Design Your Own Barndominium Floor Plan

Step 1: Set The Footprint

Barndominiums are usually clear-span or post-frame buildings, so the outside box comes first. Common shells run 30×40, 40×40, 40×60, 50×80 and 60×100. Decide the width before anything else, because width controls how deep your rooms can be and whether you can run a hallway down the middle.

If you're buying a metal building package, get the supplier's drawing now. Eave height, column spacing and the location of any framed openings will shape the interior more than any other decision.

Step 2: Split Living Space From Shop Space

Draw a line across the footprint. One side is heated living space, the other is shop, garage or storage. Most owners start with too much house and too little shop, then regret it. Decide what the shop actually has to hold: vehicles, an RV or boat, a lift, a workbench wall, a wash bay. Then size it from that list.

Put a mudroom, laundry and half bath right at the door between the two. That's the most-used corner of almost every shop house.

Step 3: Zone The Living Space

Group rooms into three zones before you draw a single wall:

• Public: kitchen, dining and great room, usually one open space under the tallest ceiling
• Private: bedrooms and baths, with the primary suite apart from the other bedrooms
• Working: pantry, laundry, mudroom, office and storage, close to the shop and the garage entry

Put the public zone where the best view or the main porch is. Put the private zone on the quieter side, away from the shop.

Step 4: List Every Room With A Size

Write the rooms down with rough dimensions. A few sizes that work in most barndominiums:

Add the sizes up. If the total is bigger than the living side of your footprint, something has to shrink or the building has to grow. It's much cheaper to find that out now.

Step 5: Sketch It To Scale

Use graph paper at one square per foot, or a free online floor plan app. Draw the outside walls first, then the wet rooms (kitchen, baths, laundry). Keeping plumbing walls close together saves real money. Then fill in bedrooms and closets.

Mark windows on the walls that matter, the main entry, the porch, and where the driveway reaches the building. Don't worry about wall thickness or exact dimensions. That's the designer's job.

Step 6: Check The Mistakes Everyone Makes

• Walking through a bedroom or the laundry to reach another room
• No coat closet or drop zone at the door you actually use
• A great room so large it's hard to heat, cool and furnish
• Primary suite sharing a wall with the shop
• No storage anywhere outside the shop
• Porches that face the afternoon sun with no shade

Step 7: Get It Drafted Into A Buildable Set

Free design tools give you a picture. Your builder and county need a construction set: foundation details, framing, wall sections, electrical, plumbing and HVAC, all drawn to code. That's where a custom barndominium floor plan service comes in. Send your sketch and the checklist below, and a design team turns it into a full set, starting at $2 per heated square foot.

Get Your Sketch Drafted

Barndominium Design Checklist

Print this, fill it in, and send it with your sketch. A complete brief is the biggest single factor in getting a first draft that's close to final.

Print The Checklist

• Overall footprint, or the supplier's shell drawing (width, length, eave height, column spacing, door openings)
• Heated square footage target
• Shop or garage size, door sizes and ceiling height
• What the shop has to hold: vehicles, RV, boat, lift, equipment
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Primary suite location and must-haves (walk-in shower, tub, closet size)
• Kitchen must-haves: island, pantry, appliance wall, coffee bar
• Office, safe room, loft or second-story space
• Porch locations and depths
• One story or two
• Foundation type: slab, crawlspace or basement
• Framing method: stick-frame, post-frame or steel
• Ceiling heights in the main living area and bedrooms
• Roof style and pitch, roofing material
• Lot details: slope, which way the view faces, driveway approach, setbacks
• Your sketch, plus photos of homes you like