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Welcome
Bungalow Plans
& Designs
If you are excited to move into your own cozy, artfully designed bungalow home, you can shop and customize any of our plans online.
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Stock Plans
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Architects
200+
EXCLUSIVE DESIGNS
1800+
Completed BUILDS
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What Is A Bungalow?
A bungalow is a one-story or one-and-a-half-story home featuring a pitched roof. Typically, bungalows are craftsman style on the small side.
There are many subcategories of bungalows with stylistic differences, but most feature elements from the Arts and Crafts Movement. You can also find colonial-style bungalows, Tudor Revival-style bungalows, modern bungalows and more.
Hearing this definition, you might be wondering if a bungalow is the same as a ranch home. There are some similarities, like a one-story layout. The low roof pitch is also not dissimilar from those in atomic ranch homes specifically. But bungalows usually feature larger porches, more enclosed designs, smaller windows, and more traditional building materials.
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Characteristics of Bungalows
The easiest way to help you envision a bungalow is to go over a list of common bungalow features.
One or One-and-a-Half Story
Typically, a classic bungalow either has a single story, or it has one-and-a-half stories. The extra half-story generally takes the form of an attic room under the pitched roof. Some bungalows have two stories.
Low Roof Pitch
There is generally a low roof pitch similar to what you might find on a ranch house. The eaves tend to have a substantial overhang. The beams of the roof may be left exposed for a decorative effect.
Open and Closed Areas
The living room and kitchen inside a bungalow are typically connected in an open floor plan, another similarity with ranch homes.
Sometimes the other rooms in a bungalow may also be incorporated into an open floor plan, but other times, they will be closed off, private, and cozy.
Compact Design
Even though some of the original bungalows in California were large, today, “bungalow” usually refers to a home with a compact size and shape. Most of the time, bungalows do not include an attached garage, but there are some exceptions.
Large Porch
One of the most recognizable elements of bungalow design is a large front porch.
Sometimes, the front porch may span almost the entire width of the home.
Plus, a bungalow house’s porch is usually framed on top by a gable, often with exposed beams.
Natural Materials
Bungalows are usually constructed out of natural, traditional materials such as wood or stone. This gives them a warm, inviting look and feel.
The façade of a bungalow can be painted in any color. But it is very common for bungalows to feature neutral hues like white, beige, brown, taupe, and so forth.
Craftsman Style Architecture Elements
Craftsman style homes are what most people are picturing if you tell them to imagine a bungalow house.
In fact, the use of natural materials and colors in construction is one of the hallmarks of the Craftsman style. Some other features of the Craftsman style that tend to show up in bungalow homes include columns for the porch, shingled roofs, artfully designed wood trim with artistic embellishments, wood molding, and interior archways to connect the rooms.
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other architectural styles & Influences
Along with Craftsman styles, you will also find California
bungalows, Chicago
bungalows, Prairie bungalows, Tudor bungalows, and Mission bungalows.
There are also plenty of modern bungalows that mix and match elements of each of these styles. You may encounter modern bungalows as well. Will we have plans availabe for each of these variations and influences.
