Do you like getting the most out of your lot? If so, build a house with three stories. Here’s a collection of beautiful houses with three levels above ground.
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,319 Bedrooms: 3-4 Bathrooms: 2-3 Stories: 2-3 Garage: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story transitional 4-bedroom contemporary home. Here’s the floor plan: This transitional contemporary home offers a multi-level floor plan designed for sloping lots. The ground level includes a double garage with direct access to the main level …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 5,684 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 4.5+ Stories: 3 Garage: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 3-bedroom New American style three-story home. Here’s the floor plan: A combination of cedar shakes, stone, and siding brings an immense curb appeal to this 3-bedroom New American home. It features a rear walkout basement with …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 4,882 Bedrooms: 4-5 Bathrooms: 5.5 Stories: 3 Garage: 2-3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 5-bedroom New American home. Here’s the floor plan: A blend of horizontal and vertical siding, stone accents, and decorative gable trims bring an immense curb appeal to this three-story New American home. A covered entry …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 360 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 1 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 3-bedroom Arianna tower cabin. Here’s the floor plan: The Arianna tower cabin offers a three-story floor plan that’s eco-friendly with its solar panels fitted on the gable roof. The house also features a wraparound porch that’s spacious …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 4,999 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 4.5+ Stories: 3 Garage: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a modern three-story 5-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s the floor plan: A combination of horizontal and vertical siding accentuated with dark bricks adds an exquisite appeal to this three-story modern farmhouse. It is further enhanced by two symmetrical gables …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 4,952 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 5.5 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 6-bedroom three-story Northwest craftsman home. Here’s the floor plan: This three-story Northwest home delivers a craftsman appeal with its shingle shake siding, brick accents, and a gabled entry lined with tapered columns. The main level is occupied by …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 5,618 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 7 Stories: 3 Garage: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 6-bedroom contemporary three-story colonial home. Here’s the floor plan: This three-story colonial home offers a spacious open floor plan that enables comfortable living and convenient gathering. Enter from the garage where you’ll find the mudroom and …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,163 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3.5 Stories: 2-3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story Southern 4-bedroom traditional home. Here’s the floor plan: This 4-bedroom Southern home exhibits a traditional appeal with its clapboard siding, a center dormer, and a deep front porch lined with decorative columns. As you stepped inside, you …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,145 Bedrooms: 4-5 Bathrooms: 4.5 Stories: 2-3 Garages: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 5-bedroom three-story New American home. Here’s the floor plan: Buy this plan Buy this plan Steeply pitched gables add a Gothic flair to this three-story New American home. The home showcases a welcoming entry porch and …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 10,639 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 9 Stories: 3 Garages: 4 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 7-bedroom three-story luxury Mediterranean home. Here’s the floor plan: The three-story Mediterranean home boasts an exquisite facade adorned with hipped rooflines, decorative arches, charming dormers, and a grand entry flanked by beautiful courtyards. Inside, a circular …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 2,390 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 3.5 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 3-bedroom The Palm Lily beach home. Here’s the floor plan: Multiple gables, arched windows, and dark garage doors flanking the striking bifurcated staircase create a stunning symmetry to this 3-bedroom beach house. The charm continues inside showcasing …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 2,953 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3.5 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom The Peekskill cabin home. Here’s the floor plan: This elegant cabin is loaded with curb appeal featuring an arched entryway, charming dormers, an inviting front porch, and an angled garage making way for a beautiful courtyard. …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,754 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4.5 Stories: 3 Garages: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom Tamano contemporary style home. Here’s the floor plan: This contemporary home is overflowing with high-end curb appeal showcasing a front courtyard, decorative arches, and multi-level decks complemented with winding staircases. Inside, you have an …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,045 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 3 Stories: 3 Garages: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 3-bedroom three-story Alliance modern style home. Here’s the floor plan: A three-story modern style home with a great open floor plan that maximizes the home’s space as it gives you optimum convenience. It is perfect for …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 2,810 Bedrooms: 3-4 Bathrooms: 3 Stories: 2-3 Garage: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom beach home. Here’s the floor plan: Three-story beach home with a small footprint that’s packed with lots of amenities. Enter the house through the lower level with a garage and a foyer complete with …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 2,793 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom The Amelia southern home. Here’s the floor plan: A three-story southern home with a narrow floor plan features a hillside walkout foundation highlighting the basement entry garage and a handy residential elevator. A deep front porch …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,668 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4 Stories: 3 Garages: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a 4-bedroom three-story Altair contemporary style home. Here’s the floor plan: This three-story contemporary style home boasts a free-flowing floor plan designed for narrow and limited lots. It is installed with lots of glazed walls that help …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,556 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 3.5 Stories: 3 Garage: 2 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 5-bedroom colonial home. Here’s the floor plan: This three-story Colonial home exudes a timeless look with its dormer windows, two chimney stacks, and a warm red brick exterior dominating the house. Inside is a great …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 3,347 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4 Stories: 2-3 Garage: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom Georgian home. Here’s the floor plan: A symmetrical Georgian home graced with gray exterior siding, a welcoming front porch, and gable roofs topped with alternating dormers and brick chimneys. It boasts a great flexible …
Specifications: Sq. Ft.: 4,441 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5 Stories: 3 Welcome to photos and footprint for a three-story 4-bedroom The Palm Vista. Here’s the floor plan: This elegant beach house has a well thoughtful floor plan that includes amenities perfect for a big family. It shows off a breezy and cozy design with its beautiful …
Three-story homes have some distinct advantages compared to their shorter counterparts. For one thing, you can get more square footage on a smaller footprint, squeezing more house onto a smaller lot. That can be huge when building in areas where land is at a premium and lots are small. If you’re building in a downtown area or on a historic lot designed for a small home, multi-level may be your only option to get the square footage your family needs, especially if you’d like a yard for pets or kids. One popular feature of multi-level homes, especially in cosmopolitan areas, is a roof-top balcony if your home is tall enough to stand above the homes around it. Tall houses can lead to great views and impressive cityscapes, perfect for relaxing with loved ones or celebrating with friends. Balconies or rooftop outdoor spaces are especially important if your lot is too small to allow for a yard.
With the right design three-story homes can boast impressive design features. Multi-level foyers or living rooms with sparkling chandeliers high above heads can impress your guests. Vertical spaces also make the home feel larger and less cramped, even if the spaces aren’t quite as open other homes. Tall walls also lend themselves to picturesque windows, impressive fireplaces, large pieces of art, or other feature pieces.
On the outside, three-story homes can make a towering impression. You’ll have more design options to consider than in shorter homes, like showpiece stonework, tall windows, or vertical landscaping. Modern designs are especially popular for three-story home, but you can choose any style and tailor the design to the look that works for you.
Maintenance can be difficult in three-story homes, both inside and outside. Painting a three-story exterior is no picnic, nor is changing lightbulbs in multi-level living spaces. You won’t have a lot of fun cleaning your gutters or hanging Christmas lights either. But when you do get those Christmas lights hung they’ll be the envy of the neighborhood. Cleaning on the inside will involve lugging your cleaning supplies up and down multiple levels.
When it comes to changing floor plans, three-story homes may not have as many options as other types of homes since each floor has a more limited amount of space. It may also be more expensive to renovate a three-story home since spaces are tighter and more duct work, plumbing, and electric lines are needed to support all three stories.
Even moving furniture can be tricky in a three-story home since there are often stairs involved. A laundry room on the top floor with your bedroom sounds fantastic until you have to move a washer and dryer up to flights of stairs.
One unique aspect of a three-story home is dedicated spaces that are truly separate from the rest of the home. Research tells us that those defined spaces may actually be better for our mental health as well as our sleep habits. When your bedroom is designated only for sleep– a retreat separate from the rest of the home where your day to day worries are addressed– you tend to get better sleep since your mind knows that entering your bedroom means that it’s time to wind down and go to sleep. Three-story homes that have a floor dedicated as a primary bedroom retreat, or dedicated to all the bedrooms in the home, can help protect the sanctity of rest and promote better sleep habits.
One of the most obvious qualities of a three-story home are the multiple flights of stairs. Three-story living typically means that bedrooms, living spaces, and kitchen and dining spaces are all on different floors, making it hard to avoid those stairs for long. If stairs bother you for mobility or aesthetic reasons, stay away from these multi-level homes. Even if you don’t face mobility difficulties now, consider whether you intend to live in the house into your later years when stairs may look less and less appealing. Frequent guests with mobility issues may not appreciate the stairs either.
Families with small children seem on the fence when it comes to three-story homes. The layout can be great in some respects, keeping kiddos in a more confined area and away from rooms they shouldn’t visit (at least for a while). But the multiple levels also mean you’ll be running up and down stairs a lot and may end up sleeping on a different level than small children–something some parents may not find ideal. Without the clear sightlines of more wide open floorplans you may have more limited supervision of small children, depending on the layout of the home. Bottom line: if you have little kids go into a three-story home with a critical eye to determine if they layout will truly work for your family, both now and in years to come.