70 floor plan templates and what each one is good for

How the template gallery works

The gallery opens from the Browse templates button in the floor plan toolbar. Every card shows a preview of the layout, the name, a sentence describing what the space is for, the number of rooms and the total area in your current unit system, so you can judge a template before you open it.

Two controls narrow the list. The search box matches names, descriptions and tags, so a word like studio or garage finds the right group quickly. The category chips filter to All, Residential, Office, Retail and hospitality, Education, Health, Community and culture, Practical and utility, or Outdoor and site.

Placing a template loads it as a normal project: every room, wall and dimension becomes editable at once. The mind map template gallery works the same way, for the same reason.

• Each card shows a preview, room count and area
• Search matches names, descriptions and tags
• Category chips filter the eight groups
• Placed templates become ordinary editable plans

Note: The catalog dimensions are typical examples rounded to 50 mm before publication, so they are a starting point rather than a measurement of any real building.

Residential templates for 23 kinds of home

The residential group is the largest, and it splits by size and type of home. At the small end there is the Compact flat at 32 m², the Studio apartment with a sleeping nook, and the Bachelor flat. The one, two and three-bedroom apartments cover conventional rental flats.

In the middle sit the Two-bedroom house with a rear kitchen, the Three-bedroom house with a kitchen-diner, and the Four-bedroom family house with an en-suite and a study. The Open-plan family flat removes the wall between kitchen and living room. The house layout guide explains how to choose between them.

• Small flats: Compact flat 32 m², Studio apartment, Bachelor flat
• Conventional flats: one, two and three-bedroom apartments
• Houses: two to four-bedroom, bungalow, townhouse, ranch
• Unusual: maisonette, loft, tiny house, farmhouse, duplex

Office templates for 10 kinds of workspace

The office group starts small. The Small office is two people with a meeting corner, and the Private office is one person with a desk wall. The Boardroom is a formal room with a long table, and the Reception and lobby template is the front-of-house room on its own.

The middle of the group is about how teams share space. The Open-plan office is one floor with a meeting room and focus booths. The Startup office floor adds two meeting rooms, a focus room and a kitchen. The Co-working space mixes hot desks and private offices, and the Meeting-room suite is the client-facing version with reception and a boardroom.

Two templates cover unusual work. The Customer support floor is dense, with rows of positions and a supervisor office, and the Design studio has shared desks and a review space. The office layout guide covers adapting them.

• Small: Small office, Private office, Boardroom
• Shared: Open-plan office, Startup floor, Co-working space
• Client-facing: Meeting-room suite, Reception lobby
• Special work: Customer support floor, Design studio

Retail, education, health and community templates

Retail and hospitality covers ten spaces, from a Market stall with a serving counter to a Bar and pub with a cellar store. The Coffee shop has a counter and seating, the Small restaurant is a thirty-seat dining room, and the Bakery, Boutique store, Salon, Gym and Yoga studio complete the group.

Education has five templates: a Classroom for about thirty, an Early years room with a wet play corner, a Training room, a Library reading room and a Computer lab. Health has two, the Dental practice with a surgery and a decontamination room, and the Veterinary clinic with a consult room and a kennel area.

Community and culture covers five: the Community hall with accessible toilets, the Makerspace with a machine bay, the Art studio with a glazing bench, the Small gallery, and the Town hall with a council chamber and a public foyer.

• Retail: coffee shop, restaurant, bakery, pub, boutique, salon, gym, yoga
• Education: classroom, early years, training, library, lab
• Health: dental practice, veterinary clinic
• Community: hall, makerspace, art studio, gallery, town hall

Practical and outdoor templates

The practical group is the one people forget exists. The Single garage is one car with a side storage strip, and the Double garage adds a workshop zone. The Home workshop has a bench run, the Basement workshop is the converted version, and the Storage unit is a racking aisle with a small office.

Four smaller rooms belong here too: the Utility room with a boiler and shelving, the Laundry room with a washer and folding counter, the Home gym with a cardio corner, and the Boiler and plant room.

The outdoor group has six templates for the space around a building. The Patio and deck places a patio beside a raised deck, the Small garden layout has a lawn and a shed, and the Garden pavilion is a detached studio. The Parking bay layout has bays and a cycle store, the Campsite pitch has a shelter, and the Small farmyard has a barn.

• Garages: single, double, home and basement workshops
• Service rooms: utility, laundry, home gym, plant room
• Outdoor: patio and deck, garden layout, pavilion
• Site: parking bays, campsite pitch, small farmyard

Adapt a template without breaking it

The temptation with a template is to change everything at once, and the result is usually worse than the version you started with. Pick the closest footprint, then change one thing at a time and look at the area labels after each change.

Work in a sensible order: the envelope first, then the rooms that cannot move, then the doors and windows, then the names and types. Adjusting the envelope last means rediscovering every room size you fixed. If a room needs a different size, type the new width and height into the inspector rather than dragging.

Keep a note on the plan as you go. A line saying that the bedroom was extended to 3600 and the wardrobe moved to the east wall tells the next person what you were solving, and it travels with the file.

• Choose the closest footprint, change one thing at a time
• Envelope first, then fixed rooms, openings and names
• Type new sizes in rather than dragging them
• Note what you changed and why, on the plan

Note: A template carries the assumptions of the place it was designed for. Edit the sizes and the layout to fit how you actually live.

When a blank plan is the better starting point

A template is a gift of a room program, and it is the wrong gift in a few situations. Start from a blank plan when the shape of your space is fixed from outside, such as a plot outline or an existing building shell. Then a template's envelope is a liability rather than a shortcut.

Start blank when the assumptions mislead. A template for a family home gives you a hallway and a utility room whether you want them or not, and editing out six rooms can take longer than drawing the three you need.

The test is simple. If the envelope matches and at least half the rooms are ones you would have drawn anyway, use it. If it does not match, or most of the rooms would be deleted, start blank. Either way you end up with the same plan, and the pillar guide covers the drawing order.

• Blank plan when the envelope is fixed by a plot
• Blank plan when most of the rooms would be deleted
• Use a template when the envelope matches and half the rooms fit
• Looking through the gallery costs nothing

Note: The gallery is a catalogue, not a recommendation engine. Every template is a typical room program, and choosing the wrong one costs you an afternoon.

A checklist you can reuse

• The gallery was searched by tag before browsing by category
• The chosen template's envelope is close to the real space
• The room count and total area matched what you expected
• The template was placed and confirmed to be fully editable
• Changes were made one at a time, envelope first
• New sizes were typed into the inspector, not dragged
• The reason for each change was written in a note on the plan

Common mistakes to avoid

• Editing everything at once. A template changed in five places at the same time is impossible to review and easy to break. Change the envelope, look again, then move to the next decision.
• Treating the catalog dimensions as measurements. Template sizes are typical examples rounded to 50 mm. Replace them with your own numbers before you compare areas or quote a price to anybody.
• Keeping rooms you will never use. A template for a family home always has a utility room and a hallway. If you are deleting most of them, drawing the plan you actually need is faster.
• Dragging sizes instead of typing them. A dragged size is a guess, and the area label will look authoritative while being wrong. Type the millimeters you measured.
• Forgetting that a placed template is your plan now. Nothing stays linked to the template once it is placed, so there is no update button to press. Keep your own copy of the .canv project file.

Frequently asked questions

How many floor plan templates are there?

Seventy, across eight categories: 23 residential, 10 office, 10 retail and hospitality, 5 education, 2 health, 5 community and culture, 9 practical and utility, and 6 outdoor and site. Each card in the gallery shows the room count and the total area.

Can I edit a template after placing it?

Completely. A placed template is an ordinary plan: every room, wall, opening and dimension is editable and nothing stays linked to the template. There is no update that overwrites your changes, because there is no template underneath any more once you place it.

Are the template dimensions accurate for a real building?

No, and the catalog says so. Every template is a typical, illustrative room program with conventional dimensions, reviewed against common practice and rounded to 50 mm. They are a sensible starting point, never a measurement of the space in front of you.

Can I use a template for something that is not a building?

You can, because a template is just a set of rooms with typical sizes. It is at its best when the program matches, and the reason it helps is that a template shows you a complete arrangement of a room program you might not have thought of alone.

This guide is part of the floor plan guides collection. For the wider product tour, read the complete Canvasola guide, and keep the keyboard shortcut cheat sheet open while you work.