G-141Custom homes
Custom home design, coordinated with your builder
Native Plans designs custom homes in Nashville and Middle Tennessee for homeowners who are building with a builder or about to choose one. The floor plans, interiors and landscape get designed together, and your builder is in the room from the first meeting, so the drawings match how the house will be priced and built.
G-142Where you are
Three places to start from.
- 01
You have a builder and need a design team.
Your builder is ready. They need drawings and selections they can price from.
- 02
You're choosing a builder.
Start the design now and bring builders in early, so their pricing reflects the real house.
- 03
You want the inside and the outside designed together.
A floor plan alone stops at the walls. We carry the design into the finishes and the yard.
G-143What you get
Custom home design from one team.
One design for the whole property
Floor plans, interiors and landscape drawn together, so the kitchen, the porch and the yard were designed as one place.
Decisions in the right order
A guided sequence of choices, each made before the builder needs it, so selections don't hold up the schedule. Our guide to when to make selections in a new build shows the order builders work in.
Drawings your builder can use
Plans developed with your builder's input, drawn for pricing, permitting and construction.
G-144Do you have a builder?
Start with your builder.
Your builder is the one who prices the drawings and builds the house, so we bring them in as early as we can. Where you are with a builder shapes how we start.
Yes
We meet them early, learn how they price and build, and draw to it, including any plan standards or builder design system they already work from. They see the set before it's final.
Choosing one
We start the design and help you bring builders in when their pricing is useful. The set is drawn so any qualified builder can price it.
Not yet
We talk through the project and what to look for in a builder. Native is a design studio, and the design goes best when a builder joins the team early.
ID-201Featured work
Every finish, named and placed.
A visualization of the Forest Lawn kitchen in Brentwood, TN. The set names each finish: a stone oak working island, Bianco Drift quartz counters, limewash shaker cabinetry wrapping a custom range hood. They are chosen together and placed room by room, so your builder prices and orders from one list.
G-145Questions
What homeowners ask first.
Do I need a builder before I contact you?
No, but it helps to bring one in early. If you have a builder, we'll work with them from the start. If you're choosing one, we can start the design and bring builders in when their pricing input is useful.
Either way, the project goes better when the builder sees the drawings before they're final.
How much does it cost to have a designer design your home?
Native Plans prices each home after a first conversation, from the size and complexity of the house, which services you need (plans, interiors, landscape) and how many revision rounds the scope includes.
How quickly decisions get made moves the number too. There's no rate card: you get a recommended scope with a price, so you're comparing a real number to a defined set of drawings.
Do you need an architect to build a house in Tennessee?
Not always. Tennessee exempts some residential work from the requirement to use a licensed architect, but whether a project qualifies depends on the project and the local jurisdiction. Engineered elements can still need an engineer's stamp when the plans themselves don't.
Requirements vary by project and jurisdiction, so confirm yours with the local building department. Where a licensed architect or engineer is required, how that work is handled is agreed in the project scope. Who does what on a Tennessee home.
What questions should I ask a builder?
Ask how they price, what their allowances cover, how they handle change orders and who will run your job day to day. Ask whether they work fixed price or cost-plus and how they'll keep you informed during construction. Then ask to see a house they built from someone else's drawings, and how they handled the questions that came up.
Ask how they like to work with a design team, too. A builder who reviews the drawings before they're final can flag cost problems while they're still cheap to fix.
Where does Native Plans work?
Native Plans is based in Nashville and works with builders across Middle Tennessee.
If your project is somewhere else, tell us where and we'll say plainly whether we're a fit.
Tell us about the house and the builder.
Start with whether you have a builder. Then tell us about the lot, the house and your timeline, and we'll recommend a scope that brings your builder in early.