Develop A Floor Plan To Decor Your Home Better

Professional designers know that defining any space is critical for creating a pleasing home environment. Floor plans help any decorator meet the three most important goals of any home design scheme: function, mood and harmony.

A floor plan is a comprehensive rendering, or a kind of "bird's eye view," of your living space that's based on accurately measured dimensions. In some cases, a rough sketch can serve as a floor plan, provided it's marked with accurate measurements. However, as the degree of decorating becomes more complex, it becomes even more critical to have a precise floor plan.

The most accurate floor plans are those that are draw to scale. For example, when using grid or graph paper to draw a plan by hand, one square on the graph can be assigned the value of one foot of actual space. If using one of the many excellent computer programs now available for home decorating, the software may have predetermined scale models on its grids, or it may allow the user to define scale. Either way, it's essential to determine a scale and to draw the plan according to that scale, whether using a computer program or the traditional method of paper, T-square, triangle and architect's ruler. (The latter is a traditional tool that has 6 sides defined by different scale measurements).

While computer software can be exciting to use, there's also something very aesthetically satisfying to drawing a floor plan by hand using traditional tools. A hand-drawn floor plan gives a tactile sense of accomplishment, which is also part of why amateur decorators like to design their home living spaces themselves. Don't overlook this when deciding how to create your floor plan.

Creating a successful floor plan for home decorating purposes requires measuring accurately every aspect of the living area. This includes the dimensions of windows, doors, floors, walls, utility connections and the locations of each in the room according to their relationships to one another. For instance, if you want your family room to have a television and a video games player, you're going to need to know the location of the electrical outlets, the number of them, and their size, all of which should be noted on the floor plan.

What's more, every room with windows will need window coverings that both control the amount of light allowed into the room and provide privacy from those on the outside. These window coverings not only must fit the windows themselves, they may have to compete for wall space with other furnishings or appliances. An accurately rendered floor plan can give this information instantly, as well as keeping a record of it for future decorating decisions.

A floor plan can be an indispensable tool for all kinds of home decorating tasks. For instance, say you want to paint an accent wall in the bedroom to give the room a focal point. Your floor plan should tell you the full dimensions of the wall in order to purchase the right amount of paint. Or say you want to install some beautiful oriental rugs in different sizes to define functional spaces in the home's "great room." Once again, the floor area dimensions will allow you to calculate precisely the sizes of area rugs that will fit perfectly into your decorating scheme.

Creating a floor plan for decorating your room can seem like a lot of work that must occur before you paint a wall, install area rugs or arrange furniture. However, having a plan means that you'll make more informed decisions and have fewer decorating mistakes, which should save you both time and money.