Countryside house Design

Informal yet elegant, it’s no wonder why country homes reign as America’s single most popular house-plan design style. Country house plans are a broad architectural genre that reflects many other home-plan styles and floor-plan influences, overlapping with home styles such as farmhouse, cottage, and cabin house plans. Whether it’s a primary residence set within a spread-out suburban environment or a vacation home hidden away in the rural countryside retreat, country-style house plans are the architectural embodiment of the American Dream.

Merging design principles of utility and beauty, country home plans in the United States evolved as their own take on English and Old World rural estates. Characteristic gable roofs and dormer windows draw the eyes upward to the lofty higher lines of country homes.

The Plan Collection offers nearly 6, 000 country-home-inspired house plans, bringing fresh new design talent to this celebrated floor plan and home type. A few of the features typical of country homes that you’re bound to love include:

Generous front porch. The most iconic of country house plans and country-style homes have elaborate front porches—serving as a functional transition space between outdoors and indoors and adding beautiful woodworking detail to the home’s appearance. The Plan Collection’s country house plans have everything from wraparound porches and front porches with posts to covered doorways. Nothing complements a country-home porch like colorful pots of plants or baskets of hanging flowers to give you the warm feeling of loving your new home.

Fireplace as home centerpiece. Since their beginnings in the early 19th century, country homes have emphasized rich family life, warmth, and comfort. Before modern conveniences of central heating and electricity on tap, the home’s fireplace provided coziness in a common space. Still today, a family that lives in a country-style home is naturally drawn to the fireplace, congregating around it and embracing the warmth it provides as they take in the beauty of their country house plan.

Ample square footage. Country style home plans aren’t built for confined, high-density city living. The floor plans embrace size and space and are more adapted to sprawling countryside landscapes and rural environs. Of The Plan Collection’s thousands of country home plans, the majority boast a square footage of at least 1, 500 square feet.

Rustic finishes and decor. Traditionally, country homes were built with whatever materials were available locally in remote rural areas. Simple stone and brick exteriors with textured interiors and wood floors prevailed. Today, materials are readily transported to any build site, yet country-living house plans still preserve that original vernacular look with exposed wood beams and rough textures. Likewise, country house owners often opt to decorate with folksy decor that reflects a complementary style to their country homes.

John Cordis Baker, author of the famous American Country Homes and Their Gardens, published in the early 20th century (Harvard University), wrote that common-sense use of materials and the evolution of new construction methods characterize the design of country homes. These, he argues, “form a distinctly American solution to the problem of a country house. The result is that our country houses have a distinction of their own … they faithfully express our modern American civilization and show a certain sensible comfort.”

Take a look through the great variety of country house plans available from trusted home designers and The Plan Collection, and start turning your dream home into a reality today.