No Small Plans: 10 A-Frame Floor Plans That Deserve an A Plus
This is No Small Plans, a series where we highlight some of Dwell’s best floor plans for real, practical inspiration.
It’s never easy to pinpoint the origins of an enduring architectural type. With storied examples being found as far apart as Wales and Japan, the A-Frame is no exception; Far easier is it to trace its modern-day rediscovery. In 1934, Austrian-American architect Rudolph Schindler built what is considered to be the first A-frame in the U.S., but it wasn’t until after the post-WWII economic boom that it was cemented in the American imagination with the woodsy vacation home. It fell out of fashion in the early ‘80s only to experience a slow revival after the 2008 recession as an economic, minimalist housing alternative—a trend accelerated by the cabin craze during the pandemic. We’ve collected the floor plans from some of our favorite renovations and riffs on the "all roof, no wall" home to get a better look at the A-frame’s latest comeback.
In 1955, a high school woodworking teacher enlisted his friends and family to build an A-frame in California’s San Bernardino Mountains, something Jacqueline Blum and her husband found out from a letter sent to them after they bought the home almost 70 years later. "We didn't want to completely create a blank slate," says Blum. "We want it to feel like it has this rich history." True to their intent, the couple did not alter the structure, walls, or plumbing. Most of their budget went to either sprucing up what was already there—like the wide plank wood floors—or working around it when updating the home’s wiring.
Leaving the structure as they found it left the couple free to splurge in other areas, like replacing the home’s original bear decor, installing brass fixtures and switches, and lining the bathroom with new tile.
The floor plan remains the same as when the A-frame was built in 1955. The lofted bedroom leaves little light for the bathroom and kitchen area beneath, but the couple found themselves embracing low lighting. "It’s almost as if the entire place, at certain times of the day, is lit by candles," says Blum. "It just has that type of mood."
The House on Pine Mountain by Alta Projects
Aria Massoudifar and Sam Salehyan’s biggest challenge in renovating their 1973 A-frame was making the home feel both contemporary—a style Massoudifar says is rare in Yosemite—and storied. "We wanted to create the feeling of generational warmth in the home—that this place had been one family’s summer escape for decades," says Tito Pedraza of Alta Projects, the L.A.-based studio entrusted with the renovation. The group struck the balance by pairing finds from local mills, estate sales, Goodwill, and Etsy with new furniture and finishes.
When the shag carpet left over from a renovation in the '80s was pulled out, the group was surprised to find concrete floors instead of the promised wood. They sourced local knotty pine planks for new floors and gave them a dark finish to contrast with the white walls and cabinetry.
The A-frame was tall enough for a queen bed sleeping nook to be placed on a platform above the second story bedroom and bath. "The loft was the perfect place to introduce more playfulness," Pedraza says of the layout. "We want guests to have that summer break feeling you get when you’re up past your bedtime, eating popcorn and watching a movie."
Pine Hill A-Frame by Studio Bunkley
When Kenard and Jennifer Bunkley bought their A-frame in March 2021, they thought the home would only need a few cosmetic upgrades. But during the five years the home remained vacant, raccoons had settled in and the insulation had deteriorated past salvaging. The pandemic made finding the right contractor to come up to Pine Hill, NY almost impossible, so the couple and their three children mostly undertook the gut renovation themselves. They only outsourced or enlisted professional help for things like plumbing and electrical.
The family wanted to retain as much of the A-frame’s character as possible, but preserving or mimicking features like the live-edge wood that lined the walls would have meant going way over budget. They opted for plywood instead, which was still unexpectedly expensive during the pandemic. The veneer conveys a similar warmth as the exposed solid wood they had fallen in love with.
The gut renovation cost close to $77K, three times the family’s target of $25K. Apart from using the opportunity to enlarge some windows or remove some closets, the structure and the floor plan were left untouched. Unlike other A-frames we’ve featured on this list, the second story spans the length of the home.
When architect Pablo Pérez Palacios and his wife, Sofia, bought their small A-frame in Mexico’s Valle de Bravo, it was the perfect size for just the two of them. "We’d bring a cooler of beer and hang out all weekend," the architect recalls of those first years. "By the time we had our first child, we needed more space and amenities." Pablo opted for a mixed, minimally invasive approach of building a new rectangular structure into the hillside and extending the original A-frame over it. "We only had to take out one tree during this project," he says, "and we reused the wood for a rail on the terrace."
Palacios lengthened the A-frame to include a spacious dining and living area. Glass panels along the base of the roof are the only thing that distinguish the old section of the home from the new.
Apart from the original sleeping loft placed above the utility rooms, private spaces like the bedrooms are allocated to the rectangular volume situated just downhill from the A-frame. The two areas are connected by a staircase at the western end of the addition.
Without much design or building experience between them, Paula Washington and Peter Mogl had planned on erecting three different rentals on their property in Nova Scotia: a cabin, an A-frame, and a tower. After finishing the cabin, the simplicity of an A-frame made it seem like the natural next step. Reality came as a surprise: "We went into the A-frame thinking it would be a simple build, and it was anything but that," Paula recalls. "It was a very challenging, complex geometric puzzle to figure out." Lengthening the home even slightly could snowball into an extra six feet in its height, something the couple wanted to avoid. Their solution was to add a knee wall and sink part of the site rather than raise the roof.
"It was one of the pivotal moments of the project when we realized we could go down," says Peter of deciding to excavate the site rather than raise the roof. "We’re wrestling with these dimensions, and we weren’t getting head heights and clearances and a bunch of code stuff, and then it kind of just came about being like, ‘Oh, we could just go deeper down in earth.’"
At first glance, the floor plan seems to be typical of an A-frame: a double-height living space and a sleeping loft with the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom tucked beneath it. But Paula and Peter diverted from tradition by incorporating a small, flat-roofed extension on the north side of the home. This move made the kitchen easier to work with, enlarged the bedroom, and added a second-story deck.
Maximiliano Noguera and Alejandra Marambio, the principals of Max-A Arquitectura in Chile, built a retreat and a detached design studio—both A-frames—in under nine months. The secret behind their efficiency was to design around the standard dimensions of wood boards in Chile. "If you know what’s out there, you can start working with those measurements, but you have to be flexible and adapt your living requirements," says Alejandra. "At the same time, you have to work within the constraints—you don’t get one more meter."
The couple chose to build an A-frame because it’s relatively easy to heat in the fluctuating climate of Southern Chile. It also manages to remain cozy despite the high ceilings, especially during the wet season. "There’s something beautiful about the triangle," says Alejandra. "You feel the rain dropping down, but you still feel protected."
The roofs of both A-frames slope all the way down to the ground, requiring the utilities to be moved slightly away from the pitched walls. The home is unique in that its living area is split across the plan, making room for a kitchen in the double-height space.
The Away Frame by Robert James Higgins
Shelley Brown and Michael Waldron had intended to build a container home on their property in New York’s Catskills, but doing so would have meant cutting down some of the towering trees they loved about the site. They pivoted to the idea of an A-frame. It evoked the same simplicity, seemed more in tune with the forested surroundings, and posed less risk of disturbing the site. Together, the couple drafted the design for what would become a "contrast between untouched woods and a black triangle rising like a great monolith," Michael says. "I think it’s very true to what we wanted to do."
The couple likens their home to a study in contrasts, where the vernacular simplicity of the triangular structure coexists with a contemporary palette and interior. Low shelving along the floors use the A-frame’s sharply sloping walls as an opportunity for storage.
With a height of 30 feet, the A-frame’s steep pitch narrows the home’s usable floor area. An extension with a more gently sloping roof added to the north side of the cabin keeps the entryway from feeling cramped. It also creates enough room for the staircase, shifting it from its usual spot at the center or rear of the plan.
Aladino House by Iván Bravo Architects
Outside a nature preserve near Puerto Varas, Chile, Architect Iván Bravo was hired to design a welcome center for the park’s visitors and a home for ranger Aladino and his wife. Bravo decided to do both in one building. "This way, costs could be managed more efficiently, which means that the project can have better results, both in its habitability and in its expression as an architectural work," explains Bravo’s design team. What turned out to be an A-frame was actually inspired by traditional shake barns in the region: the structure’s roof was extended down to rest on a platform raised over a stream that runs across the site.
Aiming to keep the interior as simple as the envelope, Bravo composed the home as a railroad-apartment-like series of rooms and left the the raw pine structure exposed. Varying ceiling heights and finishes distinguish the two programs from each other.
The elongated A-frame situates all living spaces on the first floor, reserving nooks beneath the ceiling for storage. The visitor’s center is separated from the ranger’s residence by a flexible, semi-enclosed space and a chiflonera—an entryway that keeps the warmth from the stove in the combined kitchen and living room.
Little Owl A-Frame by Holly Hollenbeck/HSH Interiors
To her surprise, Holly Snow Hollenbeck had to outbid 24 other people for a 1962 A-frame in Donner Lake, California. "Who knew that many people would want an A-frame that needed absolutely everything done to fix it!" The gut renovation would take over a year to complete. Linoleum and shag carpet flooring was swapped out for Baltic birch plywood planks punctuated with stretches of terrazzo tiles. "I immediately told my real estate agent that my vision was a ‘Nordic Bento Box,’" Snow Hollenbeck says. "Nordic for bleached wood, clean lines, and simplicity. And bento box because smartly designed and highly-efficient storage would be key to making the footprint functional."
As the principal of her own interior design studio, Snow Hollenbeck leveraged her experience to make custom pieces that worked with the slanting roof. In the kitchen, for example, the edges of the dining table, cabinetry, and counters are cut at an angle so that they can be set right against the walls.
The home is made up of two different structures. The A-frame takes up the southern two thirds of the footprint, while a flat-roofed section houses the bedrooms and primary bathroom at the north end. A slice of the A-frame features a much gentler pitch, creating a nook for storage in the loft and more space for utilities on the ground floor.
Minne Stuge by Taiga Design + Build
It didn’t take long for Melissa and Kevin Coleman to see through the bright-green shag carpet, cracking linoleum, and rotting wood envelope of a 1970s A-frame kit house on the north shore of Lake Superior. They put in an offer on the nine-hour drive back to their home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "It was love at first sight," Melissa says. "The inside is wrapped in cedar, and the smell was intoxicating." The couple hired Taiga Design + Build to renovate the home. The one-year project modernized the appliances, fixed the plumbing, renovated the cabinetry and finishes, replaced the wood siding, and swapped out the decaying shingles with synthetic shakes.
The green carpet in the living room was replaced with wood flooring, and the linoleum in the kitchen with black and white Marmoleum checkerboard tile. The couple also updated the glazing across the home to bring in more light. In the living room, this meant changing out the single sliding glass door to the renovated deck for a two-door alternative.
Housing the bedrooms, a bathroom, and the living room, the A-frame is split in half by a chalet-style midsection that accommodates the winding staircase, dining room, and kitchen. Both structures rest on a concrete-walled basement built into the slope rising up from the shore.
Top photo by Rafael Gamo.
Related reading:
No Small Plans: 10 Floor Plans That Transform Garages into Livable Spaces
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