Don't beginning decorating without an analysis of your space and an accurate floor plan. A floor plan is the easiest way to get a handle on how much space you take, and what that space's stiff and weak points are. To create an authentic flooring program, start by measuring a room:

  1. Measure forth the baseboard the length of one wall, from one corner of the room to another.

    For accurateness, measure to the nearest one/4 inch. Tape this number on your crude floor plan and in your notebook.

  2. Measure the remaining walls the same way you lot measured the first.

    Most rooms have four walls, only if yous're measuring an 50-shaped room, yous have more to measure. Include every wall in your sketch, specially if yous plan to give 1 office of the room a different floor or wall covering.

  3. Measure the room'due south doorways and other entries.

    Note whether the door opens into or out of the room and bespeak the management (with an arc) on your rough floor plan sketch. Also mensurate the distances of all openings — doors and open archways — from the ends of the walls then that you can accurately locate these openings on your concluding plan.

  4. Determine the size of the windows.

    Include the window frame from outside edge to exterior edge. Tape the measurements for any moldings around the window separately. Gauge the distance from the floor to the bottom of the window frame, from the ceiling to the top of the window molding, and from the window (on each side) to the corner of the wall (or next window or opening).

  5. Measure whatever and all architectural features, including fireplaces, brackets, shelves, and any other born features.

    Measure out surrounding space and outside or overall dimensions of these items, and so locate each on your plan.

  6. Measure out the walls from side to side and from the flooring to the ceiling.

  7. Measure where the electric outlets, switches, and other controls are located.

    Note where rut and ac ducts, radiators, chases (coverings for electric wires and plumbing pipes), and exposed pipes are located.

After you terminate measuring, y'all're ready to depict your flooring plan to calibration:

  1. Lightly pencil in the room's major areas on graph newspaper earlier firmly committing to difficult-to-erase dark lines.

    Include the room's irregularities, such every bit support columns or any other intrusions.

  2. Annotation on the paper the room's directional orientation (north, south, east, and west).

    The quantity and quality of natural light affects a number of decisions.

  3. Draw the room'due south specifics, using a thicker straight line for walls, windows, and fireplaces.

    Note also the inside width of the doors and other openings so that you know if your sofa (or other large piece of furniture) can fit through the opening, upwards the stairs, or around a plow in the hallway.

  4. Signal where all permanent switches, outlets, controls, TV cable, and phone lines are located

    These factors all influence article of furniture placement. Don't make the mistake of putting bookcases in front of the only phone jack in the room, loading upwardly all the shelves, and so discovering that y'all can't plug in your phone!

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  5. Draw each wall's elevations.

    The wall elevations are two-dimensional representations that aid you effigy out art and accompaniment organisation or window treatment. Again, remember to mark all the permanent features, such every bit light switches, electric outlets, phone and TV cable jacks, ac and rut vents, and so on.

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Almost the volume authors:

Katharine Kaye McMillan, former senior editor of a New York City-based national magazine, is a writer whose work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to internationally circulated Florida Pattern Magazine. She is the co-writer of several books on decorating and pattern, including Sun Country Mode, which is the basis for licensed signature collections of furniture and accessories by three leading American manufacturers and importers. A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, she holds a masters degree in psychology and is a doctoral educatee in psychology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

Patricia Hart McMillan is a nationally known interior designer, whose interior design work for private clients, designer showcases, and corporations has appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York Times and USA Today. Known as a trend spotter and for clearly articulated views on design, she is quoted often and extensively in both merchandise and consumer publications. She a ppears on TV and talk radio. A prolific writer, she is coauthor and author of seven books on interior blueprint and decoration, with Sun Country Style signature collections of article of furniture based on two books. She has taught decorating courses at several colleges and conducted numerous seminars across the U.South. She is decorating editor for Christian Woman Mag and reports on pattern trends for The Sunday-Sentinel, a Tribune paper based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has been editor-in-main of two publications and was head of a New York City-based public relations firm representing some of the most prestigious names in abode furnishing and building products. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language, with a minor in art history (with an emphasis in architecture), from the State Academy of New York (New Paltz). She was awarded a document from The New York School of Interior Design.

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