Most Roman houses had shops (tabernae) flanking the entrance to the house.  These shops were rented out to lower class Romans who not used them as a place of business but also as dwellings.  At night, shutters could be closed and the shop became a tiny apartment, often with a slightly raised storey in back for sleeping quarters.  There was no access to the interior of the house.  Apartment buildings had similar shops on the ground floor.

One of the most important rooms in the house was the atrium, which had a square opening in the ceiling through which water could fall and be collected in a shallow basin built in the floor.  The atrium was the family room for the house and also served as a reception area for guests.  It was in the atrium that patrons received their clients in the salutatio.  Also, aristocratic families kept images of ancestors who were prominent in politics in a wooden shrine in the atrium, so that all visitors would be impressed with the greatness of the clan.

The tablinum, which was located immediately behind the atrium, served as an office for the owner of the house.  The dining room (triclinium), like the bedrooms (cubicula), were located along the  side walls, flanking the interior atrium-tablinum-peristyle axis. This house plan obviously ignores a very important room: the kitchen (culina), which would also have been situated along a side wall.

Earlier Roman houses had an unroofed garden, in which vegetables and fruits were grown for family consumption.  In later times, the garden replaced by an unroofed area, surrounded by columns, called a peristyle.  This area was no longer used for growing vegetables and fruits, but became a landscaped garden with shrubs, flowers, and various sculpture.

House plan from Connolly, P. and Dodge, H., The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens & Rome (Oxford 1998).
 

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