Online design. Designing a house with your own hands How to make a house project

Who among us has not dreamed of implementing our own design solutions into our homes, thus expressing our individual style and preferences? Do you want to design a private home with your own hands, but at the same time make it look like the work of a professional designer? In this article you will learn how to make the interior of a private home fabulous and functional without resorting to ordering expensive services.

Our following tips, complete with inspiring photos and private home designs, will help you make your dream come true. But first, let's gather the necessary tools.

DIY tools for designing a private house:

Sketch paper. This can be either a blank A3 sheet or tracing paper with millimeter divisions, if you want to not only estimate the placement of objects, but also calculate all the parameters down to the smallest detail.
Drawing board. It is convenient because it has a stand and fixed rulers.
Set of transparent rulers and triangles.
A simple pencil and eraser.

For those who are confident using a computer, there is also a wide selection of software and online applications for interior design: FloorPlan, Apartama, Sweet Home, etc. Right now you can try the English online application Homestyler, which requires no money or registration to create a detailed home plan.

For inspiration on the exterior design of private houses, read:

DIY private house design: designing a house updated: November 7, 2016 by: Margarita Glushko

Private construction is a complex and rather lengthy process that cannot be completed without a properly drawn up project. It’s quite possible to create the latter with your own hands. But for this you will have to study all the features of designing individual buildings. And, believe me, there are a lot of them.

We are planning individual housing construction - let's start small

Now many specialized companies offer to design any house. It is very comfortable. But, unfortunately, such services are not cheap. Therefore, private developers often try to plan a home on their own, without having sufficient knowledge to do so. We will try to correct the situation by describing the main stages of designing private housing construction with our own hands. With the right approach to the matter, any motivated self-taught master will be able to perform most of this operation without the help of specialists.

Designing a house always begins with determining what kind of building we want to get in the end. At this stage of work we need to find out the following:

Will the house be used year-round or is it planned to live in it exclusively in the summer (seasonal cottage outside the city, dacha).
How many residents is the house designed for? This is necessary in order to accurately determine the number of bedrooms, as well as the size of the kitchen and living room, where the whole family will often gather.
What part of the land plot will be optimal for building a private house. It can be located in depth or at the beginning of the available free space.
What outbuildings are planned to be built? You need to think about where to install an autonomous septic tank, equip a well for water supply, build a private bathhouse, a garage for a car, and so on.

Based on such data, we will be able to preliminary draw a plan for the future home, make a schematic marking of the existing plot of land, rationally and harmoniously placing all additional buildings on it. After this, you can begin to solve more serious problems.

Design stages - we adhere to a certain scheme

To make a truly high-quality house project, you need to go through several stages sequentially. We need to create:

1. Draft design.
2. Architectural plan.
3. Structural design.
4. Engineering and technical justification.
5. Design project for a future home.

Making a preliminary design of a house yourself, as was said, is as easy as shelling pears. First, we draw a simple diagram of the main building and utility structures, and sketch out the desired style and spatial solutions. Then there are two ways - turn to specialists with your sketch or try to independently draw an accurate plan for the building, foundation, floors and roof of the building. You also need to make diagrams of the transverse and longitudinal sections of the dwelling, the external appearance of its facade.

Drawing a preliminary design of a house is not enough. In addition, you will need to indicate all the features (structural) of its individual parts, and determine the materials that will be used for construction work. Based on the specified sketches and drawings, a working project is created. It is the main document for builders.

Next we move on to the architectural stage. We determine the dimensions of all premises of the home and their location. Then a diagram is drawn with marks about where the door and window openings and other architectural elements will be located. We also solve other important issues - the slope of the roof, the thickness of the walls, and so on. After all these steps we will have a lot of drawings. Moreover, explanatory notes will have to be prepared for each of them. If you have some drawing skills, you can draw a project on paper. It is even easier to carry out architectural planning using special computer programs. We'll talk about them a little later.

The construction of houses cannot be completed without determining their design features. Let's move on to the next stage. We design the foundation and the depth of its penetration into the ground, interfloor ceilings, chimney, rafter system, walls, roofing and other elements of a residential building. We display the results of the work on the drawings and immediately calculate the amount of materials that will be required for construction work.

Next, we are engaged in the preparation of engineering and technical documentation. Many private developers often omit this part of the design, which is fundamentally wrong. Without planning engineering and technical systems, building comfortable houses for living is impossible in principle! It is imperative to create a project with calculations and determination of locations for heating, ventilation, water supply and waste disposal, and electricity supply. Usually it consists of several sections (sewage, water supply, and so on). If you plan to equip your home with a security alarm, it is described in a separate document.

The final stage of the design activities is the development of the building’s exterior design and interior solutions. We choose colors for finishing interior rooms, wall surfaces, roofing, facades, and decide on the style. Advice. It makes sense to do a house project yourself in cases where a person plans to carry out most of the construction work independently. Not every self-taught master will be able to use the documentation compiled by professional architects. The average person will not understand many of the drawings and, as a result, will not be able to do everything correctly. If we ourselves were able to draw up a project, it will not be difficult for us to translate all its provisions into reality.

Tips for amateur designers - a must-read!

We always start designing our own home with geological exploration activities. They will allow you to find out the characteristics of the soil on a building plot and find out at what depth the soil waters lie. It is advisable that such work be carried out by specialists with the appropriate equipment. Moreover, geological exploration is best carried out in the last days of autumn or early spring. At this time, groundwater rises to its maximum height.

A survey of soil characteristics will make it possible to choose the optimal type of foundation for a home and determine the possibility of arranging a basement. If soil waters rise too high during floods, it is not rational to build a subfloor (ground floor). In such situations, the cost of building houses increases by 25–30%. Perhaps it would be wiser to abandon the underground and build a separate utility room instead.

If you are not sure that you will be able to correctly draw a plan for your future home, it is recommended to pay attention to ready-made (standard) solutions. It's easy to find them on the Internet. But here it is important to understand that such plans in most cases are incomplete and require serious revision. No one will post projects for free that take a lot of time to prepare.

Do not try to blindly copy standard solutions for the construction of private houses. It’s better to take some ready-made project as a basis and study it. And then try to make a house design that is truly suitable for yourself, based on the data obtained from analyzing a typical building.

If you are a beginner designer, opt for simple projects. The fewer bends, complex angles and original structural elements you plan, the easier and more economical it will be to build a private home.

Having decided to make a drawing of a simple but reliable house, consider measures aimed at increasing its energy efficiency. This is very important these days. Energy prices are skyrocketing. Every person tries to minimize heating costs. Construction industry experts recommend placing living rooms in private houses on the south side, and utility rooms on the north side. This trick is the simplest and most effective way to save energy.

You can reduce your home heating costs in another simple way. Having decided to draw a plan for your home, try to equip it with a reasonable number of windows, and not very large ones. You need to draw several diagrams. Look at the results of your work. And then choose an option in which the windows look beautiful and at the same time do not have an overly large area. Experts also advise making a plan that includes the use of high-quality modern heat insulators for various structural elements of a residential building. Good insulation materials for individual houses provide a significant reduction in the cost of maintaining a comfortable temperature in them in the winter.

Computer is the best assistant for private developers

Modern technologies allow you to properly design a cozy home. There is nowhere without them now. Creating the perfect house project will require minimal effort if you use special programs. They are easy to find on the Internet. Such programs make it possible to create models of various homes in 3D. The results of buildings designed on a computer clearly demonstrate all their advantages and disadvantages. Models can be zoomed in and out, rotated and viewed from any angles and angles. Many home planning programs are self-distributed for free, but they are well adapted for ordinary users. Let us describe several of the most well-known programs of this type.

Let's start our review with a product called SketchUp. If you want to quickly and competently complete a house project on your computer, use this program. It is free and yet truly multifunctional. SketchUp will design any building in 3D and help you create a chic interior or landscape design. The program has a lot of textures, makes it possible to change any structural part of the building and the scale of drawings, and export drawings of the compiled plan to CAD and PDF files.

Working with SketchUp yourself is very easy. The program is intuitive, although it is still better to undergo a little training so that the quality of the drawn models is the best. You can also receive lessons on how to create construction documents and drawings at a professional level. Then drawing up plans and diagrams will be even more effective.

You can also design a house using more serious software - ArchiCAD. This brainchild of the GRAPHISOFT company is actively used by professional architects and designers. It is also popular among amateurs who want to build their own cozy cottage. ArchiCAD is a complete set of tools for designing buildings and interiors. She does everything - creates models, develops technical and construction documentation, helps to correctly design stairs, fences, roofs and other elements of houses.

When planning residential buildings, she uses the most innovative visualization techniques. Please note that the licensed version of ArchiCAD is not distributed free of charge. But the results of projects made with the help of this program are so good and accurate that you don’t mind spending a little money. Nuance. To create technical documentation using ArchiCAD, you will have to learn the rules for using its main tools. It is impossible to work with the program without prior training.

Another program in our review is Arcone. You can also use it after completing the training. The “open and draw” option does not work here. Arcone is a complex multifunctional product. To use it correctly, you need to study each component of the program. And only after that proceed directly to the design.

Arcone contains about 400 materials and 1300 textures, as well as about 3000 typical three-dimensional objects. This program, developed by true professionals, is used by leading architects around the world. It will also provide real help to home craftsmen if they want to achieve the ideal quality of a private home project created with their own hands.

Use modern technologies, create the home of your dreams - comfortable, warm and reliable, and enjoy every minute spent in it. Good luck!

There is probably no person who would not dream of having their own home. This symbolizes a person’s dream, which he is trying to achieve in order to live in comfortable conditions and establish himself as a person, proving to himself that he lived and worked not in vain.

As a wise proverb says, a real man must do three things in his life - build a house, plant a tree and raise a son. And if, in principle, little depends on the person regarding the goal of “raising a son,” then planting a tree is quite possible for everyone, all it takes is a desire.

Regarding the construction of a house in our living conditions, this is not entirely simple, since for this you need to have a certain amount of money, which is not so easy to earn. However, if you still succeed, then you are lucky!

The construction of a house begins with its design in order to clearly plan the location of the rooms, their area, the number of floors, where the staircases will be located, and so on. Such a house project can be made to order for you by any construction company that carries out orders for the construction of objects. However, it is more interesting to make a house project yourself, taking into account your desires, especially since in our age of the Internet and advanced computer technologies this is not at all difficult.

From this article you will learn how you can make a house project on a computer yourself. To do this you need to use special programs. Let's take a closer look at them.

Ashampoo Home Designer Pro 2.0

First, download the program and install it on your computer, then launch it.

Please note that it is paid and costs thirty dollars, but it has a trial period. In these days, we think you will have time to design your dream home yourself on the computer.

Using this program, you can design a building in three-dimensional mode, orienting it according to the cardinal directions you need, in order to visually see on the screen how it will look on your site.

Having set your dimensions, you can visually make a house project by drawing it in the program, using the tools that the developers have included in it. Select the units of measurement, indicate the scale, and the view of how you can view the structure after the design is completed.

Using the Wall, Window, Door and many other tools that the program has, you draw door and window openings, and also draw the location of the walls of your future building.

To make your home design easier and faster, you can use the built-in design and texture templates in Ashampoo Home Designer Pro 2.0. You can preview any selected part from all sides using the 3D mode, rotating it as you like at any angle.

If you decide to build a two or three-story building, then use a special function that will allow you to copy everything that you have already drawn and transfer it to other floors. You can also set your own height for each floor.

Using these templates you draw the roof. If none of the ready-made options suits you, you have the opportunity to draw it yourself. In this case, the program itself will calculate all the parameters - width, length, total area, and so on.

If you have a site plan on which the orientation to the cardinal points is indicated, then you can transfer this data to the program so that the house design is as close to reality as possible.

A very interesting and useful feature in the program is realistic global illumination. Using it, you can plan where all other objects on the site will be located - gazebos, lawns and other buildings. At the same time, you will see what kind of shadow and where each object will be cast throughout the day.

With Ashampoo Home Designer Pro 2.0 you can even design the interior of your home. You can plan the interior environment, while floor and wall coverings will be shown very realistically.

You can even furnish the rooms with furniture, examples of which can also be found in the program templates, while the samples presented are exact copies of furniture models that you can actually buy in a store, so the project will look as realistic as possible.

Online services

If you don’t want to download and install, much less buy the program, you can use online services that also provide the opportunity to make a project at home.

According to experts, the site planner5d.com is best suited for this purpose.

It is very convenient because the workspace contains intuitive tools with which you can easily and quickly create your project. The size of the room, the type of materials, the colors of the floor and walls, wallpaper, furniture, the environment around the house - this is not the entire list of what you can change and plan in your project on this site.

The only thing you have to do first is register on it. So, register, confirm your registration by email and log in with your username and password.

Now click the “create project” button and then select “start from scratch”.

A page will open where you will see a room plan with a standard square footage, which was initially laid out on the site after the start of a new project.

If you pull the side margins, you can change the width and length of the room to suit your needs. Then you start filling it with details - select and insert any type of windows, doors or arches. Place stairs, columns, partitions.

In the left menu there are buttons with which you can switch rooms, interior type, layers, floor.

On the interior tab, you can select furniture, home appliances to suit any most demanding taste, as well as decorative items and other designs.

After clicking on the room whose thumbnail is displayed on the left, you can select the materials that will cover the walls, ceiling and floor.

Designing houses, apartments, and individual premises is a fairly broad and complex field of activity. It is not surprising that the market for special software for solving architectural and design problems is very saturated. The completeness of project creation depends purely on individual project tasks. For some cases, it is enough to develop a draft solution, for others it is impossible to do without a full set of working documentation, the creation of which is carried out by several specialists. For each task, you can choose a specific software solution based on its cost, functionality and ease of use.

Developers have to take into account that the creation of virtual models of buildings is carried out not only by qualified specialists, but also by customers, as well as contractors who are not related to the design industry. What all software developers agree on is that creating a project should take as little time as possible, and the software should be as clear and user-friendly as possible. Let's look at a few popular software tools designed to help design homes.

Archicad is one of the most powerful and complete design programs available today. It has powerful functionality, ranging from the ability to create two-dimensional primitives to the creation of highly realistic visualizations and animations. The speed of project creation is ensured by the fact that the user can build a three-dimensional model of the building, and then obtain all the drawings, estimates and other information from it. The difference from similar programs is flexibility, intuitiveness and the presence of a large number of automated operations for creating complex projects. Archicad provides a full design cycle and is intended for specialists in this field. It is worth saying that, despite all its complexity, the program has a friendly and modern interface, so learning it will not take much time and nerves. Among the disadvantages of Archicad is the need for a computer of medium and high performance, so for light and less complex tasks you should choose other software.

Download Archicad

FloorPlan3D

The FloorPlan3D program allows you to create a three-dimensional model of a building, calculate the area of premises and the amount of building materials. As a result of the work, the user should get a sketch sufficient to determine the volume of construction of the house. FloorPlan3D does not have the same flexibility in operation as Archicad; it has an outdated interface and, in some places, an illogical operating algorithm. At the same time, the program is quickly installed, allows you to quickly draw simple plans and automatically create designs for simple objects.

Download FloorPlan3D

House 3D

The freely distributed application House 3D is intended for those users who want to quickly master the process of three-dimensional house modeling. Using the program, you can draw a plan even on a weak computer, but with a three-dimensional model you will have to rack your brains - in some places the work process is difficult and illogical. Compensating for this shortcoming, House 3D can boast of very serious functionality for orthogonal drawing. The program does not have parametric functions for calculating estimates and materials, but, apparently, this is not so important for its tasks.

Download House 3D

Visicon is a simple software for intuitive creation of virtual interiors. With the help of an ergonomic and understandable working environment, you can create a full-fledged three-dimensional model of the interior. The program has a fairly large library of interior elements, but most of them are not available in the demo version.

Download Visicon

Unlike Visicon, this application is distributed free of charge and has a considerable library for filling rooms. Sweet Home 3D is a simple program for designing apartments. With its help, you can not only select and arrange furniture, but also choose the finish of the walls, ceiling and floor. Among the pleasant bonuses of this application is the creation of photorealistic visualizations and video animation. Thus, Sweet Home 3D can be useful not only for ordinary users, but also for professional designers to demonstrate their work to customers. Definitely, Sweet Home 3D looks like a leader among peer programs. The only negative is the small number of textures, but nothing prevents them from being supplemented with pictures from the Internet.

Download Sweet Home 3D

Home Plan Pro

This program is a real “veteran” among CAD applications. Of course, it is difficult for the outdated and not very functional Home Plan Pro to surpass its modern competitors in any way. Still, this simple home design software solution can be useful in some situations. For example, this system has good functionality for orthogonal drawing and a large library of pre-drawn two-dimensional primitives. This will help you quickly draw up a visual plan with the placement of structures, furniture, utility networks and other things.

Download Home Plan Pro

The interesting BIM application Envisioneer Express deserves attention. Like Archicad, this program allows you to carry out a full design cycle and receive drawings and estimates from a virtual model of the building. Envisioneer Express can be used as a system for designing frame houses or for designing houses made of timber, since the application has the appropriate templates. Compared to Archicad, the Envisioneer Express workspace may not be as flexible or intuitive, but it does have a few benefits that will make seasoned Archicad users jealous. Firstly, Envisioneer Express has a convenient and functional tool for creating and editing landscapes. Secondly, there is a huge library of plants and street design elements. Among the disadvantages, we note the difficulties in obtaining even a demo copy - you will need to provide the developers with your e-mail or phone number.

Download Envisioneer Express

So we looked at programs for designing houses. In conclusion, it is worth saying that the choice of a suitable solution is based on the design tasks, computer power, the qualifications of the contractor and the time to complete the project.

When planning to build a country house or a veranda on your site, you will have to remember the basics of design, even if it seems that this is not serious construction, but, nevertheless, this is construction that should begin with a plan. The plan put on paper will be called your construction project.

Thanks to such a project, it is possible to plan in advance the required area for construction, the appearance of the building with its landscaping of the surrounding area, the number of windows and doors, and most importantly, calculate the amount of necessary materials.

Undoubtedly, when planning to build, of course, you can contact a specialized design organization that will develop a custom-made project or offer one of the options for standard, ready-made projects, where all you have to do is approve it.

This approach is only advisable if it is a serious construction, with load-bearing structures, on strength, on which the practicality of the entire structure and the safety of all residents depend.

However, if you are fully knowledgeable in the field of construction and have design skills, then you can easily complete a house project with your own hands, drawing it on paper, or using special programs on a computer.

To get acquainted with such work, just look at the photos of do-it-yourself house projects, which are not inferior to the work of design organizations.

Frequently designed DIY objects

The most common DIY objects include:

Baths;
Garages;
Verandas;
Canopies and canopies in the recreation area;
Improvement of the surrounding area.

DIY wooden house project

These buildings are mainly designed by the owners of private territories who want to build a country house or a bathhouse.

The design of a country house or a bathhouse does not differ in any complexity; it is mainly wooden or cinder block boxes with several windows and one door. Examples of such works can be seen in the photo, where their simplicity and at the same time attractive appearance catches the eye.

Basically, the design of such a structure includes the calculation of the necessary materials, the location of electrical wiring and equipment. The location of such a house on a summer cottage allows you to plan a strategy for the improvement and rational use of the adjacent territory.

As a rule, to install such a structure, a sufficient solid base or strip foundation is required, on which a frame structure is installed or a cinder block is laid.

The development of such a project does not take much time and does not require coordination with special services, which greatly simplifies home construction for the owner who wants to build something with his own hands.

How to make a house project from timber

The most frequently asked question, since this material is environmentally friendly, easy to process, practical and the most common in construction. These advantages of wood are ideally suited for the construction of a country house or bathhouse.

A special feature of this material is that it can be profiled and glued, which in turn must also be taken into account when constructing your building.

When designing your small house, it is advisable to take into account the following nuances:

The windows of the guest room and kitchen should face the bright side of the house, usually the south side;

It is recommended to make sewerage and water collection points as close to each other as possible, this will reduce the cost of maintaining technical communications;

When drawing up your project, it is advisable to design each floor room separately, this way you can more accurately calculate the amount of materials needed.

When designing your own house with your own hands, you need to approach this extremely seriously, otherwise there is a risk that the components and parts of a house made of timber will not fit together, which will ultimately lead to an increase in the cost of the entire construction as a whole. The worst that can happen is the destruction of the building, which can harm human life and health.