How to Make a Foam Floor Plan

Take detailed measurements of the room and sketch out a drawing. Measure everything built in, like the windows, door frames and columns; include measurements of where these things are placed along the walls.

Measure everything you want to place in the room, from couches and beds to coffee tables, lamps and throw rugs. Take detailed notes of their dimensions.

Devise a suitable scale for your foam floor plan model. For example, you may want to make it to a scale of 1 inch equals one foot; thus, so a 12-foot by 15-foot room becomes a 12-inch by 15-inch model.

Purchase a piece of floral foam large enough to represent the floor as well as several other pieces for carving scale furniture. Floral foam is a green, water-retaining foam typically used for holding flowers up; its density also makes it suitable for carving projects like this one. For the best carving material, choose a lower-density foam, between 3 and 10 lbs. per cubic foot.

Transfer your sketch of the room onto your largest piece of foam. You can either draw it on with a pencil or carve it in with a small, sharp craft knife — it's up to you. Make sure that your dimensions and measured to scale accurately.

Carve smaller pieces of furniture to scale out of your other floral foam. These don't have to be lifelike as long as they are the right size. A couch may be approximated by a simple rectangle, for example. Label each one, writing on it with a pencil.

Experiment with placing your carved pieces of furniture on your foam floor, moving them around until you have an arrangement you want to replicate in your real home. To keep everything in place once you have the floor plan finalized, stick a toothpick halfway into the bottom of each piece of furniture, then stick the other half of the toothpick into the foam base. You can now move your floor plan without the pieces falling off or moving.