Room and Furniture Layout Kit (From Stencils and Notepaper to Flowers and Napkin Folding)

Just bought a condo and starting from scratch on furniture, area rugs, etc. I have drawn out some rooms already, and am finding it very helpful with designing the furniture arrangements I want and take it with me when shopping. Some have criticized the scale of graph paper, and I think they are just using it wrong. Two squares equal 1 foot, there are darker lines showing a foot with a lighter line in middle, making it much easier than regular graph paper. Once I get the wood flooring down, I am going to use painter tape to outline exact furniture placement, which I think will help the movers greatly, and keep me from struggling to rearrange after they leave. When shopping, I take this book, a measuring tape, paint color fan, fabric samples, a small camera and notebook in a fun fabric tote. I have received several compliments from store decorators, they say it's very difficult to help someone without a clear idea of size needed, placement, etc. This is a very helpful item at an inexpensive price, I highly recommend it.

This note book arrived crinkled, as though it had been dried after being left in the rain. So not a good start. But more importantly, this is an American product, so the furniture measurements are all american. Also there are not enough rooms: one master bedroom, another bedroom and a nursery. Not helpful if you are looking to do the layout for several teenage bedrooms. But this disappointment was my doing, I should have read the details carefully before buying it. Have now bought a graph notebook and designed all the rooms perfectly myself. Should have done this in the first place.

I like that the book covers every room in a modern house.

Pieces are too big

For decades now I have used graph paper and cut out furniture shapes to plan room arrangements when I move. In this day and age there are computer programs that will allow you to do this, but for me it is helpful to be able to manipulate things in a more hands on manner. Although this kit requires some modifications, it is inexpensive enough to be worth it, since it saves me making everything from scratch. The paper used for the furniture pieces is thick and durable enough to withstand repeated handling. As others have mentioned, you might not always find the little cut-outs that match the size of your furniture exactly, but the kit provides a generous amount of furniture pieces so it is quite easy to trim another piece to size. For example, my dining table is larger than the ones provided but it was easy to trim a sofa bed that I didn't need to the exact size of my table. My first tip: I removed everything from the book and made an envelope for each room, with the room dimensions and location of windows and doors and their measurements marked on the graph paper and all the furniture pieces that I want in that room. In an additional envelope I placed all the pieces I don't need to use, just in case I need them in the future. My second tip: When I come up with a room arrangement that I like, I simply take a photo with my iPhone, and save it into a "New House" album.