Interior Design

NOBLE UNIVERSITY | Interior Design

Late Spring/Early Summer

Creating the Basic Floor Plan

Most floor plans for residential interior spaces are completed in ¼ inch scale, meaning ¼” = 1’-0”. Graph paper can be purchased at office supply stores that have a ¼” grid, simplifying the process. When drawing out the room shape, include windows and door openings. Wall thicknesses for exterior walls generally are 6” or ½ of a grid mark; interior walls are 4” or a third of a grid mark. Other items that should be noted on the floor plan are:

Telephone/Cable TV Jacks

Electrical Outlets

Heat Vents or Radiators

Using the information that was collected in the programming process, position the largest items first, fitting in the smaller pieces after. Some individuals may find that cutting out paper shapes in scale for the corresponding items allows them to move the furniture pieces around for quick exploration.

Walkway widths through a room = 36”

Minor walkway widths = 24”

Minimum walkway width (space between a bed and dresser) =18”

Distance from a dining table edge and wall or furniture piece=36” minimum

Space between sofa and cocktail table= 18”

In addition, try to avoid major walkways that go through a seating grouping and do not place all tall pieces on one side of the room as not to create an imbalance.

Often there will be several solutions that work, however some rooms have multiple doorways and windows, limiting furniture options. The solution you have in your head may not actually be possible and it is much better to try it on paper in the form of a floor plan first. I recall a friend of mine shopping for living room furniture for her first apartment. What she recalled the room size to be and what the room size actually was differed and the day of the delivery I was invited over to see the results. In the living room was a very large wall unit, an over scaled sofa, love seat and a chair and a half with an ottoman. With all of the items in place there was 12” of space to slide through to get into the room. The dining room table was the size of the dining room. Needless to say, if a floor plan was done first, she would have discovered that fewer items and smaller scaled pieces were needed. In the programming process, alternative pieces will be at your fingertips allowing for a successful solution!

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