How to Design a Ranch Home

The architect Cliff May is credited with designing the first ranch-style homes. They became popular in the United States after World War II as families spread out into suburban areas. May's California designs were single-story, oriented to the outdoors and had open floor plans. With some slight variations in style and ornamentation, all ranch homes share some basic elements. Keep the following design characteristics in mind when you plan your ranch home.

Instructions

- 1
  Design a one-story house with a hipped or gabled roof and deep, overhanging eaves. Hipped roofs have both sloping ends and sides. A gabled roof is peaked with triangular sections of wall at the ends of the roof.
- 2
  Choose a simple rectangle design. Ranch houses also can be L-shaped or U-shaped. Clad the house in brick or wood or a combination of the two with brick on the lower half and wood on the upper.
- 3
  Add an attached garage or carport that shares the roof line and leave the exterior free of ornamentation except for shutters on windows.
- 4
  Use large picture windows in your design and add sliding glass doors to a patio. Wrap windows around corners at the ends of the house.
- 5
  Create an open floor plan with a minimal number of walls in common areas. Cluster bedrooms together along a hallway at one end of the house.
- 6
  Leave interior walls plain and use tile in the bathrooms. Period bathroom tiles were pink, pale green and pale blue. Lay solid wood or cork floors.

What Is a Japanese Pagoda?

Factors Influencing Roof Designs

Architecture