47 Creative Farmhouse House Plans Ideas With Wrap Around Porch

When someone imagines homes in the North American countryside, many house designs come to mind. It may be a farmhouse among vast, cultivated fields, a small cabin hugging the forest, a simple small-town cottage, or even a stunning mansion reminiscent of the American South. Each of these home styles promotes a relaxing, rural lifestyle that perhaps country home plans can best convey.

What characteristics give these home designs their charm? For many country house plans, large shaded front porches add a particularly rural ambiance. These porches often have enough room for gathering comfortably in the cool evening air with family or friends-a feature that is especially important in warm climates, or in homes without air conditioning. Country home porches often wrap around a portion of the house and sometimes even the entire house-a testament to their significance for the country lifestyle. Other common characteristics of country home plans include gabled roofs, dormer windows, and bold shutters. A gabled roof along with dormer windows looks pleasant and adds functional space to the attic, whether to be used for storage or extra sleeping quarters. Shutters, if functional, offer the house extra protection from the elements, and enhance their rural charm.

Clearly, the use of numerous architectural elements can combine to create a beautiful country home. For some, however, the charm of their country home will lie in its simplicity, and such features need not be extravagant. For example, a house built in the countryside may need only to serve as a getaway for weekend outings. Thus, a small, cabin-like structure of simple design can function well, and still provide the rustic charm of a country house. House plans such these are often designed to complement the beauty of their natural surroundings, and thus an understated house design can do very well.

Those who wish to build with country home plans will find they are not lacking options when it comes to size, layout and amenities. These designs range in size from simple starter homes to a sprawling luxury designs that are loaded with plenty of extras. Perhaps this diversity and their warm, inviting nature is what ranks country house plans consistently among North America’s most popular home styles.