Drawing a custom-shaped room
Most real rooms aren't perfect rectangles. Pick a starting shape — L, T, U, Alcove, Round — or draw your own from scratch, then drag corners and edit wall lengths until it matches the real room.
Most real rooms have at least one quirk — an alcove, an L-shape, a recessed chimney, a bay window. The Custom tile in the New Design window handles every one of them, and the fastest path is rarely to draw from scratch — it's to start from one of the built-in shape presets and adjust.
This page walks through both paths: pick a preset, or place corners freely. Both end up in the same Edit Floor Plan Layout editor, so once you're inside, the tools are identical.
What you'll need
- •Rough measurements of your room (you can refine them after — the presets are sized to common defaults)
Step by step
- 1
Click the Custom tile
From the New Design window, click the Custom tile (the one with the pen-tool icon and the subtitle "Draw any shape"). This opens the starting-shape picker.
Custom — the entry point for every non-rectangular room. - 2
Pick a starting shape (or pick "Draw Your Own")
The shape picker shows six presets: - Rectangle — 12 × 14 ft. The plain four-wall room. - L-Shape — 15 × 12 ft + an 8 × 8 ft wing. The most common custom shape; matches living rooms that wrap a dining area, master bedrooms with a sitting area, etc. - T-Shape — 18 × 10 ft + an 8 × 8 ft extension. Foyer rooms, rooms with a bumped-out bay. - U-Shape — 18 × 14 ft with a 6 × 8 ft cutout. Rooms with a central chimney breast or a built-in. - Alcove — 14 × 12 ft with a 4 × 4 ft nook. Reading nook, bay window niche, closet alcove. - Round — 10 ft diameter. Turret rooms, conservatories. If none of these match your room, scroll down to Draw Your Own (dashed-border tile at the bottom) — that opens an empty canvas where you place corners freely.
Six presets cover most real rooms; L-Shape is the most common. - 3
Tune the shape in the Edit Floor Plan Layout editor
Picking a preset opens the Edit Floor Plan Layout editor with the shape already drawn. Each wall is labeled with its length, each corner with its angle, and the floor area is shown in the bottom-left. To match your real room: - Drag a corner — the blue circles on the corners. Other corners stay put; the connecting walls resize. Hold Shift while dragging to snap to clean 90° angles. - Edit Wall Length, Thickness, Height — click the toolbar button at the bottom, then click a wall and type an exact dimension. Best when you have real measurements. - Split Walls / Add Walls / Remove Walls — toolbar buttons to insert a new corner mid-wall (turning one wall into two), add an extra segment, or remove a wall entirely (the room re-closes around the gap). - Angles — toggles the 90°-marker overlay on and off. Useful when measurements get crowded.
The L-Shape preset, ready to tune. Every wall and angle is labeled in real units. - 4
Click Update Floor Plan (or Create Floor Plan if drawing from scratch)
When the shape matches your room, click the blue Update Floor Plan button in the bottom-right. (If you came in via Draw Your Own, the same button reads Create Floor Plan instead — same action.) The editor closes, and the custom shape lands on the main canvas, ready for doors, windows, and furniture exactly like a rectangular room.
The L-shape is now a real floor plan — every editor tool works the same as on a rectangle.
Tips
Start from a preset even if the shape doesn't match exactly
It's almost always faster to start from L-Shape and drag corners than to draw from scratch. The presets give you ortho-aligned, dimensioned walls in one click — and the editor is identical either way.
Hold Shift to lock 90° angles
Dragging a corner without Shift lets you slide it freely. Holding Shift snaps to clean orthogonal angles — almost always what you want for real rooms.
Use Edit Wall Length for the wall you actually measured
Don't try to eyeball-drag walls to your real dimensions. Pick one wall you measured precisely, click Edit Wall Length, and type the number — then drag the adjacent walls to match.
Draw Your Own when no preset is close
If your room has more than one bump (a chimney AND a closet alcove, for example), open Draw Your Own and place corners directly. The cross-hair anchors your starting point; the blue handle pulls each wall segment in turn.
Floor area is calculated live
The "Area" reading in the bottom-left of the editor updates as you drag corners. Use it as a sanity check — if your real room is 220 sq ft and the plan shows 152 sq ft, the dimensions are off.
Common mistakes
Approximating an L-shape as a rectangle
Don't shoehorn a real L-shaped room into a Rectangle plan — Smart Flow Check, the 3D view, and "will my furniture fit" all become wrong. The L-Shape preset is one click and a few drags away.
Dragging corners without measurement
Eyeball-drag is fine for a quick sketch but won't be accurate enough for furniture decisions. As soon as you have real wall lengths, use Edit Wall Length and type them in.
Skipping Hold-Shift on corner drag
Without Shift, dragged corners go wherever your cursor goes — including 89.7° angles that aren't real. Hold Shift to keep everything orthogonal unless you genuinely have a diagonal wall.
Frequently asked questions
What shapes can I make?
Any closed polygon — and a round room. The six presets (Rectangle, L, T, U, Alcove, Round) cover most real rooms; Draw Your Own handles anything else, including bay windows, multiple bumps, and irregular geometry.
Can I change the shape after I've placed furniture?
Yes — click the Edit Floor Plan Shape button on the left panel (Structural section) to reopen the same Edit Floor Plan Layout editor. Furniture inside the room stays put; walls move around it.
What's the difference between picking a preset and Draw Your Own?
Speed, and where you start. A preset opens the editor with the shape already drawn — you tune dimensions instead of placing corners. Draw Your Own opens an empty canvas with a cross-hair starting point and a pull handle, so you place every corner yourself. The editor and tools are identical from that point on.
Does the shape have to be closed?
Yes — a floor plan needs to enclose a finite area. The editor refuses to commit an open shape; you'll see the Create / Update button disabled until the perimeter closes back to the starting corner.
How precise are the corner positions?
Grid-snapped by default — corners snap to the visible grid, so dimensions come out clean. Use Edit Wall Length to type exact non-grid values when you need them.
Can I draw a whole house with multiple rooms?
Yes — draw the outer perimeter as one custom shape, then use Interior Walls to split it into rooms once you're in the main editor. Smart Flow Check and area calculations work per-room from there.
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