Create a scale model of the room before buying new furniture

When buying furniture it’s sometimes hard to figure how an item is going to fit in a room. How much extra space will be around it, and how cluttered the room will feel.

To answer these questions I’ve started making tiny paper drawings so I can get a birds eye view of the room with different furniture.

If you’d like to do this all you need is a measuring tape, a pencil, some paper, a ruler, and some scissors.

First get the dimensions of the room. Measure each wall and make a quick sketch with the sizes. This is not to scale and just a way to help me remember how each wall measures.

Then, take the longest side and divide the number until it’s less than 8, the smallest side of a standard sheet of paper.

For example, the longest wall in my office is 162 inches and when I divide by 25 it gives me 6.48 which will fit neatly on a single piece of paper. Now divide every number by 25 and you’ll have a perfect scale model.

Next, on a new sheet of paper do the same with the dimensions of the furniture and then cut them out. This will allow you to move it around in your model. I was looking at new desks and wanted to get an idea of what size would fit best in my office and here is the diagram with the little desk pieces to move around.

That’s about it. Now you can get a feel for how a piece of furniture will fit and it’s really helpful for sharing your ideas with others, especially if they struggle visualizing it.