The 16x24 Two Story Cabin: What People Actually Build

Is there a plan for this cabin?

If you went looking for a 16x24 two story cabin, there’s a fair chance you found pictures of a snug cabin on a lake in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Building started in 2006, and the photo essay has been on our site ever since.

Here is the honest part: there’s no exact stock plan for it. Rob LeMay, the man who built it, bought our Little House Plans Kit in 2004 and expanded the plans himself into the 16x24 cabin you see in his photo essay. He and his wife did the work themselves, on a post and pier foundation, with a kitchen and living space below, an L shaped stair, and a loft bedroom and open loft above. Later came a 10x16 porch and a little sauna. It’s a fine example of what an owner-builder can do.

That’s less of a dead end than it sounds. This page covers what a two story cabin really means at this size, and which plans get you there.

What “two story” means at 16x24

Most small cabins called two story are really a story and a half: a full height main floor, a steep roof, and a loft level under that roof with a real stair up to it. Rob’s cabin is built exactly this way.

There’s a good reason for the pattern. A 16 foot wide box carried up two full stories starts to look like a tower, and the stair takes a real bite out of each small floor. The loft version gives you what most folks are actually after, sleeping space up and living space down, inside a structure that is simpler and usually costs less to build. The roof and the second level are the same thing.

So the practical question is how much second level you want. That points to one of three plans.

The plan behind the famous build

The Little House Plans Kit is where the Michigan cabin started. The kit includes complete plans for three cabins, at 10x14, 12x18, and 14x24. Each can be built with a steep pitched roof and a small loft, or with a walking roof deck. The plans include a simple post and pier foundation, plus a skid foundation option for a movable building, along with a materials list, a step-by-step construction checklist, and a ten page booklet of building and customization instructions. Plans start at $225.

The 14x24 with the steep roof and loft is the closest cousin to Rob’s cabin. His 16x24 was his own expansion of these plans, which is exactly what the booklet shows you how to do.

If you want more room on two levels

Lots of folks who search for a 16x24 two story cabin are really after a small house with real living space upstairs. Two of our plans are drawn for exactly that:

• The 1.5 Story Cottage is a 20x30 cottage with 875 to 950 square feet counting its full sized loft. The loft can be a second bedroom, and the plans include three foundation types, porch plans, electrical and plumbing plans, and a materials list. Plans start at $325, and an editable CAD file is available.
• The Two Story Universal Cottage is a 20x34 farmhouse-style home with 1360 square feet, three bedrooms, and three bathrooms, on your choice of nine foundation types. If “two story” means two full floors to you, this is the one. Plans start at $375, and an editable CAD file is available.

Can you change the plans?

We sell our plans as drawn, and we don’t make custom modifications. What we do instead is draw simple structures and document them well, so an owner or a local pro has room to work:

• The Little House booklet has customization instructions, including how to adjust the cabin for your climate and soil and how to work with your building department
• The 1.5 Story Cottage and Two Story Universal Cottage both offer an editable CAD file, so you or a designer can make changes in CAD software
• The 1.5 Story Cottage frame repeats on 2 foot increments, so the plan can be extended in length, and since the floors and roof bear on the outside walls, the interior layout can be rearranged

That’s the route Rob took: start from a sound, simple structure and make it yours, on your own or with local help.

Where to start

1. Decide what second level you want: a sleeping loft, a full sized loft, or two full floors.
2. Pick the plan that matches: the Little House Plans Kit for a loft cabin and the starting point of the 16x24 build, the 1.5 Story Cottage for a full loft, or the Two Story Universal Cottage for two full floors.
3. Talk with your local building department early. Our plain-English guide to codes and permits explains how that works.
4. If you plan to change dimensions the way Rob did, line up a local builder or designer. The CAD add-on, where a plan offers one, gives that person a drawing to work from. The Little House Plans Kit is PDF and paper only.
5. Build, take pictures, and tell the story.

Our owner-builder gallery has a second cabin at this size: a post and pier 16x24 in upstate New York, with a shed dormer over the loft and a covered porch down the long side. It was not built from one of our plans, but it shows the same footprint handled another way.

The owner-builders in our forum have documented small cabin builds like this for over twenty years, lofts, stairs, woodstoves and all. Their build threads are the best place to see how a 16x24 comes together in the real world.