Build a floor plan maker: draw a room to scale and arrange the furniture
Most people who search for a floor plan maker want to answer one question: will this fit, and where should it go? A simple tool that draws one room to scale and lets you drag rectangles of real furniture sizes around it answers that better than a full architectural package. Anticode can build one as an app that keeps your plans on your own device.
What a room planner has to get right
Scale is everything. If a 200 cm sofa looks like it fits on screen but doesn't in the room, the tool has failed. Decide the scale model first: the room is entered in centimetres (or feet and inches), the canvas shows a grid where each square is a fixed size such as 50 cm, and every piece of furniture is a shape with real dimensions, not a picture stretched to look right.
- Walls by length. Enter each wall's length and the corners join, so an L-shaped room is a few numbers, not careful mouse work.
- Doors and windows. Placed on a wall with a width, and doors drawn with their swing arc, because a door that hits the wardrobe is the classic mistake.
- Furniture library. Common pieces at typical sizes (double bed, three-seat sofa, dining table for six) that you can resize to the exact model you're considering.
- Rotate and snap. Turn pieces by 90 degrees with a key or button and snap to walls and to the grid.
- Live measurements. Select a piece and see its distance to the nearest walls and neighbours.
Clearances are the useful part
A plan that only checks whether furniture overlaps misses how rooms are used. Ask for clearance zones that show the space each piece needs around it, and a warning when zones collide. Common rules of thumb many planners use:
| Where | Space to leave |
|---|---|
| Main walkway through a room | About 90 cm |
| Behind a dining chair | About 75 to 90 cm to pull it out and walk past |
| Beside a bed | About 60 cm on any side you get in |
| In front of a sofa to a coffee table | About 40 to 45 cm |
| In front of drawers or a wardrobe | The drawer depth plus room to stand |
Make these editable settings rather than fixed truths. A small flat and a family house need different answers.
Describing the planner
Be specific about units, the furniture you need and how plans are kept: "A floor plan maker for one room at a time. Enter wall lengths in centimetres, add doors with swing arcs and windows. A furniture library for a living room and bedroom, every piece resizable. Drag, rotate, snap to walls. Shaded clearance zones that turn red when they overlap. Save several named plans, duplicate a plan to try alternatives, and print a plan with dimensions on it."
Anticode writes the planner as one app drawn on a canvas in the browser. Plans are saved in that browser, so you can close the tab and come back to them on the same device. Test the scale with something you can measure: draw your actual room, add a piece of furniture you own, and check the gaps against a tape measure.
Printing and saving an image
For taking a plan to a shop or sending it to a builder, ask for a print layout with the dimensions and a scale bar, and a button that saves the plan as an image. Test both in your own browser before relying on them, since browsers handle printing and saving differently.
What it isn't
- Not for building work. It's a layout aid. Plans for an extension, structural changes or planning applications need a surveyor or architect and proper drawing software.
- No 3D walk-through by default. A top-down plan is what most people need. A simple 3D view can be asked for and tested, but it adds complexity.
- No real product catalogues. It can't load furniture from a retailer's site or check stock; you type in the dimensions of what you're considering.
- No photo or camera measuring. It can't measure a room from your phone's camera; rooms are entered by hand.
- One device. Plans stay in the browser that made them. Sharing the link gives someone an empty planner, not your plan, and clearing site data removes saved plans. Ask for an export and import of a plan file if you want a backup or to move devices.
For outdoor layouts, see the garden planner. Planning an event? The seating chart maker handles tables and guests.
Questions people ask
Can the floor plan maker handle a whole flat?
Ask for several rooms on one plan joined at doorways. It's more work to draw, so start with the room you're furnishing and add the rest once the scale is right.
Can a client or partner see my plan?
Not through a link alone, because plans are saved on your device. Print it, save it as an image, or export a plan file they can import.
Does it work on a tablet?
Ask for touch dragging and large rotate buttons, then try it on the tablet itself, since fine positioning by finger needs testing.