Shipping Container House Floor Plans

With the cost of homes rising, the drive to use more recycled materials, as well as the surge to be more self-sufficient and off the grid, there has come a wave of homes being built out of old shipping containers. These are not only cost effective but also a great way to recycle these old containers and give them new life.

Using some creativity along with paneling, flooring, and siding, it becomes hard to tell from the street that your home is made from a large, steel shipping container. If it’s designed properly, a container home is almost completely earthquake and nature proof. These homes are energy efficient in most environments and come with the ability to use some creative and inexpensive designs.

Below is a list of some of the best shipping container house floor plans to give you some ideas for your new container home!

Ranch Style Shipping Container Home

The ranch style home is 1280 square feet and can cost you less than $10,000 in materials. This style uses a minimalist but stylish approach to living, allowing you to maximize livable floor space. It uses only two ISO shipping containers that are spaced 16 feet apart, forming a grand entrance and living/dining room space. This space is 640 square feet with a 12 foot vaulted ceiling.

The two containers on each side will form the outer walls and contain the bedrooms and bathroom. With this design, you could also cut out half of the inside wall from one of the containers to form a larger kitchen that would open into the living/dining space. Adding a large glass wall to the back of the home helps to give it a more open feel.

One Bed One Bath Container Home

This design is the smallest on the list and uses a single 40' shipping container, making just 320 square feet of living space. Cutting a door into the side as your entrance, you would walk into your living space with the kitchen just off to the right. The single bath lies at the end of the home, past the kitchen.

Walking just left of your living area, you could place a wall that would separate your bedroom space. Make sure to cut in and place windows in each room as well as cutting space to place in an A/C unit. This design resembles a small apartment for a single person.

Two Bed One Bath Container Home

This shipping container home gives you 640 total square feet of living space using two 40' containers. A porch greets you with the front door that opens at the far end of the container into the living, dining, and kitchen areas.

With the containers sitting next to each other and the sides opened up in the interior, this design gives you a wider space to live and puts the bedrooms cornered to each other to the left of the living area. Connecting the bedrooms is the full bath with a door into each room. This design puts a closet in each bedroom as well, and the second bedroom opens out onto a porch at the far end of the home.

Three Bed One Bath Container Home

This is a variation of the previous 2-bedroom home, with the same amount of square footage using two 40' containers. With the containers sitting next to each other, the two interior sides are taken out. You have the living, dining, and kitchen areas in the center of the home with the bathroom being accessible from this area and located behind the kitchen.

To the left of the living area, you have two bedrooms that share a 16-square-foot-across space, making each bedroom 8 feet across with a glass sliding door between the two rooms. To the right of your living area, you have your third bedroom that is the same size as the other two rooms. You could make the third room a storage area if you need it!

Two Bed Two Bath Container Home Duplex

There are several variations of this design, giving a total square footage of 800 square feet using two 40' containers.

These homes are basically a duplex, meaning that there are two separate living spaces within this single unit. Both areas have their own entrance complete with their own living/dining space, kitchen, bedroom, and bath.

Commercial Office Container Plan

Again, this design uses two 40' containers and gives you 640 square feet of usable space. However, this one is designed as a workspace instead of a residential home. This design places the containers next to each other with the interior walls cut out to make a large open square. There are 2 cubicles with 2 desks each on either side. On one side, the cubicles are smaller to allow for an area between the two cubbies to allow the space for a printer and storage.

In the main area right in the center of the space, there is room for 2 long conference tables. While this may seem a small space for a company, it can be just the perfect size for a small yet growing business and can save you money over time as it is an efficient and inexpensive way to build.

If you want to see other unique ways of using shipping containers as a building material, check out Porta-Stor’s other blogs. This one goes over the pros and cons of shipping container farms!