How to Draw a Floor Plan with SmartDraw

This is a simple step-by-step guideline to help you draw a basic floor plan using SmartDraw.

Choose an area or building to design or document.
Take measurements.
Start with a basic floor plan template.
Input your dimensions to scale your walls (meters or feet).
Easily add new walls, doors and windows.
Drag and drop ready-made symbols to customize your space: furniture, kitchen, bathroom and lighting fixtures, cabinets, wiring, and more.

Watch the video and read below for more.

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Step 1. Select a Room Outline

Open Floor Plans - Residential from the diagrams list along the left-hand side of the screen. You'll see a number of subcategories listed. Rather than choosing a kitchen template, we'll start with a basic room shape. It's highlighted as shown here: Room (Rectangle - 1).

Step 2. Input Room Dimensions

SmartDraw will open a work area for you with a rectangular room having default dimensions of 15'0" by 20'0". You can change these dimensions in one of two ways. Either click on a wall and slide it to its desired length, or click on the dimension and type in the measurement you want to use. When you do this, you'll note that the opposite wall will resize to the same dimension automatically.

We want to re-size this room to 13'8" by 20'6".

To resize just one wall, click at the corner and drag to resize the wall. Clicking in the middle of the wall will keep both opposing walls the same size.

Step 3. Add Doors, Windows, and Wall Openings

You don't need to create openings in walls for your windows and doors; SmartDraw will do it for you automatically. Our kitchen plan has two wall openings into adjacent rooms, plus a garden window over the sink and a bay window viewing into the back yard.

Click Add Wall Opening in the SmartPanel. As you move your cursor onto the page, you'll see the wall opening shape. Position it anywhere on the appropriate wall and you'll see the icon change from a stamp to an anchor, indicating you can click to attach it to the wall. You can now resize the opening and move it around on the wall until it's positioned where you want.

Add windows in the same way. From the SmartPanel, you'll see a variety of door and window options. We'll add a garden window and a bay window, as shown below. Because the default size of the bay window is 12' across and ours measures only 6' we had to adjust the size by clicking on the measurement and typing in the new figure.

Note that as you stamp elements into your work area, you can rotate them by clicking and holding on the rotate button and then moving your mouse around in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. When you get it into the proper orientation, release the button.

Step 4. Lay Out Countertops

Click on the drop-down list in the SmartPanel and then select Kitchens. You'll see a number of appliances, cabinets and countertops. If you're going to use stock cabinets, then you should use those here instead of countertops since their sizes can't be changed. Our design will use custom cabinets, so we're going to lay out our countertop first.

We'll start by placing a corner counter in the upper left hand corner of the room. Just stamp it anywhere in the room, then use the rotate button to turn it 180 degrees. Now drag it into position in the upper left-hand corner of the room, as shown.

To resize the countertop, just click the edge you want to change and drag it into position. In this case, it's the upper right edge. We want our countertop to measure 12'0" across the north wall and 5'0" along the west wall.

This can also be done in the toolbar. Click the Design tab, then change the dimensions as shown below.

We're going to add another countertop in the lower-left hand (southwest) corner of the kitchen. This is done the same way as the previous countertop. Once you rotate the countertop into its correct orientation, click the Design tab. Set the width to 7'5" and the height to 5'0" and then move it into position. Your floor plan should now look like this:

Add Sink

Now we can place a sink in the countertop under the garden window. Select the double sink 36", click on it and stamp it into place. Any time you need to adjust the placement of any object in your floor plan drawing, just click on it and move it using your mouse or the direction arrows on your keyboard. Your drawing now looks like this:

Step 6. Add Appliances

Our kitchen will be equipped with these appliances:

42" gas range and oven
Range hood
Side-by-side counter-depth refrigerator
Standard-sized dishwasher

We do this in much the same way as we did with the other design elements. Select the item you want, stamp it onto your work area, and then drag it into position. Using the arrow keys is the easiest way to fine-tune placement of items. We'll start with the dishwasher:

Now we'll add our 42" gas range/oven. Do this the same way, by selecting the item and stamping it on the work area. Use the rotate button to orient it correctly, then drag it into position. Use the arrow keys, as needed, to fine tune its placement.

Now follow the exact same steps to add a range hood and the 26 cubic-foot side-by-side refrigerator. Make sure to rotate both into proper alignment. When you finish, your kitchen floor plan drawing will look like this:

Step 7. Add Base Cabinets

Next, we'll add a pantry cabinet in the lower right-hand (southeast) corner of the kitchen. Select the Pantry/Utility Cabinet from the SmartPanel, rotate it and drag it into position.

Next, we'll add base cabinets to our plan. As mentioned previously, we're designing for custom cabinets, so we're not limited to standard sizes. The default base cabinet is 12" wide by 24" deep. By sliding our dishwasher left a few inches, we can fit a 24" base cabinet to the right. We can resize this cabinet to be 2'0" in width and 2'4" in height (depth), then slide it into position.

Now we'll add a pair of corner cabinets and more base cabinets. Again, resize and rotate them into position as you've done with the other items. Our kitchen floor plan now looks like this:

Step 8. Add Upper Cabinets

We'll add upper cabinets in a similar manner. Select Wall Cabinet from the SmartPanel. The default size is 1'0" by 2'0", which we want to change to 1'4" by 1'8". After rotating it 90 degrees and dragging it into position, we'll want to make three more exactly like it. To do this, right click on the item, select Copy and then Paste. Each time you do this, drag the newly created upper cabinet into position, as shown below.

At this point, you're ready to complete the upper cabinets. Feel free to experiment with what you've learned so far. Try adding a smaller corner cabinet in the lower-left corner and open shelves between it and the refrigerator. Then add upper cabinets above the refrigerator. The final design should look something like this: