Hello and welcome to episode 29. I've designed curious podcast,
I'm your host and Mentor, Rebecca Ward and today we are
talking about space planning. What is it?
How you do it? What are some of the basics and
we'll get all into all of that last week?
We had that great interview with Yvonne Hardy and she talked
about how she really loves the space planning side of design
and that is really more of her focus and maybe that is for you,
too. So Let's talk a little bit more
about space planning in today's episode and before we get into
that, I want to remind you that I have a download for you.
Actually to now we have the roadmap to becoming an interior
designer so you can see all the steps along the way to becoming
designer and then we also have the three things, I wish I had
known before I became an interior designer.
So if that interests you, the link is in the show notes and
that will put you also on our mailing list.
So you get The podcast to your inbox every week and you won't
miss an episode. All right, so let's talk about
space planning. You're now listening to design,
curious a place where you creative one are here to learn
about what it really is. Like, to be an interior designer
and I'm your host and Mentor Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried
about how to succeed in a Creator career, if you're ready
to learn your next steps to become an Interior Designer.
And if you want the satisfaction of doing something you love
every day, you are in the right place.
Grab a coffee, a notebook. And And let's dig into today's
episode. Okay?
So space planning, it is an activity that designers do, that
is an overlap with Architects, so you could say that
architectural designers, Architects and interior
designers that all do space planning designers will
typically only space plan the inside of the house.
But if they're working on a new bill, they might actually be,
you know, laying out the footprint of the house as well.
Working with an Architecture Firm to make sure it's within
the parameters of the lot and the site.
However, for today's purposes will just be talking about
interior design, space planning and so where you want to start
is with collecting information from your client.
So say you're going to be redesigning their great room
area. So you're going to want to
collect information on how many people use this space and is it
used on a daily? Isis, is it for formal events
for casual events or their pets? Are their kids.
So, you're Gathering all of that information to inform how you're
going to lay out the space when I was in design school.
And we were doing these exercises often times.
We were looking for relationships of activities and
relation to each other. And so we would start with
bubble diagram. And this was the step that I
typically like to skip, I really didn't grasp The value of
creating a bubble diagram. First, I want to just skip
straight to the drafting of the spaces.
I wanted to see how the scale was going to fit for the ideas
that I had in my head, but it is, I can see in hindsight, a
valuable step for really thinking through all of the
things that you need to account for in the space and making a
plan for your space plan. So you can start out with the
rudimentary bubble diagram that has basically large bubbles.
And if you're laying out the house, for instance, they'll
start with larger bubbles that represent priority activities.
So the bubbles are scaled by the size, according to how important
they are. So if what's really important
for this client that you're working for is to have the TV,
and the sectional and sofa as the priority because they, you
know, that's their main activity, they have friends over
there, watching sports games and all these things.
So you're going to have that area the tea.
And sitting area be the largest bubble and then maybe off to the
side you'll have like accent chairs, or you might have
fireplace or access to the outside or something like that.
So you'll start with these groups and make sure that you
have all of the information that you need for that space.
You also want to think about like, path of travel.
So, in the same scenario, say they have a big group over to
watch the Super Bowl. There's going to be people that
need to get up and go use the restroom.
Or people that maybe need to go outside, take a break phone call
or something like that. So, you want to make sure your
path of travel is clear and especially to the kitchen where
they're going to get their snacks.
So next, we're going to look at the path of travel, kind of draw
arrows, which way people are going to go.
You're going to keep making and refining your bubble diagram
until it gets to be a more concrete layout, and then you
can start doing your space plan. And naturally I would say that
this is happening a hand sketch, which is probably the best.
It's really there are scientific proof by putting pen to paper
physically touching something that is really solidifies and
helps you think through the entire process.
And so I would definitely recommend using it by hand
drawing. Of course, if you can draw on a
tablet and that works for you to you'd rather have it that way.
I think that would also suffice for this situation, but you just
going to do Some simple spatial drawings at that point, okay?
So then once you've outlined pretty well in your bubble
diagram, how you want to lay out the space, then you're going to
start working on your floor plan.
And so, typically, you'll have an existing space that has
parameters on it. So you've already taken
measurements of the space, you know, where your walls are, and
where the flooring breaks are, what the ceiling looks like,
where your entry points are. And so, you're going to have
that all all laid out and then you're going to start to place
your furniture into your space. Oftentimes, we'll start with
generic sizes, for sofas and tables, and things like that.
Just to see what would work in this space, in a general size as
pleasing to most people. And then after that, once we
solidified, our floor plan, then we will go and select specific
items and Furniture pieces to use in the space.
And then, We'll go and put the actual dimensions in there to
make sure it's still really fisic.
Say, an average sofa is 36 inches deep but the one that we
selected for our client is 42 inches deep, we need to make
sure that it's still fitting the scale of the space and that's
why scaled floor. Plans are so beneficial for
really visualizing and knowing ahead of time how the outcome of
your design is going to be in the space if you didn't have a
scale drawing. And he only put in at 36 inch
sofa but then you go and purchase the 42.
You might not have enough travel space and it might feel too
tight in there. And so this is really an
insurance to make sure that your design works and that your
client is going to be satisfied with what you came up at.
Not only looks good but it fits the space.
Well, the other advantage of having a scaled floor plan is
that you can lay out lighting. So say you put can lights are
pot lights and do a layout on a grid that you can actually put a
scale to. So when the electrician um's
says, well how far away from the wall?
Do you want this light installed?
You can have your dimension line.
There, it says, it's 36 inches or whatever it is, you've
decided is best for the space and can Center it over your
furniture. Make sure that there's adequate
lighting for the task at hand. And again, if you're new to
space planning, you're going to pick up that book that I
mentioned back in episode 17, called human dimensions and
that's going to really help you understand how wide your path of
travel around the furniture needs to be.
And then you might want to make a list of average sizes of
furniture pieces. So like a 8 foot so far.
That's 36 inches. Deep or what size, the queen
mattress or King. Verses for a bedroom, a common
side table or a nightstand size, and just have a list of those.
Which I did do when I was early days working for someone else
and doing space planning for them because I just didn't know
what what those average sizes were.
And in order to do that initial layout you really just want to
be throwing some generic sizes in there because you have no
idea yet. What you want to pick for the
space, you just want to make sure that your idea of the
layout is going to work in a general sense.
So having a list like that at your side will definitely help
you move faster in your space plan and ensure that it is
relatively realistic idea. Now, there's different programs
you can use to help you do the Earth space plan.
And of course, you can always go back to graph paper and use a
scale and that you could do one square equals one foot.
That's a very common way to do it depending on how big you want
your plan. To be.
And so that's always a default, you can go to learning to draft
by hand and I still would recommend if you're starting out
as a designer to do some hand drafting because it really helps
to solidify spatial relation in your head.
And then as you go along, and start transferring to the
computer, you still have those skills.
So, what I use for drafting on the computer is AutoCAD light
and I've been using that for years.
It's suffice has all the needs. I have, I can share files with
engineers and Architects and there hasn't been an issue using
AutoCAD but it is an expensive program.
And so starting out you might not be able to afford to use
our. You might not even know how to
use that. And you might want a program
that is free that you can start messing around in to really get
your foot in the door, for a space planning, and providing
some kind of plan for your first few clients.
There's a lot of software out there that you can use.
Some is free, some is paid for I know SketchUp has a free version
and I dabbled in SketchUp early days.
I haven't worked in it since for a while.
We have had some interns come through using different programs
and one that our current in turn is using is homestyler and
actually it's been really good. We had her practice out of
rendering 3D rendering for a kitchen that we're working on
just to test it and see how it looks actually turned out really
good. So homestyler I would say it's
probably a Are you could use to start getting some drawings
together and understanding spatial relation, and and space
planning. But if you just Google space
planning software, you'll come up with a whole list of
different ones. You can try and see what you
like to use best. But eventually down the road,
once you do have your business, you're going to want a software.
That is a little more unifying. That is an industry standard.
So I use like I said, AutoCAD and other one is Chief Architect
one that you can use As if you're more into kitchen design
and cabinet true is be 2020, but that it's always changing.
There's always new software out there.
So even though there's a, the 3D option that you will eventually
develop your plan into, I think it's important to be able to
visualize while you're looking at a 2d plan, where you looking
at the floor plan, be able to kind of put yourself into that
plan and see how the space looks before you've even elevated it.
To that 3D software and that's a skill that you can develop over
time, but I also think it is something that is intuitive for
designers that were able to see something and visualize how it's
going to look in the end. Even if it's not like a hundred
percent clear you have a general idea of how this room is going
to look based on the floor plan. And if you're here today and you
haven't had any experience in interior design or space
planning. I have a few quick tips for you
to take Go away so that you can get started on your space
planning today. And a few things you want to.
Keep in mind, you want to keep major walkways to at least 36
inches wide or 30 inches. For a less frequently used path
of travel. So if it's like going behind a
sectional out to a slider you don't use very much then you
might use 30 inches there. I would say allow 15 inches
between your coffee table and the sofa or chairs to avoid
bumping shins when you're sitting down.
Make sure the living room rug is big enough so that the front
legs of the sofas and chairs can sit on the rug, typically, we'll
just have those front feet on the rug and then the back feet
will be sitting off the rug and that way your feet are all the
way on the rug if you're Barefoot or whatever, it's
really more comfortable. For the person sitting on the
sofa or the chair dining room, rug should be large enough.
That you can push a chair back from the table and the chairs
still sitting on the rug. Now, this is not always
something that feasible. Oil.
And you also want to consider whether you want a rug
underneath the dining table. If it's like a kitchen table,
where the kids are going to spill everything under the sun
on that rug and you want to make sure it's, of course,
kid-friendly durable. Maybe a ruggable or something
like that or just no rugged. Also sometimes I'll omit a rug
in the kitchen table area because it's just going to get
so much abuse. Bedroom rugs though, should sit
under the bed with, at least 12 to 18 inches of rug showing on
each side of the bed so that when you step out, your feet are
on the rug fully and you have some nice cushy space especially
if you have hard flooring, a nice soft space for your feet.
When you get out of bed in the morning side, tables and
nightstands should sit either completely on or completely off
the rug to avoid that. Wobble.
So if you, so here's the situation, when you don't want
those front feet sitting on the rug, Because tables need to be
level and if you set anything on it you don't want it to slide
off. All right and then you also want
to consider Windows still Heights when Furnitures going in
front of a window. So you don't want to block The
View if at all possible. So think about that.
You might want to pull the self of forward away from the window
and then you don't want to overpower the room with too many
items or with a piece of furniture.
That's too large for the space. So we talked about scale make
sure that piece of furniture fits the The space.
Well, then you'll also want to determine what the focal point
of the room is and consider how your furniture lays out to
address that? Does it have a TV, a fireplace?
Are they together? Or are they split?
And then, if they're split, what is the priority for the client?
Like, do they love fires in the winter and they want that to be
kind of a cozy space and TVs, not something they use very
often or you going to have to shift things around or remodel
so that those are in the same focal point, you can't.
Have two focal points in the room though.
Just doesn't work if they're like on adjacent walls to have a
split focal point like that. So you have to decide where have
the client decide. What is the best for the way
that they live? And also whether either of them
are priority or if they want conversation to be more, the
focus of the room or the purpose of that room.
So there you go. A few little tidbits on Space
planning just brushing the surface and really Lee practice
and experiences key here and definitely would recommend that
you spend some time doing it before.
You can get your first clients so you can space plan, your own
home all the time and so just run different scenarios for
yourself and try that out. So that is base planning 101.
I would say just dipping your toe into understanding what
space planning is but hopefully have a good idea of it now and
like I said, you're going to get those books that I mentioned
back in episode 17 will put a link to the show notes there so
you can see that book list and purchase those to help you on
your way to becoming an excellent space planner.
And of course, if you're needing some one-on-one help with this,
please get To my design Mentor, I am happy to work with you on
any specific project you might be working on in school for
yourself for another person and just give you some feedback on
what you should do for space planning.
And in that program, I've even handed out some sample projects
to people who just need to get some more experience in drafting
and space planning and things like that.
So if that interests, you go ahead and check out the link for
my design Mentor. I'd love to see you in there.
There, stay tuned next week, we'll have another great
interview to help you discover. If interior design is the career
for you and until then stay creative, thanks for listening.
If you loved this episode, please leave a rating and a
review. This helps me reach other
curious creatives. Like you, if you have a topic
request or would like to contact me, simply head over to my
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