12 Unique House Plans That Are Sure to Stand Out

Fun and Livable Homes for Your Next Build

 

What makes a unique house plan, well unique?

Sometimes, homes attract us just because they’re different from others we’ve previously seen: in looks, the livability of its floor plan and features, or how the home fits or blends in (or stands out!) with the building lot.

In the article, we’ll look at homes that have helpful and interesting features that set them apart from their more typical counterparts.

Many of these homes have:

• Unique curb appeal
• Unusual construction features
• Interesting living features
• Out of the ordinary, but useful features

We believe that it’s the unique features that truly make houses feel like home. They make them more interesting, and often, more functional.

Here are a few of our favorites:

 

1. Country Transitional with Asymmetrical Twist

We love this home because of how it plays with traditional symmetry.

This 3,254-square-foot Transitional Country style home is cleanly divided in half, but its front facade is not a mirror image. Instead, the home chooses to feature two distinct entry points with similar and complementary features: a front porch and entryway with one window and one doorway adjacent to a garage with two doors.

The balance in this home is found in repeated similar features, like the Dutch Gable Roof Treatments and wooden accents above the garages.

 

2. Mountain Cottage with Detached Garage

This Contemporary Cottage is perfect for empty nesters looking to retire in nature or even as a family vacation home. Noticeably, the home’s most unique feature is its roofline, which incorporates overhangs and a rounded shed roof. However, it’s also unique in that the daylight/walkout basement (seen at bottom in the rear view) of the home is completely optional.

If you build on a sloped lot, the plan can easily accommodate this, ensuring that both the basement and the first floor have “walk out” access to the outside. But if you prefer not to have a basement – or are building on a flatter lot – then it’s completely possible to leave it out and build on a slab or crawlspace.

 

3. Urban Oasis with a Clever Layout

Unique in that it uses its space incredibly wisely, this modern urban oasis takes up 4,580 square feet in its livable footprint and features three bedrooms (four if you make the study a bedroom) and four full bathrooms.

At first glance, the home might seem awfully narrow from the street at 48 feet, but this design feature was done on purpose to make it more livable. For example, the breakfast and dining rooms expand outward from the kitchen in a tight spiral, and the master suite is tucked in the back for ultimate privacy.

Another plus? The plans even make room for an elevator.

 

4. The Outdoorsman’s Rustic Mansion

This stylish mansion is one of our favorite unique house plans because its rustic brownstone accents, wooden eaves, and bold roofline make it resemble a mountain lodge.

This style uses gables of different heights to create an attractive balance across an asymmetrical design. Combine this with plenty of outdoor space, and this is the perfect home for anyone who loves to call the mountains home. 

 

5. Modern Lake House with Plenty of Sunshine

Cozy and modern, this tiny Contemporary floor plan has two bedrooms and one full bathroom neatly nested into 672 square feet. The home is unique in that its rectangular design highly relies on symmetry. That is, the multiple entry points across the home (the garage and two doorways) are roughly the same size, and the three long windows across the front ensure that the plan’s inside and outside spaces seamlessly blend together.

This makes this home the perfect place to soak up the sun on your next getaway.

 

6. Built-In Shade for Hot Summer Days 

The particular feature we like about this Mid-Century Modern style home is its unique roofline. While the front of the home (top) has a more typical asymmetrical double-shed sloping roofline, there is an overhang in the back of the home. It is a helpful feature in that it provides shade not only to the home’s balcony but also to portions of the backyard below.

This feature is completely hidden from the street view, and its height accommodates the spacious ceiling space of a central, vaulted Great Room.

 

7. Outdoor Space for the Home Entertainer

This is one of the unique home plans that takes the concept of “the balcony” to a whole new level! One of our favorite features of this Coastal style home is that it splits the second floor in half, using the front space as an outdoor entertaining area. 

This would be the perfect home in a location near a body of water or other natural views like rolling plains or mountains, as the majority of the home’s front facade is made up of windows, making it the best place to watch the sunrise (or sunset!). And the high central overhang is designed to shade the residents from the high summer sun.

 

8. Fairy Tale Cottage with a Charming Flair

This Country Cottage with Ranch-influenced features looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale because of its earth-toned colors, whimsically curved eaves, wide overhangs, and classic shutters. The only thing missing is a fresh blanket of snow, and this home could easily be mistaken for a gingerbread house.

This is one of our favorite unique house plans because it also comes with an optional second floor, just in case you need more space to live out your own fairy tale.

 

9. French Castle Fit for Royalty

Maybe your fairy-tale ending is more French Chateau than classic Cottage. This luxury chateau with a chic stone exterior is unique in that it gives you the opportunity to live like royalty, boasting six bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and even a small movie theater for entertaining.

At the end of each day, you’ll come up the driveway to a spacious four-car garage space, or simply park under the fortified porte-cochere. Its a great fit for anyone who wants to incorporate a little bit of Old World Continental flair into their daily life.

 

10. Modern Car-Lovers Dream

This modern masterpiece (rear view shown at top) has plenty of room for your family and your toys. With five bedrooms, four full bathrooms, and a three-car garage. If you have a large family (or a large car collection) – it’s a great fit.

This is a unique house plan because it plays with hard vertical lines on its exterior while maintaining cozy functionality inside, making it the perfect family home. Its many windows also provide the space with plenty of warm, natural light, further lending the home to this cozy feeling.

 

11. Ranch Style Perfect for Hobbyists

If you have a hobby that you’ve always wanted a special place for in your home, then this Ranch style house is one of the best unique floor plans for you. The home bucks tradition by incorporating porthole windows above its entrances. It also already has 2,788 square feet of living space on its main floor in addition to an oversize 1426-square-foot four-car garage -- sporting plenty of space for a workshop.

However, the basement, if finished according to the suggested floor plan, would add 2,788 square feet, including two extra bedrooms, two extra full bathrooms, and one extra half bath. At least one of those extra bedrooms could be further space for a craft room, a yoga room, or – for the entrepreneur – even a small-business stock room.

 

12. Futuristic Multi-Family

This is one of the unique house designs that’s a great fit for developers or landlords interested in building their own units. The plan features four identical, private homes which fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces; however, because of the predictable nature of how the different units interact with each other, it’s possible to consider extending or compressing the line to alter the number of homes if you need to do so.

We like this plan particularly because of its customizability to suit the needs of the owner.

 

Unique homes fit unique needs. When building a house, everyone has different tastes in style, features, and size. Some might prefer a small house plan with a functional look, while others might prefer a larger, more ornate place to live. No matter the preference, if you’re willing to think outside the box, you’ll be able to find your perfect match.