Inside the Maple Plan Series: How to Choose the Right Custom Home for Your Family
When a home design starts to build a following, you can feel it. Builders ask for it by name. Homeowners send in photos of finished projects. New families ask for it after touring a friend's house. The Maple Plan from Fry Design Co. is one of those designs.
What started as a single, smartly proportioned floor plan has grown into a small family of layouts built around the same core idea: a livable, customizable home that delivers high-end feel without demanding mansion-sized square footage. Today the series includes three of our most-requested plans, the Maple #1, the Maple #2, and the Maple #5, each designed to fit a different stage of life and a different kind of lot.
If you are weighing a custom home build or a barndominium and the Maple keeps catching your eye, here is what makes each version unique and how to decide which one is right for your family.
Why the Maple Plan Series Has Such a Following
Across hundreds of conversations with first-time custom home buyers, growing families, and downsizers, a few things keep coming up about the Maple. People love that it feels custom without feeling oversized. The flow between the kitchen, dining, and living spaces is built for daily family life and the kind of casual entertaining most people actually do. Storage is generous. Outdoor living is treated as a feature, not an afterthought. And the footprint is friendly to both rural acreage and suburban lots.
Just as important, the plan is built to be personalized. We designed the series so that families could start with proven bones and adjust the rest, whether that means swapping finishes, changing the kitchen layout, or building it as a barndominium-style post-frame home instead of a traditional stick frame.
Maple #1 Plan: The Original (3 Bed / 2.5 Bath / 2,400 SF)
The Maple #1 is the plan that started it all. At 2,400 square feet of conditioned living space inside a clean 40-foot by 60-foot footprint, it is one of the most efficient layouts in our entire catalog.
Quick specs:
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3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
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2,400 SF living area
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723 SF of covered porch
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490 SF of patio
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3,613 SF total under roof
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40-foot by 60-foot footprint
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No attached garage
This plan is jam packed with the kind of custom amenities buyers usually expect to find in much larger homes, and it is adaptable enough to be tailored to almost any family. It is a strong fit for couples building their first custom home, small or growing families who want every square foot to work hard, and downsizers stepping out of a larger home but not willing to give up a real primary suite or a proper kitchen. The combined 1,213 square feet of covered outdoor space is a particular favorite of clients building on land where the views matter.
Maple #2 Plan: Garage, Shop, and a Luxe Primary Suite (3 Bed / 2.5 Bath / 3-Car / 2,487 SF)
The Maple #2 takes everything people love about the original and answers two of the most common upgrade requests we hear: more vehicle and storage space, and a primary suite that feels like an escape.
Quick specs:
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3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
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2,487 SF living area
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Attached 3-car garage with shop space
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Luxurious primary bath with two-sided shower entry and freestanding soaking tub
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Available as a mirrored or flipped layout
The attached 3-car garage and shop make this version a natural fit for tradespeople, hobbyists, hunters, ranchers, and anyone who needs a real workspace under the same roof as the family. The upgraded primary bath gives the suite a hospitality-grade feel, which is one of the features clients consistently say has the biggest day-to-day impact on how a home feels to live in. And because the plan can be flipped, it is easier to orient the home toward the best views or the best driveway approach on your specific lot.
If the original Maple is the smart starting point, the Maple #2 is the upgrade most builders move to once they walk the layout in person.
Maple #5 Plan: Room to Grow (5 Bed / 2.5 Bath / 3,000 SF)
The Maple #5 is the answer to a question we get all the time: what if we love the Maple but we need more bedrooms?
Quick specs:
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5 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
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3,000 SF living area
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No attached garage in this version
At 3,000 square feet, the Maple #5 keeps the open, family-centered flow of the original but adds the bedroom count larger and multi-generational households actually need. It is a strong fit for families with three or more kids, blended families, work-from-home households that need a dedicated office plus a guest room, and anyone planning ahead for aging parents or adult children moving back home for a season.
How to Pick the Right Maple for Your Build
A few quick questions usually point families to the right version:
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How many bedrooms do you actually need now, and what does that look like in five years? If the answer is three plus a flex space, the Maple #1 or #2 is usually the right call. If you need four or five real bedrooms, go with the Maple #5.
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Do you need a garage and shop attached to the house? If yes, the Maple #2 is the most efficient way to get there.
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What is your lot like? The Maple #1 fits on a tight 40 by 60 footprint. The Maple #2 needs more room because of the attached garage. The Maple #5 needs the most square footage on the ground.
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Are you building barndominium style or traditional stick frame? Every plan in the Maple series can be adapted for either approach. We cover the tradeoffs in our guide on barndominiums versus stick frame builds.
Every Maple Can Be Personalized
It is worth saying clearly: a stock plan is a starting point, not a finish line. Every Maple in our catalog is fully customizable through the Fry Design Co. design process, from kitchen layouts and primary suite configurations to barndominium conversions and exterior styling. If you have already fallen in love with the bones of one of these plans but want to adjust the rest, that is exactly what we do.
If you want a closer look at the full series, you can browse all of our floor plans here, or reach out to the team at Fry Design Co. to talk through which version fits your land, your budget, and the way your family actually lives.