4 Cool Design Features to Incorporate into Your Ranch House Plans

If you are in the process of picking out floor plan designs for your new ranch style home, then you should take the time and consider some of the cool design features you want incorporated into the plans. Now is the best time to consider all of the many features you can incorporate into the house.

Once you have picked out the floor plan design you like, and have handed the blueprints over to the contractor, and construction is underway, it will be a mad rush to get things changed. So, the planning stage where you are looking into different architectural blueprints and different floor plans is when you want to get all decisions made. Here are 4 cool ideas to consider before breaking ground.

Side Facing Garage

This design became quite popular in recent years. It moves the garage to the side of the house, which makes the front of the house more streamlined. One some older style ranch homes the garage sat in the front of the house and this created a very dominating visual tableau. By moving the garage to the side of the house, it will make your home look larger, and you won't have that cumbersome garage facing out to the street, disrupting the flow of your home.

Open Kitchen With Visual Divider

One of the great things about a ranch home with an open floor plan is that you can have a beautiful open kitchen, which is great for entertaining. However, you want some sort of visual barrier to create a mental "separation". So make sure the floor plan includes some sort of half height room divider. This will mark the boundary of the kitchen and the living room and dining room areas. If you are not keen on a pure divider, you could always have a large island installed on the edge of the kitchen and let that be the boundary.

Vaulted Living Room Ceiling (a Ranch & Noe-Eclectic Mashup)

Many old ranch style homes, especially those in the classic California style, didn't have large ceilings. However, that is changing and there are many ranch layouts that can accommodate vaulted ceilings. There are even some multi-story designs (often called the "raised ranch). So, if you like the look of a high ceiling in your living room, make sure you choose an open ranch floor plan that incorporates vaulted ceilings.

Exposed Ceiling Beams

If you are not keen on a high, vaulted ceiling, but do like the rustic look of the classic southwestern Ranch style homes (which were influenced by Spanish colonial design) then you should consider exposed ceiling beams. These are great if you are going to the southwestern look. You don't have to have raw timber exposed, the exposed beams can be painted to contrast with the ceiling paint.

Skylights to Take Advantage of Ranch Style Design

One of the really nice aspects of a ranch house is that, because they are single story homes (most of the time, except in the cases of the raised ranches) so you can install a skylight in any room you like. This is a fantastic way to save on energy costs (less interior lighting required) and also will let you get a great view of the stars at night.