Expert advice: How to read a floor plan

Understanding Your House Floor Plan:

Your floor plan gives you an outline of each room within your home. A house floor plan design will always reflect the original dimensions of the building, and will be drawn to scale. One of the main purposes of a home plan drawing is to correctly identify, demarcate and mention the dimensions of every room. While most home floor design plans merely show the length and width of the room, a few will indicate the entire square footage or area of each space.
 

Quick Note : The most commonly used units of measurement in blueprints are feet and inches – this is the standard, unless another unit is specifically mentioned.

• Walls :

  Construction drawings show both exterior and interior walls. It’s good to remember that for house plan design schematics, exterior walls are usually thicker than interior ones (9in vs 6in), although this may not be very apparent on your floor plans. Walls are indicated on home plans using a set of parallel solid lines, although they are occasionally depicted with patterned effects.
  
  

• Doors :

  If your floor plan design wants to indicate that a door is intended to be placed in a space, there will be a break in the wall. The door itself will be represented by a line that will be at right angles to the wall, as well as an arc to show you which way the door swings. Doors always open towards the wall, and this symbol in your house plan drawing will not only let you know the accurate placement of each door, but also how much space the door takes while swinging open.

• Windows :

  Again, like with doors, windows are shown on a home design drawing by having a small break in the wall along with thin lines along the width. Occasionally, you might see dotted lines, rather than a gap with lines, to indicate a window in your home or apartment floor plan.
  
  

• Stairs :

  Since there are different styles of stairways, there are also a few ways to show stairs on a house floor design plan; although they will usually appear as a row of rectangles or parallel lines. What will not change, from one home plan drawing to another – regardless or if it’s a spiral staircase, a u-shape or a straight line – is the arrow symbol along the middle of the drawn stairway to indicate which way is going upwards, as this is essential for accurately orienting your stairs within the room.
  
  

• Fixtures :

  While your floor plans will usually not show you the details of either the plumbing or electrical plans, various fixtures may be visible within the drawing to give you an idea of how these will be laid out. Along with lighting fixtures, sinks, showers, a bathtub, stove, or toilets are likely to be drawn on your home floor design (mostly to an approximation of their respective sizes).
  
  

• Kitchen Features :

  As mentioned above, fixtures like the sink and stove/hob will be indicated with easy-to-recognise motifs on your floor plans. Most home design drawing plans also indicate where your kitchen cabinets go, with dotted lines above base cabinets to indicate wall cabinets; to make it more convenient to use your countertops, wall cabinets are typically half the width of base cabinets.
  
  

• Ceiling Height :

  In most cases house floor plans will not show you ceiling height. Houses with multiple levels, an extended ceiling, or mezzanine floors may have an indicator for these dimensions.

What can your Floor Plan Design not Tell you?

As with anything, your home floor plans will have their limitations; even if you are well-versed in reading a floor plan, there are a few things which they are unlikely to tell you. The three key areas missing in most home plan design drawings are exterior elevations, heights of windows, doors and ceilings, and details about both interior and exterior finishes; design elements like false walls / ceilings, decorative cladding, etc. which will impact the dimensions of a room may not be featured. To obtain a truly holistic idea of the space, you may have to look further than your home design drawing; check out the sections and elevations, and ask your builder, contractor and architect for any specific details you may be missing.

With this, we hope that if you're in the process of building your brand new house, floor plans are no longer a confusing mystery to you, and you’re ready to go forth and plan the interiors of your home! But even if they still seem a little intimidating, all you need to do is reach out to our team and we’ll make sure your home turns out exactly how you’ve always wanted.

At Beautiful Homes Service by Asian Paints, what we’re best at is partnering with you to craft the home of your dreams. If you’re eager to get started on creating that perfect haven we’re here for all your design & renovation needs – you can even source the latest décor styles with our curated collection – reach out or find one of our state-of-the-art stores near you.

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