Custom Barndominium Design Services
A barndominium is a barn-style structure that includes the finishing to serve as a comfortable and spacious home. Some people convert barns into barndominiums, or choose an existing floor plan. But many design a barndominium from the ground up. This guide helps you understand the barndo design process, and find a custom barndominium design service to work with.
What Goes Into a Barndominium Design?
A custom barndominium design gives you the floor plan for your future home, plus the various systems and utilities that make it livable. When you have a custom floor plan made, it will include:
- A cover sheet
- Foundation plans
- HVAC plans
- Electrical plans
- Plumbing plans
- Dimensioned floor plans
- Roof plans
- Roof framing
- Foundation detail
- Wall section
You can submit these combined plans to your local building department to obtain your building permits. After that, you can apply for financing, and start building your home.
How Much Do Barndominium Design Services Cost?
Other barndominium design services can range in cost from 3 to 8 per square foot.
We offer the most affordable custom design service at $2 per square foot.
So, for example, if you want to design a barndo that is 1,200 square feet, that will be $2,400. If you want a 3,000 square foot barndo, the cost would be $6,000, and so on.
Some services may be less expensive, if you are buying pre-existing plans, or if the plans do not include everything you need (i.e. a basic floor plan, but no plans for plumbing, electrical, etc.).
Remember, custom plans require a great deal of work, which is why they are not cheap.
What is the Custom Design Process?
1. Fill out your order form for the service, and send the designer your ideas. Maybe you just have some notes about what you want, or perhaps you have some sketches, etc. Whatever you have, send it through.
2. The design team will draw up some sketches and mockups for you.
3. Take a look at the concepts, and see what you think. If you love them, you can approve them. If you want some changes, you can request revisions.
4. Once your revision requests are received, the design team will go ahead and make the changes. They will send you back the concepts.
5. Go back and forth as needed. When you give your final approval, the team will create the finalized plans and send them to you.
You can then submit the plans to the building department for approval.
An Example of our Custom Design Service: The Gillian Plan
What to Consider When Choosing Custom Barndominium Designers
Not all barndominium designers are equal. How should you decide which custom barndominium designers to work with? Here are some factors you can assess.
- Experience: Try and find a designer that has years of experience, particularly with custom barndo designs (not just general design). They will have more knowledge of different ways to configure space to satisfy all your constraints and goals.
- Team versus one person: Will you be working with just one designer the entire time, or a team of designers? There is no “best” option, it just comes down to what you prefer. Go with whatever you are comfortable with.
- Level of customization: What elements of the floor plan are you allowed to customize? Can you request specialty features, like off-grid features, etc.?
- Knowledge of local regulations: If you want your approval process with the local building department go as smoothly as possible, it is essential that your plans be up to code. Pick a local company, or go with a regional national company that demonstrates a deep familiarity with your local building codes and zoning requirements.
- Process and timeline: There can be some variations in process and timeline from one designer to another. Work with a company that can get you what you need within your timetable, and works in a way that you find smooth and easy.
- Pricing: All other factors being equal, go with the company that can give you the best value.
- Customer service: You are probably going to have to discuss back and forth with the designers a few times before you get your custom floor plan exactly how you want. And you will be doing it potentially on a tight timeframe. So, you should try and work with a company that offers excellent customer service. It should be quick and easy for you to reach someone when you have a question or if you need to make an adjustment. That way, you can keep moving your project forward.
Things to Consider Before Designing Your Own Custom Barndo Home
Before you dive into your custom barndominium design project, let’s go over some important considerations when you are creating your floor plan.
- Location: Your lot size, as well as the features of the lot, will be important in choosing a floor plan. The lot will determine the maximum square footage you can aim for. You should also note things like where the sun rises and sets, which direction the wind usually blows, where there is sun versus shade, etc. Make use of these features as you design the layout. You may be able to design a home in such a way that you can minimize your heating and cooling costs by harnessing passive solar, cross-breezes, etc.
- Family size: How many people will be living in the house? How many children do you have? How much space do each of them need? There are varying answers to this question even for the same family size.
- Work and hobbies: Does anyone intend to work from home in the barndo? If so, they may need separate workspaces. This could include one or more home offices. For garage work and hobbies, you might actually want a particular type of barndo home called a “shop house,” or “shouse.” This is a barndo that features an extra large garage. Sometimes it even adds up to half the square footage. There may be enough room for multiple vehicles, large equipment, storage, etc.
- Future plans: The future could bring changes to your family structure, activities, and lifestyle. If you plan to add more kids later down the line, ensure your floor plan will have space for them. Is there any chance one or more might live with you into adulthood? Think about that possibility too, and whether or not they might eventually want their spouse to move in. You might need to house aging parents too. Multigenerational barndominium plans are ideal for these scenarios.
- Lifestyle: Think about how you want to live your daily life. Do you want to spend a lot of time with other household members? Larger, more open common areas might be best. Generally prefer more solitude and privacy? You may want to dedicate more of the square footage to bedrooms and other enclosed spaces. If you have special hobbies, you could build a game room, a craft room, an exercise room, a flex room, etc. This is where a lot of the fun comes in with totally custom floor plans. If you can dream it up, it probably can be made into a reality.
- Accessibility: If you plan to age in place in your barndominium, you should think about possible future needs in your floor plan. Most barndos have pretty open floor plans, which is excellent for seniors who may be using walkers, canes, etc. They tend to be well-lit too. Think about choosing a one-story floor plan, or go with a floor plan that at least has the master bedroom downstairs (which is common nowadays).
What if you are having a hard time figuring out on your own what your floor plan needs to include?
Our barndominium design team and architects can help you get started. Let them know your requirements, and they can get back to you with ideas. You can then customize from there.
You also could look at the existing barndo floor plans for inspiration. You probably can tell which floor plans appeal to you just by going through pictures. Sometimes having examples in front of you can help you to think more concretely and less abstractly.
Our Favorite Barndominium Design Service
Our partner for custom barndominium design services is BarndominiumPlans.com. They have offices in Chicago and Austin and have created over 600 custom plans for our customers.
They make it super easy to get started.
- Click the button labeled “Modify This Plan” to have the company customize one of their existing barndo floor plans.
- Commission the company to design you a completely custom floor plan starting with just your concepts and requests.
Why we love partnering with Barndominium Plans:
- Beautiful floor plans: This design company already has an excellent selection of existing Barndominium floor plans. We recommend browsing through them. Even if you do not end up using one, they should provide you with inspiration to help you understand what you want from a fully custom plan.
- Experience: Barndominium Plans has years of experience creating and modifying barndominium floor plans. This ample experience means that they can navigate around obstacles and come up with custom solutions quickly and easily to create a floor plan that will work for any lifestyle.
- Flexibility: There are multiple ways you can work with Barndominium Plans. Being able to choose the level of customization you want can be helpful in terms of project workflow and timeline.
- Affordability: Barndominium Plans has very reasonable pricing for their custom floor plans. In addition, if you decide have them make some modifications to the initial floor plan, these clarifying changes do not cost anything extra.
- Support: It is fast and easy to reach the company for support via email or phone. The customer service representatives are friendly and knowledgeable, and should be able to get you the answers you need quickly.
Barndominium Plans’ website has a selection of existing barndo floor plans with one or two stories. The smallest are in the 500-800 square foot range. The largest are more than 8,000 square feet. The most expansive floor plans can fit in as many as 8 bedrooms. Some of the special feature available include attached or detached garages, back porches, basements, bonus rooms, rec rooms, pantries, storage areas, craft rooms, fireplaces, game rooms, gyms, gyms, and more.
This gives you an idea for some of the options available for a custom barndominium floor plan from this company. If there is something you want that you do not see in their list of features on their website, just ask. There is a good chance they will be able to accommodate you.
Get Your Custom Barndo Design
If you are ready to design a custom barndominium with a floor plan that is perfect for your family and lifestyle get started with our questionnaire.
Create Your Own Custom Plan
