Planning old-school style

A new toy

In the massive project that this new house has turned into, there are many, many details to consider. Since it’s “all in the mind” so far, it’s not uncommon for me to find myself second-guessing my choices. This is not such a big deal if the “worries” are about the cabinet handles, or the light fittings. There’s time to change those.

A new toy

But what about the actual floor plan? The dimensions of the house and the rooms? I know I should trust the architect, but recently I found myself trying to visualise the sitting room — will my furniture fit? Which way should the couch be oriented? What size rugs will I need?

I recalled those scenes on the TV show The Block where the judges are severely critical of contestants who orient the couch away from the view, or put a TV in a corner, or have chairs far from the fireplace.

I had a mini-moment of self-doubt about the placement of the pendant lights over the dining table—they would be hard to change, so putting said table in the right position seemed suddenly vital. I grabbed a tape measure and rushed to check the dimensions of my cherished Paul Kafka bird’s-eye maple 1950s table. It’s 2400mm fully extended. OMG. Will it fit?

Checking the room dimensions

Now, if I was an expert on reading architectural plans (I’m not) I’m sure I could easily have figured out exactly how big the planned sitting room is. Check these plans. Can you figure it out? I thought not.

Part of the floor plan. How’s your eyesight?

But after some time with a magnifying glass, a pencil and a calculator, I came up with 6871 x 6459, plus some numbers showing hallway widths and alcoves and windows. It’s a big room. Everything will fit, right?

Room Layout Planning Options

How to check if the furniture would fit? How best to consider the layout of the couch, the piano, the dining table and chairs? I could just sketch it. Then I’d have to measure all the pieces of furniture. And make multiple sketches for different possibilities. That would be truly old school.

Figuring the dimensions

Up-do-date people who do this for a living—interior designers, interior architects—would, I knew have some fancy software for the task. Or maybe AI saves the day? There are a number of consumer (i.e. non-professional) AI apps spruiked online as perfect for the job. I’m here to tell you that the tool has a long way to go when it comes to visualisations. I’m not even going to rant about how AI sucks up resources, thieves from human innovators for training, and makes too much money for some very dodgy tech bros. I’m just going to say those apps don’t work.

Old-school options

Here’s where a new/old concept caught my eye. A product that provides a wooden game-board with little wooden pieces of furniture, all in a 1:50 scale, which you can put together like two dimensional Lego. It’s called “Planora” and is the brainchild of a bunch of Swedish architects. From their website:

Planora is created by Bräck Studio, a Stockholm-based architecture practice founded in 2020 by Anna Bärring, Matilda Falck, and Victor Lindén.

I ordered a starter kit and waited for the delivery. When it finally arrived, I opened the box to components all made of blond wood, with gridded “floors” and little furniture logos. It was well-made and looked like a toy. But for me it was a serious business.

Opening the box from Sweden

And how is it?

It’s fun! And deeply reassuring. After some head-scratching to replicate my carefully-calculated room dimensions, I had an approximation of my proposed sitting room. Though the little wooden furniture logos are not precisely identical to my table and chairs (and there’s no piano) I was able to use what was provided to assemble a possible layout. I think the table will fit. I think there will be plenty of space surrounding the couch and coffee table and the room will “flow” (as they say on The Block).

What do you reckon? I can try something else. Many possibilities!

In the Planora version I have, you can stick the little walls and windows and furniture in place with a tiny piece of Blu-tac, but I see that Planora now has a new magnetic version. However, I kind of like my 100% wooden toy. It feels friendly and, yes, old school.

Now to check on the bedroom. Will it all fit?

Visualisation of the sitting room using much more sophisticated rendering tools (from the architect)