How to measure and create a rough sketch of your space

Now we’re drawing the south wall, which is the wall at the back of the bed. The window here is shorter, the column is also on its right corner, and there is actually a window-type AC unit that I forgot to draw in my sketch. I can actually mark the AC unit in my sketch at this part of the drawing.

Lastly, I’m drawing here the west wall to close off our room plan. The west wall is where this small nook is located, with the wardrobe built into it. As you can see, I’ve drawn on this side the wall with the wardrobe nook in this corner.

So next, we need to draw the lines where we will record the measurements. You need to show where each line starts and stops with a short vertical and short diagonal line, so it’s much easier to understand from a technical perspective, where the measurements begin and end.

So draw two separate lines outside each wall on your paper. The outer line, will be for the overall wall length, so you can see here that the stopper marks are on either end of the line. Aligned of course with the ends of the north wall on your paper. This is why using a graphing paper is the best for making your rough sketches, so that you can easily eye the locations where you need to place your stopper marks.

The inner line is for the shorter distances along that wall. So for example, on the inner line of the north wall, there are stoppers from this left corner to the end of the door, then another stopper on the other end of the door, and the last stopper on the far corner, where the north wall stops.

Here you can see I already have my two lines for each of the four walls. You can refer to this when you’re doing your own rough sketches. If you can see here in the lower corner, where my east and south walls meet, that I’ve drawn the part of the column facing the north on my south wall line; where as the part of the column facing the west, is drawn on my east wall line.

And also notice I made a mistake here on my south wall lines. THe south wall should have ended at the very back of the wardrobe, but since I couldn’t see that when I was measuring this room in person, I drew the stopper where the wardrobe begins. So the south wall is actually much longer than the north wall, because of this wardrobe nook. So I’m still making mistakes even when I’ve been doing this for almost a decade, so don’t sweat it! But at least now you’re learning how to record your measurements, which will make it so much easier for you to communicate with your trades and contractors when they’re already working on your home.

Now you may choose to skip these next details, if you don’t really need ceiling details. But I personally like having all the information I may need, for example if I need to design new, floor-to-ceiling built-ins. So when drawing locations of ceiling beams or bulkheads, just use a different colored pen, and use broken lines, so that you don’t confuse your ceiling lines with your wall lines.

In my sample bedroom, there are two slim bulkheads. When you say “bulkhead”, it’s referring to an upright partition that is actually a compartment for something. Normally in condo units like this one, there are a lot of bulkheads that cover up plumbing lines or electrical pipes that stretch across units and floors. I drew them here on my paper, one bulkhead along the east wall, and one along the south wall.

Now it’s also important to note the ceiling heights in your room, so label these different ceiling heights with a number, shown here as C1, C2, and C3.

Also label other architectural features on your plan, namely the doors and the windows. If there are more than one of each, number them. So naturally, all windows were labeled with W, all doors with D.

Note also that I indicated here the locations of light switches, wall outlets, and light or ceiling fixtures. You can see in this slide some basic architectural symbols for them, but if your room has other items you need to note in your plan, like, pendant lamps, wall lamps, electric panels, just search their architectural symbols on Google Images so you can draw them on your plan.

This is an optional step, as you can also record these items in your Room Condition Checklist. But I like having them on my rough sketches just so I can easily access them. I manually create columns for ceiling item, and another column for ceiling height. Another door item and for door height, and another for window item, and window height. Note that I’ve added here a sill height. “SILL” refers to the bottom of the window, so the height there refers to the measurement from floor to the bottom of the window.

This is another optional step, up to you if you want to do this in all your rough sketches. I just like doing this because it also enables me to instantly record what materials each of my walls use. So what I did here was I extruded my perimeter walls, or I pushed them out and filled them with the texture for the particular finish they are in.

As you can see here on the right side of my slide, there are 6 different symbols or textures for how you can show your walls. My sample bedroom actually has concrete hollow block walls all around, so the way I drew it is incorrect. But you may find in your own rooms that each wall may be made of a different construction material. So say this wall is made of bricks, this other wall is made of concrete, another wall is made of drywall, and so on.

Knowing what finishes your walls are also impacts some of your design decisions, like if you can mount anything heavy on a particular wall, like shelves, or a wall-mounted furniture piece. So it’s good to also note it here in your rough sketch, and then transfer that data later on in your Room Condition Checklist.

Alright so your rough sketch is finished, now it’s time to move on to the next step, which is to take down the measurements on each wall.

As I had recommended in a previous module, it’s best to have both a steel tape measure, and a laser measuring tool with you. And if possible, do it with a partner, so that partner can help hold up the tape measure, or can be assigned to jotting down the measurements.

First, measure the entire length of one wall, using your laser measuring tool. YOu can see it here in my slide as the yellow line, from one end of the south wall to the other end. Try to get your laser to be as straight and leveled as possible, so that your measurements aren’t skewed.

Then use your steel tape measure to take down the shorter distances. You can see it here in my slide as the pink arrow lines. We measure from this corner where the wardrobe is, until the end of the window. Then again from window end to window end. Then again from window end to column. Then last from column end to the southeastern corner.

So just some tips when you’re taking down measurements on your rough sketch.

First, keep all your measurements upright in one direction. You might be tempted to turn your paper around, while taking down measurements. It’ll just make your reading your sketches difficult, because you’ll have to also turn the paper around and around just to read your measurements.

Next, use one unit of measurement throughout. You may feel tempted to switch from meter to centimeters, because your laser may be in default mode, which is meters. But your tape measure shows either centimeters or feet and inches. So choose from the very start, what unit of measurement you want to use, and stick with that throughout. For my rough sketch, I used meters. If you’re in North America, you may find it easier to use feet and inches.

Lastly, note that the total of your short distance measurements should be equal to the overall length of that same wall.