French Country homes are popping up across the country and people are putting their own personal touches on this home style. Architectural features like stone walls and floors, raw wood, distressed ceiling beams and timbers, and irregular plaster walls form the frame of a home decorated in the French Country style. It is the use of these natural materials such as stone and ceiling beams that will increase the cost of a home in this style. Assuming that you can repurpose some old barn floors or timbers, you can save a significant amount in material costs, but you'll also have to consider the labor costs involved in removing the old wood or stone from an old building. The focus is old and charming.
French Country homes that mimic homes and chateaus from the French countryside can look nearly as authentic as their ancestors with the exception of having modernized floor plans. Colors are often the earth tones of the natural materials that blend with the countryside of France. When choosing the French Country home style, it's important to keep in mind that costs will most likely be higher, but the payoff is a home that looks like it has been around for decades.
Rooflines are also steep in a true French Country replication with hipped rooflines that can exceed a ten/twelve pitch. This essentially means that the square feet per foot of roofing is higher resulting in a higher cost to shingle. While standard shingles are often used, if you upgrade to a slate or terra cotta roof, costs will go even higher.
The beauty of a French Country home plan is that it will most likely be updated with an open concept floor plan with the kitchen, dining area, and great rooms all blending easily together to create one large living area. The use of natural beam timbers works well with these house plans and actually works to define individual rooms within the living area. Walls are often painted in a faux style to reflect an older, worn look, and the use of pastels and jewel tones are often used to make rooms feel spacious with a warm vibe. Today's homeowners are demanding open house plans where everyone can stay connected throughout the day and French Country homes are no exception. Kitchens are often large with either hardwood or stone floors, light walls, and spacious islands or breakfast bars.
Wood tones are often muted and mixed with wrought iron railings and stone, wood, or marble floors further adding to the French Country era and helping to create a feeling of openness that is so popular in today's homes.
The beauty of a French Country home is that it is adaptable to virtually any size of home. As you browse through our portfolio, you'll see that we offer a variety of house plan sizes that are French Country with varying rooflines and materials. And, if you don't see what you're looking for, we will be happy to modify any home plan in our portfolio to give it a French Country flavor.
This will be done through the different uses of the rooflines, materials chosen for the exterior of the home, and through the addition of beamed ceiling details in the main areas of the house plan. And as previously discussed, we can make sure that the house plan is open and comfortable through the efficient use of every square inch. Please feel free to call us at 800-725-6852 to ask about updating any plan in our house plan portfolio to the French Country style.
All of our plans are drawn with an unfished full basement unless otherwise stated. All of our house plans that have a finished basement included in the set have a number that ends in LL. We can also draw up finished house plans for a completely finished lower level at an extra charge. Finished basements are becoming more and more popular as building costs continue to rise and the French Country home style is no exception. In fact, many people include a wine cellar in the lower level along with a bar, finished bedrooms, game rooms, exercise rooms, and extra living room space. We are able to complete basement house plans in pretty much every configuration, so if you would like us to look at that option and provide you with a quote, we would be happy to do so.
It is often less expensive to go down instead of up especially with our French Country ranch homes. We are finding more and more customers requesting two bedrooms on the main level and additional bedrooms in a finished lower level and you'll see that many of our plans that end in LL have that configuration.
The bottom line is that if you would like a French Country house plan, we have many for you to choose from, and you can customize any of them to include nearly anything that you want.
