout design options to consider:
Haverty’s 2D Room Planner
This web-based room designer tool is free and reasonably straight forward for use on a computer.
PlanYourRoom.com
Just as the web address states, this no-frills room designer gives you the tools you need to design the furniture layout for your home.
Magic Plan.
This mobile application available on iOS (iPhone/iPad) or Android allows those with minimal room-designing experience to design their room layout quickly. While the main app is free to use, it does contain in-app purchase options for additional features.
Why settle for someone else’s floor plan when you can make your own?
If you’re tired of conforming to the layouts of others, perhaps a custom-made home is the right choice for you.