Interior Design Adjacency Matrix
Defend your layout decision before the client meeting. Export every cell as a real PowerPoint shape.
Interior designers learning how to make an adjacency matrix for a residential floor plan typically discover the technique through Carolyn Jean Matthews' Adjacency Matrix Decoded — the contemporary teaching that re-popularised the method for the modern interior-design audience. The matrix is what lets you walk into a client meeting and say "the master bedroom needs to be far from the kids' bathrooms because the matrix shows it" rather than "because I like it that way." It turns programmatic instinct into a defensible document.
This tool builds that matrix in your browser, no account required. Drop the 3-Bedroom Home template to skip the cold start, or type your own room list — one room per line — and the triangular matrix renders live as you go. Click any cell to cycle the relationship through primary (●, must be adjacent), secondary (○, should be reasonably close), and undesired (—, keep apart). The Architectural and Pastel Plan themes match the visual language most residential designers use in client presentations; Bold Brand and Monochrome Premium give you alternatives for branded studios.
The editable PowerPoint export is the difference versus every other "adjacency matrix generator" online. Free competitors stop at a flattened PNG — useful for personal reference but unusable when a developer or homeowner asks "can you move the laundry next to the kitchen instead?" the night before the deck is due. With a Pro subscription, you open the .pptx in PowerPoint, drag the laundry cell, change one marker, and the slide is ready. The same workflow scales up to commercial architecture matrices and the longer-tail room-adjacency variant; see the main Adjacency Matrix Diagram tool for the complete catalogue of use cases.
Related variants
Same tool, configured for a related use case.
Architecture Adjacency Matrix Generator
Map programmatic relationships before you sketch the plan. Export as editable PowerPoint for the next client review.
Room Adjacency Matrix for Floor Plans
Build your room-by-room adjacency analysis in the browser. Drop the result straight into your floor-plan deck.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make an adjacency matrix for an interior design project?
List your rooms in the textarea on the left (one per line), pick the 3-Bedroom Home starter template if you want a head start, then click each cell in the triangular matrix to mark each pair's adjacency. The matrix updates live. When you're done, add a title, pick the theme that matches your studio's branding, and export as PNG (free) or editable PowerPoint shapes (Pro).
Did Carolyn Matthews invent the adjacency matrix?
No. She is the contemporary educator who re-popularised the adjacency-matrix method for the modern interior-design audience through her Adjacency Matrix Decoded book and course. The technique itself is older — its mathematical form is a graph-theory primitive, and its use as an architectural-programming tool dates to the 1960s-70s alongside William Peña's Problem Seeking methodology and Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form.
Can my client see the matrix in their PowerPoint after I export it?
Yes, and that's the point. The Pro PowerPoint export produces real, selectable shapes — not a flattened image. Your client can open the .pptx, hover over a cell to see which two rooms it represents, and you can recolor or relabel any cell during the meeting if the conversation shifts. No other adjacency-matrix tool ships an editable PowerPoint deliverable like this.
What's the difference between primary, secondary, and undesired adjacency?
Primary (●, filled circle) means the two rooms must be adjacent for the home to work — kitchen next to dining, master bedroom next to master bath. Secondary (○, open circle) means the two should be reasonably close but not strictly adjacent — bedrooms close to a shared bath, but a corridor between them is fine. Undesired (—, dash) means the rooms should be deliberately separated — kids' bedrooms away from a noisy garage, for example.
Can I use this for kitchen or bathroom layouts inside a single room?
The tool's sweet spot is room-to-room relationships for an entire floor or apartment — typically 8-20 items. For zone-to-zone relationships inside a single large room (e.g. a kitchen's prep / cook / clean zones), an adjacency matrix can work but a more freehand bubble diagram or our Whiteboard tool is usually a better fit.