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Custom Prairie home exterior — strongest finished-project image
Recommended: high-quality custom home exterior or photorealistic rendering, preferably dusk/golden hour with architecture filling the frame.
Plans That Work
Custom Home Design Built Around the Way You Live
A custom home should fit more than the lot.
It should fit the people who are going to live there.
Drafting Smith develops residential designs around your property, priorities and the way you want the home to function, then turns the approved concept into a clear set of detailed drawings.
Tell us about your property and what you're planning. We'll respond within 24 hours.
Custom Residential Design
Start With Your Ideas, Not a Standard Plan
Some clients know almost exactly what they want.
Others know they need four bedrooms, a good mudroom, a bigger kitchen and a garage that doesn't take over the front of the house.
Both are good starting points.
The job of a residential designer is to take those ideas, sort out what works together and turn them into a home that makes sense as a whole.
You don't need to arrive with a finished plan.
You just need somewhere to start.
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Homeowner inspiration + hand sketch
Recommended: candid flat-lay of a rough sketch, inspiration photos, notes and lot information — something human, not polished stock photography.
Designed for the Project
More Than Changing a Few Dimensions
Custom design isn't taking a stock plan and stretching a room by two feet.
The house should respond to the property, the way you live and the decisions that matter most to you.
01
The Property
Lot dimensions, orientation, views, access, neighbouring properties and setbacks all influence what makes sense.
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02
Your Lifestyle
How you cook, entertain, work, relax and move through the home should shape the layout.
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03
Room Relationships
Which rooms should connect?
Which spaces need privacy?
Where should traffic flow — and where shouldn't it?
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04
Natural Light & Views
Window placement and room orientation can make a big difference in how the home feels and how it relates to the property.
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05
Exterior Design
The outside of the home is developed alongside the floor plan instead of being treated as something to figure out afterward.
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06
Buildability
A good idea still has to make sense when it reaches the job site.
That's part of Plans That Work — designing a home that looks good on paper and can be clearly communicated to the people who will eventually build it.
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Your Lot Matters
Designing Around the Site
A custom home isn't designed in isolation from the property.
A suburban lot, narrow infill site and acreage all create different design opportunities and different constraints.
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Custom home on its actual site / acreage
Recommended: wide exterior showing the home in relation to the lot, landscape, driveway and surroundings — ideally a Drafting Smith project.
New Subdivisions
New neighbourhoods may have architectural controls, setback requirements, garage rules or exterior guidelines that affect the design.
Infill Lots
Established neighbourhoods often come with tighter lot dimensions, existing neighbouring homes, access limitations and municipal requirements that need to be considered early.
Acreages & Rural Properties
Larger properties may give you more flexibility, but there are still decisions around house placement, views, driveway access, servicing, orientation and future development.
Drafting Smith works on acreage and rural residential projects as well as homes within cities and towns.
The information needed about the property will depend on the project and municipality. Surveys, site plans, grading information or other documentation may be required before the design or permit drawings are completed.
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Actual Drafting Smith floor plan
Recommended: a real custom-home floor plan with client-identifying details and detailed dimensions removed. Keep room names and general room sizes visible.
How the Home Works
A Better Home Starts With a Better Layout
A good floor plan isn't just a collection of rooms that fit within a certain square footage.
It considers how people actually use them.
During the design process, we work through questions like:
- Where should guests enter?
- How should the kitchen connect to the dining and living areas?
- Does the mudroom actually work with the garage entrance?
- Where should bedrooms be located for privacy?
- Is there enough useful storage?
- How does the main living space connect to the yard or deck?
- Are hallways taking up more space than they need to?
- Does the layout work for how you live today — and how you expect to live later?
These are much easier decisions to change on a screen than after framing has started.
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Finished exterior or photorealistic elevation/rendering
Recommended: dramatic front or 3/4 exterior view that clearly shows rooflines, windows, garage massing and overall proportions.
Inside + Outside
The Outside Should Make Sense With the Inside
Floor plans and exterior design affect one another.
Move a window and the elevation changes.
Change a roofline and it may affect the spaces below it.
Shift the garage and the entire front of the house can feel different.
We develop the exterior alongside the floor plan so the two feel like they belong together.
Whether you prefer something modern, traditional or somewhere in between, the goal is a balanced exterior that suits the home and property.
Choosing the Right Starting Point
Custom Design or a Pre-Designed House Plan?
A pre-designed house plan can cost less up front, and for some projects it may be a perfectly reasonable starting point.
The trade-off is that it wasn't drawn for your property or your family.
It doesn't know where the best view is.
It doesn't know that you want the kitchen facing the backyard.
It doesn't know how wide your lot is, where the garage needs to sit or what your municipality will require.
And a plan purchased online may still need to be adapted or redrawn before it can be used for permitting or construction.
Custom design gives you the opportunity to make those decisions around the actual project from the beginning.
If you've already found a plan you like, send it to us.
It can often provide useful inspiration or a starting point, subject to copyright and ownership restrictions.
You Don't Need to Speak “Design”
Bring Us What You Have
Most people don't start with architectural terminology.
They start with things like:
- photos saved online
- a rough sketch
- an existing plan they almost like
- a list of must-have rooms
- homes they've toured
- exterior styles they prefer
- features from their current home they love — or never want again
That's useful information.
It tells us what you're drawn to and gives us something concrete to discuss.
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Inspiration photo
Recommended: exterior/interior style image supplied by a client.
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Rough hand sketch
Recommended: genuine homeowner sketch or marked-up plan.
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Existing plan they almost like
Recommended: existing plan or reference drawing used as inspiration, with copyright-safe presentation.
What We Develop
From the First Layout to Detailed Residential Plans
The early stages are about the design itself:
- floor plan development
- room layout and circulation
- exterior elevations
- garage configuration
- basement planning
- window and door locations
- roof form
- relationship to the property
Once the design is approved, the project moves into detailed drafting.
Depending on the scope, that may include floor plans, elevations, sections, foundation information, roof plans, construction details and drawings required for municipal review.
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Detailed residential drawing sheet
Recommended: real Drafting Smith construction drawing sheet showing floor plan, elevations and/or sections. Remove identifying data and detailed dimensions.
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Preliminary 3D model / working design view
Recommended: actual Drafting Smith preliminary 3D model or viewport screenshot — intentionally a working design view, not a polished marketing render.
See the Design Take Shape
A Better Way to Review the Home
During the preliminary design stage, 3D views can be used to help review the overall form of the home and understand how the exterior is coming together.
These preliminary views are working design tools rather than polished marketing renderings.
If you want more detailed finished renderings of the completed design, those can be requested separately.
Additional fees apply.
How It Works
From Ideas to a Complete Home Design
01
Tell Us About the Property & Your Ideas
We start with the property, the spaces you need, the style you're drawn to and anything you've already collected.
Meetings and design reviews are handled by phone, email or online meeting — even for Saskatoon-area clients.
02
Develop the Floor Plan
We work through how the rooms fit together and how the home needs to function.
This is where the biggest layout decisions are made.
03
Review & Revise
You'll review the preliminary design and provide feedback.
One or two rounds of straightforward revisions — such as moving doors, windows or making smaller layout adjustments — are typically included.
More extensive redesigns or significant changes beyond the agreed scope are billed hourly.
04
Develop the Exterior
Once the layout is taking shape, we work through the exterior form, rooflines, windows and other major visual elements.
Preliminary 3D views may be used during this stage to help communicate the design.
05
Refine the Design
The floor plan and exterior are reviewed together and adjusted so the home works as one complete design.
06
Prepare Detailed Drawings
Once the design is approved, we prepare the detailed residential drawing package required for the next stage.
Depending on the project, those drawings may be used for permitting, builder pricing and construction.
If engineering is required, Drafting Smith can coordinate with the engineer so the relevant information can be incorporated into the plans.
A Practical Consideration
Who Determines What the Home Will Cost to Build?
Drafting Smith designs the home and prepares the drawings.
We do not estimate the final construction cost.
Construction pricing comes from the builder.
If staying within a particular construction budget is especially important, it's a good idea to involve your builder during the design process or obtain builder feedback before the drawings are completely finalized.
That gives you an opportunity to make informed design changes before construction begins.
Don't have a builder yet?
That's fine too.
Your completed plans can be taken to the builder of your choice or used to obtain pricing from more than one builder.
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Builder pricing / plans on table
Recommended: builder reviewing printed plans or estimate documents — reinforces that the builder prices construction, not Drafting Smith.
Your Home
You Don't Need to Make Every Decision at Once
A new home comes with a lot of decisions.
The design process puts them into a sensible order.
First the big things: layout, room relationships and how the home sits on the property.
Then the exterior.
Then the details.
That makes it easier to see the design, react to it and make changes before those decisions become expensive.
Drafting Smith designs homes and prepares the drawings.
We don't build them.
You choose the builder you want to work with.
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Homeowner reviewing plans at home
Recommended: homeowner/couple reviewing floor plans or 3D views on a table or laptop; authentic and collaborative.
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Builder + designer reviewing drawing set
Recommended: builder/contractor reviewing a printed residential drawing set; construction-context image rather than generic handshake.
Builder Support
Residential Design & Drafting for Builders
Drafting Smith also works directly with home builders on client homes, new plan development and revisions to existing concepts.
Depending on the project, we can assist with:
- custom client designs
- floor plan development
- modifications to existing concepts
- exterior design
- detailed residential drawings
- permit drawing packages
- plan revisions
Communication can happen directly with the homeowner, builder or whoever the client wants us coordinating with.
The goal is to keep the information moving between the people who actually need it.
From Design to Permit
When the Design Is Ready to Move Forward
Once the home design is established, the project can move into the detailed drawings required for municipal review.
Requirements vary by municipality and property.
Some projects may also require engineering, surveying or other outside professional information.
Drafting Smith checks the applicable municipal requirements and can prepare the residential drawing package for the project.
The homeowner or builder submits the permit application.
Selected Work
See How Other Designs Came Together
Every home starts with a different lot and a different list of priorities.
[PROJECT NAME]
[Community] · Custom Home Design
[Short, real description of the client's goals, property and what Drafting Smith developed.]
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Featured custom-home project
Recommended: strongest completed home exterior or hero rendering. Use the most portfolio-worthy Drafting Smith project.
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Matching floor plan or main-floor drawing
Recommended: floor plan from the same featured project, with identifying information and detailed dimensions removed.
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Exterior elevation / 3D view from the same project
Recommended: complementary elevation, rear view or preliminary 3D image from the featured project.
Where We Work
Based in Saskatoon. Designed Online.
Drafting Smith works with homeowners and builders throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
Our design process is intentionally set up to work remotely.
Consultations happen by phone or online meeting. Plans are shared digitally. Feedback and revisions are handled by email and online review.
That applies whether the project is in Saskatoon or several hundred kilometres away.
Our primary markets include:
We also work with clients in surrounding communities, smaller centres and rural/acreage locations throughout the Prairies.
Custom Home FAQs
Questions About Custom Home Design
It means developing a home specifically around the property and the people who will live there instead of starting with a fixed stock plan.
The process covers both how the house functions and how it looks.
No.
A list of rooms, some inspiration photos and a general idea of what you like is enough to start a conversation.
Part of our job is helping organize those ideas.
Often, yes, as a starting point.
The first question is whether the plan can legally be reproduced or modified because house plans are protected by copyright.
We'll also review whether it actually suits your property and needs.
Yes.
The floor plan and exterior are developed together so changes to one can be considered in the other.
Preliminary 3D views can be used during design to help review the form of the home and exterior.
These are working design views rather than high-end finished renderings.
Detailed finished renderings can be requested separately for an additional fee.
Simple revisions are part of the normal design process.
Typically, one or two rounds of straightforward changes such as adjusting doors, windows or smaller layout details are included.
More significant redesigns or changes outside the original scope are billed hourly.
There isn't one standard timeline.
The schedule depends on the size and complexity of the home, how quickly design decisions are made and Drafting Smith's workload at the time.
We'll discuss the anticipated schedule when the project is reviewed.
Drafting Smith does not provide construction pricing.
The builder determines what the home will cost to build.
If you have a firm construction budget, we recommend involving your builder during design so pricing feedback can be considered before the plans are finalized.
You can, but you don't have to.
If you already have a builder, we're happy to communicate with them during the design process.
If you don't, the finished drawings can be taken to the builder of your choice or used to obtain multiple quotes.
No.
Drafting Smith provides residential design and drafting.
You are free to take the finished PDF or printed plans to any builder or contractor you choose.
Once the project is paid for, the client receives the completed PDF plans and any printed sets requested.
Those finished plans can be used with the builder of the client's choice.
Drafting Smith retains the editable digital source files used to create the drawings.
Engineering is a separate professional service where required.
If structural engineering is needed, Drafting Smith can coordinate with the engineer and incorporate the appropriate information into the plans.
Yes.
Drafting Smith works on urban, rural and acreage custom homes throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
Yes.
Even if the basement won't be finished right away, thinking about bedrooms, bathrooms, stairs, mechanical space and possible future uses during the initial design can save headaches later.
Drafting Smith is a residential design and drafting company, not an architecture firm.
Whether an architect or another regulated professional is required depends on the size, complexity and jurisdiction of the project.
If additional professional involvement is required, we'll identify that as part of the project review.
Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the home and the drawing scope.
Estimates are free.
Once we've reviewed the project, we'll explain our fees and the deposit required before work begins.
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Custom home exterior — closing CTA image
Recommended: emotionally strong finished-home image with enough negative space for CTA copy. Could be a different angle/project than the hero.
Have a Home in Mind?
Start With the Property and the Ideas
You don't need a finished floor plan.
Send us the property location, anything you know about the lot, the approximate size of the home and the ideas or inspiration you've already collected.
We'll review the project and let you know what we need to take the next step.
Estimate requests are reviewed within 24 hours.