3 reasons not to build an A-frame

If you are considering buying or building an A-frame house, there's something you should know. There are reasons not to. And more than that -- there are people out there ready to point these reasons out to you at every turn to ensure that you are really sure about what you're doing. We are here to tell you not to fear, A-frames can be beautiful and classic and interesting and cozy and all of the things that you hope for, but first let's get past a couple of things that people like to bring up in rebuttal to all of these lovely attributes.

1. The lack of vertical space can present a challenge for everyday living

This is true, but isn't necessarily a problem unless you are an art fiend that needs a lot of vertical walls for displaying your treasures. In our build this will be most noticeable in the kitchen where we will be completely devoid of upper cabinets. Luckily, open shelving has soared in popularity in recent years, so our options will be plentiful. If we were building a primary home, we might offset the lack of upper cabinets with a pantry for dry goods and snacks, but for a vacation residence this is less necessary.

As for the rest of the house? Sure, we'll have to be creative in a few areas. Furniture placement needs to be strategic since there are only a few places where it can sit flush with the wall. One of the ways that we're adapting our plans for this is creating 4.5 foot 'knee walls' in most rooms of the house, giving us something for furniture, toilet paper holders, etc. to attach to and a creative storage area between the interior and exterior walls.

Some areas of the home will still need creative solutions. For example, hanging a TV is not really an option on a slanted wall. But for true A-frame house lovers, these are things that are easily worked around and are ultimately not a large sacrifice.

2. The interior space will never be optimized when compared to its total footprint

When you think about it, you lose space on the inside on an A-frame. The angled shape, makes it such that the second story loses a lot of square footage that would normally be there in a traditional house. In addition, the most notable part of an A-frame is the living area, with its high ceilings and loft area. While beautiful, choosing to use this space as an airy, light-filled great room as opposed to expanding the second floor to span the entire footprint of the home is a trade off that must be thought through carefully.

If maximizing square footage is of utmost importance to you, an A-frame is likely the wrong choice. For us, we want this home to be cozy, light filled, and be conducive to family time. We want our space to encourage gathering rather than going off into separate rooms. Ultimately we understand that reduced square footage may not be a compromise everyone is willing to make and again note that in a primary home this is a serious consideration. But it comes down to personal choice and you have to ask yourself if the tradeoff is one that you're willing to make. For us the answer was yes, and we completely understand why that might no be the case for everyone or every situation.

3. A-frames are nostalgic and trendy and will fall out of favor

This one we just flat out disagree with. True, A-frames can feel like they are from a different era. They can be traced back to the 1930s and their popularity peaked in the 1970s when pre-fab kits became available for easy construction. Yes, we're seeing a similar resurgence with kit homes today, but we see a difference between then and now.

Kits of the 70s came out of the demand for simple, semi-DIY (in some cases completely DIY) options for those hoping to get in on this trend, usually being built as vacation homes. In the 80s and 90s changes in habits and economic climate seemed to leave vacation home purchases to the very wealthy. Today, not only are people using kits to build affordable vacation homes again, but many are using them to build affordable primary homes in a housing market that is difficult to break into as a first time buyer. For these reasons, we have no reason to believe that the popularity of kit construction is going to slow down anytime soon.

We don't think A-frames are a trend. Will they become less unique as more and more are built? Maybe, but that could be said about any home type. And to us, that's no reason not to build one.