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Whole-house planning

Free House Planner: Design Your Own House Online

Draw the outside walls of your house to their real size, split it into rooms, add doors and windows, then stack the floors, place the stairs and put a roof on top. Start from a blank page or open one of the free house plans below and change it, right in your browser.

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Free House Planner: Design Your Own House Online example drawn to scale in SpacePlanner to scale
At a glance

What you are working with

8 ftstandard ceiling height
36 instair and hallway width
Multi-floorlevels linked by stairs
1 canvashouse, garage and garden
Free house plans

Start from a free house plan

Each house below opens in the house planner as your own copy, with every floor, wall, door, window and piece of furniture drawn to scale. Resize rooms, move walls or add a floor, then save it with a free account.

See all templates

How it works

How the House Planner works

Start with the shell

A house plan begins at the outside wall, not the furniture

The footprint decides everything that follows. Draw the exterior walls first at their real length, then set the interior partitions inside that outline. Wall thickness matters more than people expect: a 2x6 exterior wall finishes at about 6.5 in, so a 30 ft outside dimension leaves roughly 28 ft 11 in of internal space. Draw the walls at true thickness in SpacePlanner and every room dimension you read off afterwards is the internal dimension, which is the one you actually live in.

  • Draw the outside perimeter first, with each run typed in at its measured length.
  • Keep exterior walls thicker than partitions. The difference adds up across a plan.
  • Set the interior walls inside the outline so room sizes read as clear internal space.
  • Live dimension labels update as you drag a wall, so the footprint stays honest.
Floors that stack

The second floor has to land on the first one

A house plan is not two independent drawings. The upper floor sits on the walls below it, the stair has to arrive somewhere sensible on both levels, and bathrooms are far cheaper when their drains line up. In SpacePlanner you add a floor above (or a basement below) from the Floors control, and can start it as a copy of the outer walls of the floor below. The floor underneath shows faintly while you draw, so you can see what sits above what before the layout hardens.

  • Add the upper floor as a copy of the outer walls below, so the footprint already lines up.
  • Line the upper floor walls up over the walls below wherever you can.
  • Stack bathrooms and the kitchen so wet services share a single run.
  • Check the stair opening at both ends: the flight needs headroom the whole way.
House and site together

The driveway, the garage and the garden belong on the same plan

Most house plans stop at the exterior wall, which is where several real problems start. A car needs somewhere to turn. The front door needs a path. The back door has to open onto something. SpacePlanner puts indoor and outdoor on one canvas, so you can draw the house, the garage, the drive and the garden at the same scale and see how they meet. That is where you catch a garage door that opens onto a 10 ft manoeuvring space, or a terrace that blocks the only side access.

  • Draw the plot boundary and set the house inside it at true position.
  • A two-car garage needs about 20 x 20 ft internally before storage is added.
  • Keep at least 36 in of side access clear from front to back of the house.
  • Switch to 3D to check how the roof, levels and outdoor ground meet the walls.
Free, in the browser

Design your own house online for free, and know what the free part covers

You can open SpacePlanner and start designing a house straight away: no download, no trial, no card. Walls, rooms, doors, windows, furniture, the 3D view and the roof all work without an account. A free account is what lets you keep the design: it saves the plan, adds more floors and basements, exports a scaled PDF, PNG or SVG, and gives you a link to share. Nothing in the house planner is behind a paid plan.

  • No signup to draw the ground floor, furnish it and look at it in 3D.
  • A free account adds floors, saving, exports and share links.
  • Works on desktop, tablet and phone. A bigger screen helps for a whole house.
  • Start blank or open one of the free house plans below and change it.
Step by step

From empty canvas to a layout you can trust

1

Draw the footprint

Type in the exterior wall lengths and close the outline. Get the overall footprint right before anything goes inside it, because every internal decision is measured against these walls.

2

Split it into rooms

Add interior partitions and check each resulting room against the sizes you need. Keep hallways at 36 in clear or wider, and make sure no room ends up with a dimension under 7 ft.

3

Place doors, windows and the stair

Put every opening on its wall. A front door is usually 36 in, interior doors 30 or 32 in. Position the stair early: a straight flight eats about 12 to 13 ft of plan length on both floors.

4

Add the upper floor and the site

Add the level above over the same footprint, put a roof on, then draw the garage, drive and garden around the house. Check it in 3D, then print it to scale or share the link (free account).

Reference

House shell, stair and circulation dimensions

A house plan is constrained long before you start arranging rooms. Wall thickness, ceiling height, stair geometry and door widths are close to fixed, and they decide how much usable space a given footprint actually contains. These are the figures worth drawing to real size from the start. Codes vary by jurisdiction, so treat them as the common baseline and check your local requirements before building.

The structural and circulation figures that set the shape of a house plan before any furniture is placed.
MeasureImperialMetricWhy it matters
Finished ceiling height, habitable room 8 ft 2.44 m Most codes allow 7 ft (2.13 m) as an absolute minimum.
Floor to floor height, timber frame 9 ft 2.75 m Ceiling height plus joist depth and floor build-up.
Exterior wall thickness, 2x6 frame 6.5 in 165 mm A 2x4 frame finishes at about 4.5 in (115 mm).
Interior partition thickness 4.5 in 115 mm 2x4 studs plus a half inch of board each side.
Hallway clear width 36 in 91 cm 42 in (107 cm) is far easier where furniture has to pass.
Wall stud spacing 16 in centres 406 mm centres 24 in (610 mm) centres are used with 2x6 framing. It sets where openings can land.
Stair width and headroom 36 in wide, 80 in head 91 cm and 203 cm Headroom measured vertically from the tread nosing.
Straight stair run in plan 12 to 13 ft 3.7 to 4 m About 13 to 15 treads at 10 to 11 in each, plus landing.
Bedroom egress window clear opening 5.7 sq ft 0.53 sq m At least 20 in wide and 24 in high, sill no more than 44 in up.
Two-car garage, internal 20 x 20 ft 6.1 x 6.1 m A single garage is about 12 x 20 ft. Add depth for storage.
Free house plans

Free house plans you can open and edit

Every plan below opens in the house planner with walls, doors, windows and rooms already drawn to scale, so you can change sizes and layout instead of starting from nothing.

Guides

Step-by-step guides for each part of the house

In the editor

What the tool gives you

Draw walls in seconds

Click to place walls with live dimensions and smart snapping. Everything stays to scale.

Doors & windows

Drop doors and windows onto walls and see the openings update live as you move them.

Multi-level planning

Connect floors and outdoor levels with stairs to design split-level homes and sloped gardens.

Indoor + outdoor

Plan gardens, patios, pools and outdoor kitchens on the same canvas as your interior rooms.

Roofs, 3D and elevations

Put a hip, gable, shed or flat roof on your walls, walk through the house in 3D and see all four elevations drawn for you.

Related planners

Plan a different space

FAQ

House Planner FAQ

Is the house planner free?

Yes. The SpacePlanner house planner is completely free to use online. You can start drawing instantly without signing up.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs entirely in your browser on desktop, tablet or mobile. There is nothing to download or install.

Do I need an account to draw?

No. You can draw a full plan without an account. We only ask you to sign up when you want to save, export or share your work.

Can I plan outdoor spaces too?

Yes. You can plan gardens, patios, backyards, pools and outdoor kitchens alongside indoor rooms on the same canvas.

Can I design my own house online for free?

Yes. SpacePlanner is free and runs in your browser. You can draw the walls, rooms, doors, windows and furniture of a house and see it in 3D without signing up. A free account adds more floors, saving, scaled PDF export and share links. There is no paid tier for any of it.

Are there free house plans I can start from?

Yes. Open a template such as the small house, the family house or the villa, or one of the house plan examples (single floor, 2 story, ranch, barndominium, A frame, farmhouse). Each opens as an editable plan drawn to scale, so you can resize rooms and move walls instead of starting blank.

Can I print my house plan to scale?

Yes, with a free account. Export a vector PDF at a true scale such as 1:50 or 1:100 on A4 to A0 or Letter, with a scale bar and north arrow, or export a PNG or SVG image. Several floors can go on separate pages or on one sheet.

Can I design a house with more than one floor?

Yes. With a free account, add a floor above or a basement below from the Floors control, optionally starting from a copy of the outer walls below. The floor below shows faintly while you draw, the stair configurator works out the steps between levels, and all floors appear together in 3D. Keep upper walls over lower walls where possible and keep 80 in of headroom along the whole stair.

Should I draw the walls at their real thickness?

Yes, because thickness is what separates the outside dimension from the room you stand in. An exterior 2x6 wall is about 6.5 in finished and an interior partition about 4.5 in. Across a typical house that is a foot or more of plan width. Draw them at true thickness and the internal room sizes on screen are the real ones.

Can I include the garage, driveway and garden in the house plan?

Yes. Indoor and outdoor sit on one canvas at the same scale, so the house, garage, drive, paths and garden can all be drawn together. That is the only reliable way to check things like garage door manoeuvring space, side access down the length of the house, and whether the back door actually opens onto usable ground.

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