 Function:  How a space will be used.  Dictates the selection and arrangement of furniture.  How can you combine functions with furniture arrangement?  Living and dining areas can be combined.  Bedroom can serve as an office, dressing room, reading room, etc.

 Mechanical or architectural functions must be considered when placing furniture:  Air circulation vents, doors, windows, electrical outlets, phone jacks, television cables or antenna lines, fireplaces, and stairs  How to control flow of traffic:  Place furniture at key locations to direct traffic flow or restrict or redirect traffic.

 Create a feeling of balance in a room:  Opposite walls should lend visual weight  Furniture, doors, windows, and fireplaces should be balanced  Visual mass is more important than dimensions  Groupings should be balanced  Do not overcrowd the room with furniture

 Use furniture to emphasize a focal point:  Group furniture around a focal point  If the room lacks a focal point, use a piece of furniture as a focal point  Focal point. Identify the room’s focal point — a fireplace, view, television etc.— and orient the furniture accordingly. If you plan to watch television in the room, the ideal distance between the set and the seating is three times the size of the screen (measured diagonally). Therefore, if you’ve got a 40- inch set, your chair should be 120 inches away.

 Groupings for seating arrangements:  Straight line, L-shaped, U-shaped, Box shaped, Parallel

 Priority. Place the largest pieces of furniture first, such as the sofa in the living room or the bed in the bedroom. In most cases this piece should face the room’s focal point. Chairs should be no more than 8 feet apart to facilitate conversation. Unless your room is especially small, avoid pushing all the furniture against the walls.

 Planning. Give your back a break. Before you move any actual furniture, test your design on paper. Measure the room’s dimensions, noting the location of windows, doors, heating units, and electrical outlets, then draw up a floor plan on graph paper using cutouts to represent the furnishings.

 1 – Living and Social Area  Living room, dining room, family room, game room, great rooms, entry ways, porches, dining etc.

 Bedroom, Bathroom, Closets and Dressing rooms.

 Kitchen, Garage, Office, Basement, Utility/Laundry room.

 The route that people follow as they move from one place to another.  3-4 Feet: Major passageways  2 Feet: Minor traffic paths  Some basic measurements for comfortable furniture arrangement:  The ideal diameter for a conversation area is 8 ft.  inches: Between sofa and coffee table

 Bathrooms should be close to bedrooms.  Indoor living next to outdoor living area’s  Other related rooms close to each other.  High use routes should be short and simple.

 Easy access to the basement, garage and storage areas.  Laundry area in a convenient location. Ask yourself these Questions Can the cook prepare a meal without worrying about constantly walking into someone going by? If you spend a lot of time grilling outside on the patio, is it convenient to the inside food prep area? Do you have to walk through to the other end of the house to reach the outdoor grill? Can you bring the groceries right in from the outside without having to go through the living room?

 Is the route from the center of the sink, to the center of the stove to the center of the refrigerator and back to the sink.  Smaller work triangles will save steps.  For safety reasons there should be no cross traffic. Cross traffic can cause spills and other accidents.

 Service entrances should be located near the kitchen and basement stairs.

 Entry, living, dining, powder room or ½ bath not in private area’s of the home, porches, patios, entertainment rooms.  Ask Yourself  How to guests travel to the living room when you are entertaining?  Do they have to go through private areas of your home?  How do they get to the powder room?  Is the kitchen handy for serving food and drinks to your guests when you are entertaining?

 Bathroom & Bedroom  Kitchen & Dining  Mudroom & Garage  Garage & Kitchen  Kitchen and outdoor living space  Living and dining areas Can you think of others?

 Closed floor plan—separate rooms enclosed by walls with an entry door  Benefits: noise reduction, privacy  Drawbacks: costly, breaks up space to make it appear smaller  Open Floor Plan—few separating walls (bathroom the exception)  Benefits—saves cost of building material, home tends to appear more spacious  Drawbacks—no privacy, noise level

 A view drawn as seen from the perspective of a bird flying and looking down.

 Drawing to scale means that each square on a graph paper represents a given number of feet, inches, or centimeters.  Most residential plans are drawn in ¼” =1ft  To create a scale drawing you must measure the room and furnishings.  Write your measurement preference in the bottom corner,(such as: 1 block = 12 inches), so that at a later time, you don't have to stop and figure out what you used as your original measurements when you were drawing your floor plan.