Barndominium, clearly
Barndominium floor plans with a shop
If the shop is why you are looking at a barndominium, where it meets the house decides how the house lives: what you hear, what you smell, and what you carry through the kitchen.
A barndominium plan is usually drawn as one big rectangle under one roof. Inside it, two very different buildings have to get along: a house, which wants quiet, light and clean floors, and a shop, which makes noise, dust and fumes and brings the outdoors in on its boots.
A listing can lead with the exterior and the square footage. We think the first thing to read is the line where the shop stops and the house starts. Everything else follows from it.
Three ways a shop meets the house in a barndominium: sharing one wall, with a mudroom buffer between, or as a separate building joined by a breezeway.
Shared wall
Buffer room
Breezeway
Three ways the shop meets the house
Every plan in this category uses one of these, or a mix. None is right for everyone.
Shared wall
The shop and the living space sit side by side and share one interior wall, often with a single door between them.
The least separation. Sound, dust and fumes are one door away from the kitchen or a bedroom.
Light hobby use, storage, vehicles that come and go without much work done inside.
Buffer room
A mudroom, laundry or pantry sits between the shop and the house, so you pass through a working room before a living one.
The buffer takes floor area from the house side. Check that it still works as a mudroom, not just a corridor.
Daily shop use, muddy work, a household that wants a wash-up stop on the way in.
Breezeway
The shop is its own volume, joined to the house by a covered, open or enclosed connection.
More exterior wall and roof to build, and you step outside between the two in bad weather.
Loud or messy work, equipment that runs for hours, anyone who wants the house to feel like a house.
What to compare between plans
- 01
The shop-to-kitchen path
Trace the walk from the shop to the kitchen sink. Does it pass a place to take off boots and wash up, or does it cross the living room?
- 02
Which rooms back onto the shop
A bedroom or office on the shared wall hears everything. A closet, pantry or laundry on that wall absorbs it.
- 03
Living area and shop area, listed separately
Check whether the seller lists heated living area and shop area as separate figures. Compare the same figure across plans, never living area on one and total under roof on another.
- 04
Light on the house side
Deep barndominium footprints can leave interior rooms with no exterior wall. Check that every bedroom has a window on the plan.
- 05
The shop door and what goes through it
Read the door size on the plan against the vehicles or equipment you actually own, and where you will turn them around outside.
- 06
Porch and arrival
If you work in the shop daily, the shop door may become your main door. Decide which door guests use and which one you use.
Trade-offs to expect
- A big clear-span shell makes rooms easy to rearrange, but long interior walls need light and air planned in, not assumed.
- The more separate the shop, the more it costs to build and the more you walk outside to reach it.
- A shop on the shared wall saves a buffer room's floor area and gives it back as noise.
Ask before you buy the plan
Questions for the seller, your builder and your lender. These are the details online listings rarely settle.
- Does the plan list the shop area separately from heated living area, and which figure does the price refer to?
- What does your local code require between an attached shop or garage and the living space? Ask your builder, not the listing.
- How does the plan set handle insulation and vapor control for a metal building in your climate?
- Can the shop door change size or position without redrawing the structure?
- Which foundation does the plan set include, and is a version for your site available?
- How does your lender classify a barndominium, and does that change the loan or the insurance? Ask early.
Plans worth comparing
No verified plans are published for this brief yet. The table appears here once each spec has been checked against the seller's listing.
Read next
- LayoutsMudroom and laundry room layouts: planning the drop zoneWhere should the mudroom and laundry go, and should they be the same room?
- BuildBefore you buy a house plan: 11 things to checkWe like this plan. What do we check before we pay for it?
- CollectionsOne-story house plans: what to compare before you chooseWhich one-story layout fits the way your household will live in it for the next twenty years?