A blueprint is a design printed or drawn in white lines on blue paper. The features of a home blueprint include but aren’t limited to floor plans, electrical and plumbing details, room diagrams, wiring systems, and various required measurements. It may also incorporate furniture layout, the placement of appliances, and other crucial points of interest.
Moreover, a blueprint is a planning tool and map used by interior designers, architects, masonry contractors, engineers, and similar professionals to illustrate and explain the details of a particular project’s workflow and components. This is also shown to real estate agents and leasing firms when they’re looking for properties to design or sell.
On top of this, a blueprint will help you determine the costs and materials required to complete the construction or renovation of your home.
Considerations Before Creating A Home Blueprint
When developing and designing your own professional house blueprint, it’s essential to identify your priorities and lifestyle requirements. For instance, if the kitchen is important to you, you need to ensure that it’s spacious enough for your appliances and built-in elements like shelves and cabinets. Likewise, if you happen to work from home, you have to make certain that your workstation receives adequate sunlight and is far from the entertainment area.
If you have a layout in mind, this would guide you in creating divisions and assigning rooms, among others. Alternatively, if you haven’t thought of one, your design plan needs to be versatile enough to ensure that you can easily change the purpose of any room when needed.
Creating A Professional Home Blueprint
Today, there are resources and tools available on the internet that will allow you to design home blueprints efficiently. With these, you can either create blueprints online or draw from scratch.
If you plan on creating your own professional home blueprint, follow these steps:
1. Walk Around The Property
Examining the entire area is one effective way of figuring out where to start sketching the margins for your home plan. Also, this will give you an idea regarding the actual shape and size of the land, making it easier to take into account as you begin developing the blueprint.
You can always go back to the vacant lot to perform periodical checks and ensure that your sketch closely depicts the property. This will help you make a draft you can refine as the project progresses. Nonetheless, if the property is located miles away from where you currently live, take photos as much as you can so you can use them as references.
If the main structure of the house has been built, a quick tour will let you determine where each room should go and come up with an overall concept. For instance, if you prefer to have an open concept custom home, you can create zones based on how you’ll use the spaces and make multifunctional rooms. Leaning toward this kind of design concept will help you stay flexible all throughout the design process.
However, in cases where the building already has existing rooms, a property visit will allow you to reflect on furniture placement and manage your design expectations.
2. Draw The Walls And Divisions
Upon having a general plan in mind, start drawing the walls. If the building doesn’t exist yet, collect design and floor plan ideas to help you create your own home blueprints.
Before sketching, recall the actual size of the property, and make sure that all the rooms have adequate space. Then, determine the dimensions you want for each room. See to it that you have spare space on your paper or digital file to make the blueprint proportional.
As you design the rooms and hallways, keep in mind the activity of the people who’ll use them. For instance, if you intend to turn an area into the master’s bedroom, ensure that it’s large enough to accommodate appliances, furniture, a bathroom, and the like without restricting your and your partner’s movements within the room.
Alternatively, if the house hasn’t been constructed, draw and follow the shape of the property and sketch the corners and nooks of each room. Once you’ve finalized your room and wall sketches, leave a bit space to add other structural elements such as windows and doors later on. Repeat this process for the rest of the blueprint.
3. Label Rooms And Other Important Areas
Start labeling parts of your sketch once you’ve made up your mind and are prepared to set your intentions for each room. Do you still want to make the most spacious area in the house your master’s bedroom? If so, label it accordingly.
Labeling can be done either by using symbols or writing the name of each area. For symbols, you can follow the standard ones found in most online resources. On a separate piece of paper, take note of their descriptions to avoid confusion.
Clearly label the middle part of every room and/or space with its name. This includes everything from entrances and bathrooms to the kitchen and the guest room. Then, input or write the measurements or dimensions for each.
If you want a highly detailed or specific blueprint, assign symbols for categories such as appliances, pieces of furniture, and office equipment. Use scales and symbols for fixtures such as the sink, bath tub, doorbell, plumbing features, and wirings. Also, place electrical symbols for switches, outlets, alarms, and light fixtures along the walls where you want them installed.
Remember the space you’ve left for the finishing touches? Now’s the time to finalize them. Jot down where you want to place the doors, windows, stairs, and other structural aspects of the home. Also, take note of their distance in relation to the features or fixtures near them. Again, depending on your preference, you can opt for blueprint symbols or words when labeling.
Don’t leave anything unnecessarily blank, and make sure to draw everything neatly. Labeling each area will prove handy when your builders and engineers inspect your home blueprints to check for the design’s practicality.
The Takeaway
A blueprint will help ease the development and refining process of your house renovation or new home construction. Fortunately, there are now ways to create your own professional home blueprint. By following the instructions above, you can finalize the size and layout of each room according to their function and have a clearer idea of the workflow involved once you initiate the process of revamping or building your home.