How to make a house plan, step by step

1. Draw the plot and the setbacks first

Start with the plot rectangle at its real dimensions, then draw the setback lines inside it. What is left is your buildable envelope, and every room from here on has to fit inside it. People who skip this step design a beautiful plan and then discover it is three feet too wide.

Setbacks depend on your plot size, the road width and the number of floors. Ask your local authority or an architect for the exact figures — the common rule of thumb for small residential plots is 3–6 ft in front, 2–4 ft at the rear and 1.5–4 ft on each side.

2. Zone before you size

Do not start placing rooms. Start by splitting the envelope into three zones: public (entry, hall, pooja), service (kitchen, dining, utility, stair) and private (bedrooms, toilets). Decide which end of the plot each one takes, based on where the road is and where the sun comes from.

If you are following Vastu, this is also the step where the zones get fixed: kitchen south-east, master bedroom south-west, hall and entry north or east, toilets north-west, centre open.

3. Size the rooms in whole feet

4. Draw walls, not rectangles

A real plan has wall thickness — typically 9 inches for external walls and 4.5 inches for internal partitions — and adjacent rooms share a wall rather than each having their own. That single detail is the difference between a plan a mason can build from and a diagram. In the editor, walls are shared by default: drag one and both rooms on it resize together.

5. Place doors and windows

• Main door 3.5 ft wide, internal doors 2.5–3 ft, toilet doors 2–2.5 ft.
• Door swings should not clash with each other or block a light switch.
• Window area of roughly 10–15% of the floor area of the room, more on the north and east than on the west.
• Every habitable room wants a window on an external wall. If one does not have it, the plan is telling you something.

6. Dimension everything, then check it

Put dimensions on every room and every overall line. Add up the internal dimensions plus wall thicknesses and confirm they equal the envelope — this is where plans that "looked fine" fall apart.

Then run the Vastu check if you are following it, export the sheet as PNG or SVG (a free account covers this), and take it to an architect or engineer. A drawn plan with real dimensions makes that conversation ten times shorter, and it is what stops you paying for three rounds of revisions to say what you already knew you wanted.

What this tool is, and is not

This is a 2D plan editor for working out and communicating a layout. It is not a structural design tool, and a plan from it is not a sanction drawing. Use it to arrive at a layout you are happy with, then have a licensed architect or engineer produce the drawings your local authority needs.