Let’s talk about apps and floor-plan tools. As I tested a few new options to write last week’s post about our office floor plans, I took screenshots and photos intending to include them — but that post already felt crowded, so I held some of this material back. A number of readers asked for more detail, so here’s a dedicated post describing what I tried and what worked.
We’ve discussed space-planning techniques and tools before, and while 3-D software can be useful, most of our planning is still done in 2-D. When readers mentioned phone apps for making floor plans, I decided to test two popular iOS options: MagicPlan and RoomScan. Both apps are free to download but reserve key features behind purchases. Unlike apps that simply let you enter wall lengths and place furniture icons, these two promise to create a plan automatically — theoretically without a measuring tape.
MagicPlan works by using your phone’s camera as you stand near the center of a room and rotate to mark corners and doorways. The app drops a virtual cone at each marked corner. You can also indicate doorways and specify areas as “through furniture,” though that last option requires estimating hidden corners behind objects.
On my first attempt I moved too quickly and the results were rough. After slowing down and placing each corner more carefully, the plan improved significantly. I still checked a few critical dimensions with a tape measure — the app’s measurements tended to be within 2–4 inches, which is fine for general space planning but not precise enough for construction.
MagicPlan includes placeholder furniture (even unexpected items like a drum set) so you can experiment with layout at a basic scale. However, many useful features are locked behind paid tiers. The free export option delivers a heavily watermarked PDF and JPG by email, which isn’t ideal for sharing or serious planning.
RoomScan uses a different approach: you walk around the room and hold your phone flat against the walls at several points. The app draws a sketch as you scan. The instructions are straightforward and this method felt intuitive, but the initial sketches can be imprecise and will often trace the route you walked, which can look odd on the resulting plan.
I ran RoomScan multiple times, trying different stopping points and directions. The finished floor plans were still imperfect, but like MagicPlan you can manually adjust measurements afterward to correct the layout. Many extra functions require an in-app purchase (the full version I tried was $4.99), and because the free mode didn’t replace manual measuring for me, I decided not to upgrade.
For additional editing and visualization, I exported one MagicPlan layout (the better of my attempts) to Floorplanner. MagicPlan provided an export option that imported the plan into my Floorplanner account. Floorplanner’s mobile app is usable, but the desktop version is more flexible and made it easy to refine measurements and add furniture in 3-D.
Bottom line: these app-based methods are excellent for quick mock-ups, rough planning, and getting a usable digital starting point. They work fast and are convenient when you want to experiment with layouts on the fly. If you need highly accurate dimensions for construction or built-ins, you’ll still want to measure critical distances exactly by hand or with professional tools. Between MagicPlan’s camera-based corner marking and RoomScan’s wall-scanning method, I prefer MagicPlan for its results and export options, though both required some manual cleanup and occasional tape-measure verification.
Have you tried these or other room-scanning apps? Any tips or favorite tools to recommend? I’m always game to try more ways to avoid measuring things the hard way — though I’ll probably keep looking slightly ridiculous while doing it. Meanwhile, Sherry’s upstairs painting, so she’ll share more project updates soon.
P.S. Clara is talking again — this time about favorite farm animals and another baby name idea.