How to Plan and Draw Your Dream Home

With a pencil, an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper, and your imagination, creativity, and inspiration, you can draw realistic houses! Enjoy!

Steps

1. Subscribe to magazines like Architectural Digest, read books about architects, and observe structures in your neighborhood. Learn about how buildings are built. How are they supported? What are common features? What stands out and looks elegant? What features do you appreciate?
2. Once you feel that you know what kind of home you want to build, get a pencil and several sheets of paper. It is okay to mess up, and in the end you will need more than one sheet. Sharpen your pencil if it is dull or use a mechanical pencil. Don't sharpen too much; this might sound silly, but do not try to get your pencil to a perfect point. Graphite smears and your lines are too thin, less defining, and if you have glasses, maybe even hard to see.
3. Begin at one side of the house. Do you want your garage off in the left wing? Do you want the front entrance to open up beside a long porch stepping down to a fountain in a courtyard? In what way will the roofline begin?
4. Sketch out main details until you have the basic idea. Plan out the roofline, walls, and window arrangements. Get the sense of style that you want. Look at houses in your style and match the basic proportions of the model houses, or invent your own style!
5. Add details and veneers that would normally cover houses. Do not be afraid to use several different types of materials. For example, on the end of a gable, use a fine stucco material. On the walls surrounding the garage doors, feel free to add a sturdy ashlar stone or an authentic brick patchwork.
6. Plan out the floorplan corresponding to your front view. If you have an intuitive grasp of your drawing, it should be very easy to use the front view to generate a blueprint.
7. On your floorplan, add features like doors and windows. Use templates if you do not know what architects use for details like these. Then, add in the interior walls, countertops, light fixtures (these is optional), sinks, stoves, ceiling slopes, or even furniture if you like. Realize your dream. If you begin drawing the house from the front, make sure that the back walls correspond to the front roofline. Even if you run out of room, make sure it works. You can, later on, make additions.
8. If you want, post your design online!

Tips

• If you want your drawing to look realistic, make sure it is in 3D perspective.
• Do not use acute angles in your plans. They are ugly and people will see you as a novice, which may be what you are, but why would you want that?
• On the roof, only use one material. Otherwise it looks like a silly patchwork blanket over the house. For the facade, it is okay to use several materials because that is the norm.

Warnings

• Don't plagiarize.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil (preferably mechanical)
• Several sheets of 8 1/2" by 11" paper.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Plan and Draw Your Dream Home. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.