A compact 30x40 barndominium sized like a starter home or cabin, with a covered entry porch, no large shop bay, and pines and birches at the edge of the yard.

3 Bedroom Barndominium Floor Plans in Minnesota

Three bedrooms is the most common barndominium program in Minnesota, and for good reason: a primary suite, two more bedrooms for children or guests, and an open kitchen and living room, usually on one floor between 1,600 and 2,200 square feet. The bedroom count drives more of the building than the square footage does. It sets the septic tank, the size of the ventilation system, the number of escape windows, and how the plan separates the quiet end of the house from the entry where boots, coats and the dog come in.

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What actually changes with this feature

The look is the easy part. These are the decisions that follow from it.

Three bedrooms, three escape windows

Minnesota Rules part 1309.0310 requires at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening in every sleeping room, opening to a yard or court that leads to a public way. In a barndominium with steel siding, window openings are framed into the wall girts, so the bedroom windows are placed before the kit or frame is ordered, not cut in later.

Ventilation is sized by bedrooms too

Minnesota's residential energy code, Minnesota Rules part 1322.0403, requires a balanced mechanical ventilation system sized by formula: 0.02 cubic feet per minute for each square foot of conditioned space, plus 15 times the number of bedrooms plus one. For a 1,800 square foot, three-bedroom house that is 96 cubic feet per minute total, and at least half of it runs continuously.

A mudroom between the garage and the house

The three-bedroom plans we draw bring the everyday entry through a mudroom with laundry, a bench and closet space, whether the door comes from an attached garage or from outside. Minnesota Rules part 1309.0302 also forbids any opening from a garage directly into a bedroom, so the mudroom doubles as the buffer the code expects.

Split bedrooms suit a wide steel span

A barndominium's clear span lets the primary suite sit at one end and the two secondary bedrooms at the other, with the kitchen and living room in the middle under the tallest part of the roof. Bathrooms and the laundry are grouped against interior walls so no plumbing runs in an exterior wall.

A compact 30x40 barndominium sized like a starter home or cabin, with a covered entry porch, no large shop bay, and pines and birches at the edge of the yard.
Three bedrooms and the septic tank

Three bedrooms is the largest house the smallest septic tank serves

Minnesota Rules part 7080.1930 sets the minimum septic tank by bedroom count: 1,000 gallons for three bedrooms or fewer, 1,500 gallons for four or five. A three-bedroom plan with an office that could pass as a fourth bedroom may be counted as four, so how that room is drawn matters. A garbage disposal adds 50 percent to the tank either way. The soil treatment area is sized separately from the soils on your lot, and its size is often what decides where on the property the house can go.

Common ways to build this

Three common ways to lay this out. Yours does not have to match one exactly — this is a starting point for the conversation, not a catalog.

Split-bedroom ranch

40' x 50' / 2,000 sq ft / 3 bed, 2.5 bath

Primary suite at one end, two bedrooms and a shared bath at the other, and an open great room between them. The mudroom and laundry sit at the garage side entry, with a half bath off the mudroom.

Three bedrooms with an attached two-car garage

36' x 48' living / 24' x 26' garage at the gable end

A compact three-bedroom home with the garage at one gable end so the eaves drop snow away from the overhead door. The garage entry lands in the mudroom, and the bedrooms sit at the opposite end.

Three bedrooms with a lower level

1,600 sq ft main / 2 bed + family room in the basement

Primary suite and one bedroom on the main floor, the third bedroom and a family room in the basement, each basement bedroom with its own escape opening. The mechanical room sits under the kitchen.

Ways to build this

This layout can go together several ways. These are the service lines most relevant to it.

Custom Plans

Custom barndominium plans drawn for Minnesota: your layout and shop, your county's snow load and frost depth, and a set ready for plan review.

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Turnkey Builds

Turnkey barndominium builds in Minnesota: land check, plans, permits, foundation, frame and finish under one agreement, from raw land to move-in.

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Barndominium Kits

Barndominium kits and shell kits for Minnesota land, sized to your county's state-set snow load and frost depth, with the drawings your permit needs.

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3-Bedroom Barndominium: common questions

6 questions worth settling before this plan is drawn. If yours is not on the list, put it in the survey.

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How big is a typical 3 bedroom barndominium?
Most three-bedroom barndominium floor plans fall between about 1,600 and 2,200 square feet of living space, often in a 40 by 50 or 40 by 60 foot shell with part of it given over to a garage or shop.
What size septic tank does a 3 bedroom barndominium need?
Minnesota Rules part 7080.1930 requires at least 1,000 gallons for a dwelling with three bedrooms or fewer, and 50 percent more if there is a garbage disposal or a sewage pump. The soil treatment area is designed from the soils on your lot.
Does an office count as a bedroom?
It can. Septic designers and building officials look at whether a room could be used as a bedroom, and a room with a closet and an egress-size window often is. If the fourth room is an office, draw it as one.
Can a bedroom open into the garage?
No. Minnesota Rules part 1309.0302 does not permit openings from a private garage directly into a room used for sleeping. Route the garage door through a mudroom or hall.
Do bedrooms need a specific window?
Each sleeping room needs at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening under Minnesota Rules part 1309.0310. The window must meet the code's minimum opening size and sill height, which the permit review checks against the window schedule.
Is a 3 bedroom barndominium a good fit for a kit?
Often. A single-story rectangle with a clear span is the kind of building kit shells are designed for. The interior layout is framed inside the shell, so the same kit can take several of the plans above.

Keep reading

The pages that answer the next question this one raises.

4 bedroom barndominium floor plans

What changes when the fourth bedroom tips the septic tank into the next size.

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What a Minnesota barndominium costs to build

Third-party cost figures by size, including three-bedroom footprints.

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Want this drawn for your program and your parcel? That is where a build actually starts.

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Sources

Code references on this page are to the 2020 Minnesota State Building Code, in effect since March 31, 2020, and to Minnesota Rules as published by the Revisor of Statutes. The code applies statewide, but whether a building permit is issued and inspected where you build depends on whether your city, township or county enforces it. The edition your permit is reviewed under governs.

  1. Minn. R. 7080.1930, Septic Tank Capacity
  2. Minn. R. 1309.0310, Section R310 Emergency Escape and Rescue Openings
  3. Minn. R. 1322.0403, Residential Energy Code, Section R403 Systems
  4. Minn. R. 1309.0302, Section R302 Fire-Resistant Construction

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Tell us what you want to build and we will draw this for your program, then confirm what it looks like on your parcel, which office permits it, and a realistic budget range. That conversation costs nothing.

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