Posts tagged Craftsman House Plans

With the house plans that are on the market today it’s possible to plan the construction of virtually any kind of home you want on your property.  Floor plans for craftsman homes are particularly popular in many areas of the country, especially in areas where plots of land tend to be larger.  These craftsman house plans are designed with inspiration from the arts and crafts movement that swept the nation’s architecture and art communities during the early 20^th century.  This design may be a century old, but it is certainly alive and well in the design of many contemporary homes.

There are many things that distinguish the home design of the arts and crafts movement from the designs of other eras.  Home plans will often include wrap-around porches, for starters, although this is not a requisite of the style.  Craftsman homes also tend to have a great deal of wood trim and decorative elements, and they are always designed to be more informal and inviting than the homes of other eras.  The homes also tend to be mid-sized, but you can find house plans that range from smaller sized bungalows to large two-story homes.

The craftsman home design became popular and stayed popular for many reasons.  The style came about thanks to the homes built by the working class and middle class during the Industrial Revolution.  This was when the wealthy would build very large and expansive estates with mostly mass produced materials, and the common folks that worked in various professions tended to have hand-built homes made from natural materials.  The overly decorated homes of the Victorian era inspired the craftsman architectural movement in England and the United States, where people started building their homes with cleaner lines using only the natural materials that came from local artisans.  The house plans were also designed around the idea of the mother doing the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing rather than servants, which is why homes started to become more open.

The new home plans that came out of the arts and crafts movement incorporated simplicity and functionality into the design and even in the materials that were used.  Natural and hand-crafted materials such as wood, stone and glass became commonplace.  Floor plans with low-pitched roof lines, gabled or hipped roofs, deep overhanging eaves, exposed rafters and front porches built under extensions of the main roofs typified these homes.  It is easy to see why this style became popular, and why so many people still want these floor plans today.