10 Steps to a Well-Designed Room

"Most people think they have much more space than they do," says Alia Myer. Then they buy oversized furniture, "and it feels moshed together."

The solution? Take out a measuring tape and a piece of graph paper. Draw a floor plan of your room to scale (let one square equal one foot, for instance). Or if you can find your blueprints, use them—and make extra copies. As you consider buying additional pieces, mark off their intended location and make sure they'll fit before bringing them home.

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