Chalet style house plans

Chalet-style house designs came to us from Switzerland. Residents of the Swiss Alps built small cottages for shepherds in the highlands. In the summer, shepherds transferred flocks of sheep to high-mountain meadows from the valley. Locals erected houses with gable roofs and overhangs up to 1 meter wide to protect against the bright mountain sun. The roofs resembled shepherd's hats, which were called chalets, so people called them chalet houses.

The Swiss built a foundation on the mountainside out of stones and a house out of wooden lumber, so the house has a stone lower level and a wooden upper. On the lower ground floor, there was an exit to the courtyard that covered the terrace. The first to use this house design were the owners of small family hotels when holidays in the Alps came into vogue in England and France. From the terrace, there was a stunning view of the mountains. Subsequently, they began to build houses in the mountains, on the seashore, and in other places where it was possible to use beautiful views of the surrounding area.

Later, architects began to equip chalet-style cottage plans with panoramic windows and often build without a basement floor. Now the main features of the chalet-style are gable roofs, panoramic windows, terraces, and the combined facing of stone and plaster or stone and planks.

In our plans catalog of chalet-style houses, you will find both large and small houses, houses for permanent residence or holiday cottages, as well as houses with a daylight basement or windows and a door leading to the courtyard. We hope that you will appreciate the excellent planning and appearance of our chalet-style house plans.