how to create a paper model of your room

   Sometimes it's nice to rearrange the furniture in your room. I spend quite a bit of my day in there and I've gotten so used to the current design that I think it would be really refreshing if I changed everything around. But you can't just go in and start pushing stuff around before you even have an idea of what you want to do You have to make a plan. Today I'll be showing you how you can make a scale model of your room with paper pieces of furniture that are considerably easier to move around than real pieces of furniture. :)

   You'll need:

1// The first step is to go around your room and measure all of the walls. You might need the help of a friend for this step. Ask them to hold the tape measure at one of the room while you walk over to the other end and take measurements. Quickly sketch the general shape of your room on a piece of paper and then label each wall with the corresponding measurement. You will draw out the accurate model of your room later.

2// Now you have to measure each piece of furniture in your room. If you have some small items that you don't think are important enough to include in your model, feel free to skip those. Write down the length and width of everything on the same sheet of paper that you used to record your wall measurements. 

3// Get a fresh sheet of graph paper and decide on a scale you are going to use. For example, one square could equal 10cm. This is a very nice scale to use because all you have to do to convert your measurements is move the decimal over to the left, so 175cm would become 17.5 squares. Convert all of your measurements and then use the ruler (or object with a straight edge) to draw the shape of your room.

4// Now, grab another sheet of graph paper and sketch out all of your furniture in the same way. 

5// Cut out and label each piece of furniture. You can also color them, if you'd like. Now you can play around with different arrangements to see what would work best in you room!

Tips:

1. If you have a circular table, a rolling chair, or anything similar, you can use your tape measure to measure the radius of the object. Then, when you graph it, pick a center point and measure out from it like so:

2. I said that it's only necessary for you to measure the length and width, but if while you are trying out different arrangements you have questions like "Will my desk be able to slide under the windowsill?" that would be the time for some very careful height measurements.

3. You don't have to measure all of your walls. For example, if I have a wall on one side of the room that measures 2000cm and parallel to that wall, across the room, there are two separate walls. If one of them measures 1500cm then the other one must be 500cm.

4. If you are done with your model but want to come back to it later you can simply stack up your furniture and fold it inside your room. You can keep everything in an envelope or plastic bag.

That's all for today!

Thanks for reading

   -B <3