Visualize Fresh, New Decor with Room Design Templates

The first question which usually comes up when a decision has been made to redesign a room is: Where to start? Using a room design template is the easiest solution, and provides ordinary homeowners a tool used by professional interior designers to get everything in proportion and well balanced in a room. Using a template is a much better option than simple freehand sketching or attempting to use standard graph paper which results in everything being so small as to be incomprehensible, or so uncoordinated that it makes no sense.

Design templates come in a variety of forms to suit every need. There are free online downloadable templates from a number of sources, including paper room grids which can be printed out. In addition to grids you can also download templates which are cutouts of standard furniture sized pieces for living rooms, bedrooms and dining rooms, which can then be positioned on the room grid to create the layout of furniture in a room. This way they can be rearranged as needed until the placement is perfect, without having to make numerous versions of a design to get it just right.

Paper templates also come with tips and tricks for perfect placement of furniture pieces, examples of arrangements, and some even provide instructions on how to make proper measurements. Some offer samples of just exactly what notes you need to make about the room to assure that every important element that goes into great room design has been taken into consideration before you finalize your room plan.

Professional interior decorators recommend the use of paper templates as the easiest, most convenient and effective way to make decisions about the design of a room. Today, there is no reason that anyone cannot create a professionally planned room by utilizing one or more of these amazing and simple tools. Adding a color wheel to your design tools will help you to understand the ways in which colors relate to one another and make sure that you have complimentary colors, rather than a montage of colors which clash.

When a truly professional looking room design is needed or wanted, there is another technique which can be used to complement the room template. Simply make a collection of design elements to see how they will coordinate with one another. Photos of specific furniture items and decorative pieces, fabric and paint swatches, flooring and tile samples can all be arranged on a board (cork, magnetic, poster board or even cardboard can be used).

In this way textures, shapes and colors can be compared and coordinated, and changed as needed until the perfect combination of design elements is found. Professional designers use this technique when they design rooms and it works just as well for a novice. This technique is a matter of collecting the separate components of a room and then putting them all together in a visual and tactile form which will provide a clearer picture of the finished design. When this is combined with the use of a room design template, a personal, yet professional room design can be accomplished by anyone.