French Country House Plans
Homes built from French Country House Plans typically have steeply pitched hipped roofs and often have an asymmetrical façade. Doors and windows are often arched or rounded, and the eaves are typically flared at the junction of the roof and the wall. Most exteriors are of brick, and/or stone, and/or stucco. The multiple roof elements in French country home designs provide a unique and beautiful outline, especially from the front and rear of the house.
Inspired by the grand manors of the French countryside, French country home plans (or Acadian house plans, as some people refer to them), produce homes that are elegant but easy to live in. Interior layout can vary greatly, but the rectangular footprint lends itself to flexible room placement and flow. Exposed wood beams, stone floors, and plaster walls are often found in homes constructed from French country plans.
Common Characteristics of French Country Home Plans:
- Multiple steep roofs with flared eaves
- Brick, and/or stone, and/or stucco façade
- Most often designed as a two-story home
- Typically have an asymmetrical exterior
- Doors and windows are often arched or rounded
- Undulating roofline gives the house a medieval feel
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What follows are excerpts from “American House Styles: A Concise Guide”, written by John Milnes Baker, A.I.A., and published by W. W. Norton in 1994
French Rural (French Country) – 1915-1940
Americans who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the nineteenth century studied classical
architecture – particularly the grandiose classicism associated with the school. As the revival styles
caught on here prior to the First World War, the rural vernacular architecture of the French countryside
became an important inspiration for our residential architecture. The steeply pitched hip roof with
subtly flared curves at the eaves, the circular stair towers, and the substantial but uncoursed stonework
had tremendous appeal to Americans. Many of our soldiers came back from the war with an appreciation
of the rural beauty of France. Young artists, writers, and architects went to France in the twenties
and our love affair with France continued. H.D. Eberlein’s Small Manor Houses and Farmsteads in France
published in 1926 and Samuel Chamberlains’s Domestic Architecture of Rural France in 1928 were popular
resources for residential architects.
Philadelphia was particularly receptive to these rural French houses. Normandy Village in Chestnut Hill and the work of Mellor, Meigs & Howe on the Main Line were particularly important. Arthur Meig’s idyllic farm complex for Arthur E. Newbold, Jr. in Laverock appeared on the cover of Country Life in America in 1925 and captured the essence of the movement.
In our desire to identify house styles with a particular time and place which we feel express feelings about ourselves, we use names like “Normandy farmhouse,” “French Provincial” (although that term has come to imply something pretty vulgar in recent years), or, for the anglophile, the “Cotswold cottage.” One or two small details can suggest one style over another when in fact the basic houses are quite similar. All are basically forms of a comfortable country style.
