20 Tiny Houses for Living in a Small Home
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
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Tiny Houses are becoming more and more of a trend for those who do not want to purchase a traditional style house but want the comfort and flexibility that come with a custom, sometimes mobile, dwelling unit.
Think of tiny living as like your own personal studio apartment that has all the amenities you would need designed to function within a single space.
Tiny Houses can often times include hidden compartments for storage, expandable walls, and sleeping lofts aimed to maximize living space throughout the day.
Key Takeaways
- Tiny houses offer comfort and flexibility as an alternative to traditional homes, often featuring space-saving designs.
- Living in small homes emphasizes maximizing minimal space through innovative architectural features.
- Sustainability drives the tiny house movement, utilizing energy-efficient designs and recycled materials.
- Consider personal lifestyle needs when designing a tiny house, such as mobility and proximity to nature.
- Engaging with design professionals can help navigate feasibility and comply with building codes for tiny home projects.
Table of Contents
Usually around 500 sf or less in area the tiny houses offer its inhabitants an ease for maintenance, heating & cooling cost savings, as well optimized space for those that do not require or want the added square footage of traditional style homes like a ranch, bungalow, or farmhouse for example.
Although the terms tiny houses or tiny homes can really reflect any style of dwelling unit, the idea is that micro living is emphasized throughout the structure.
There is a classification that separates the ‘living simple’ buildings into tiny houses and small houses.
Country Living Small Homes Living Big in Small Spaces
Some suggest that any home under 400 sf is among the tiny houses while any home unit between 400 – 1000 sf would be a small house.
See Also: 7 Trendy Tiny House Floor Plans
Editor’s Note: A collection of our current favorite tiny house floor plans so far in 2016.
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If you’d like to know more about our Services, looking for basic Project information, or if you are specifically looking for some design consultation, Contact Us!
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Regardless, the average size of a new single family home in the United States in 2013 was around 2600 sf. This is up from 1700 sf back in 1978.
So whether referred to as tiny houses, the architectural and social movement for tiny houses is a significant. It helps in the reduction of building footprint.
See Also: Tiny House Village in Iowa Proposed for Des Moines Homeless
Sustainability is one of the driving forces behind the movement. Recycled or reclaimed materials might also utilize more within the construction of the structure.
Although there are a small growing number of manufacturers who generate templates to select from and customize to your personal preferences.
Sustainable Approach
Still the custom tiny houses show below showcase some creativity and unique reflection of their owners. Living small does not mean sacrificing personality.
Ultimately a tiny home is designed with the occupants in mind and their particular lifestyle:
- For example, do you want to travel and have access to hooking up your tiny home to hit the road with? A trailer frame and road regulations is key.
- Will the home want to be located near a lake, ocean, river for activities like fishing, canoeing, kayaking, etc? Secured storage might be considered.
- Maybe you a biking enthusiast and enjoy hitting the trail every morning. Well proper secured storage should impede interior living space.
- Or perhaps a strong connection to the natural landscape around is important to you. Large windows can be incorporated but consideration for southern orientation, summer solar gains and winter heat loses will keep it efficient.
There are many variables that potentially might come into play when considering the possibility of designing your own tiny home.
Getting Tiny Home Plans
So where do I go to purchase a tiny house of my own?
There are a small number of manufactures out there that you can purchase pre-designed units from and potentially customize to your liking.
We are working on a post to list out some of the top Tiny House manufacturers.
Otherwise reaching out to perhaps an architect and contractor would be a good place to start. Engaging with a design professional to start to figure out the feasibility of your project will let you know if you are going down the right path.
Do you have a site or location in mind that the building will be situated upon?
Country living small homes living big in small spaces!
Perhaps you own a small piece of property and do not want a standard or large size home for a number of different reasons. Well analyzing site characteristics can significantly influence where the ideal location for your tiny house should be.
- How open is your site to the elements wind, water, sun, etc? This might impact if a tiny house should be located near trees, on a small slope, etc.
- The climate (if it will be a stationary dwelling unit) will also impact the design of the building. Will insulation be critical to ensure comfort.
- Sometimes orienting the building a few degrees can help improve solar warm in the winter and avoid assess heat gain in the summer.
- In a warmer climate? Cross ventilation of the space, shading elements, and other passive heating and cooling strategies can reduce energy use.
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Energy Consumption
Since sustainability is important in the design of tiny houses (as it should be in any building), the utilization of energy needs to be assessed within the design.
See Also: Smarter way to use Space in your Home
Sure placing a propane tank down somewhere and calling it a day might serve your initial needs, but will it continue to help you reduce your overall annual energy usage?
Understanding the energy consumption of any of the tiny houses that get constructed should be important. From lighting fixtures and small refrigerators to hot water tanks or pumps, the utilization of natural resources will help you operate for longer on less.
Technically an approach that once again applies to any building however it is usually the clients who seek out tiny houses that really drive the desire for more sustainable action within their tiny home.
Tiny Houses & Living Simple
Some home designs are building for small living were in response to Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005.
These sleeping quarters needed to be affordable and efficient to built while still maintaining the look and feel of the local neighborhood before the storm.
With infrastructure still being restored at the time and urgency given to sheltering those effected by the hurricane, these tiny houses need to optimize performance – short term and long term.
The tiny houses we see today embody the simple living philosophy while promoting all the same values of a traditional sized home; health, happiness and family.
Regardless of the style, making a house feel like home is important.
Beyond the construction of tiny houses, how the interior decoration and furnishing is also reflective of someone’s personality.
To some degree, spaces will be to transform into function multiple rolls.
A kitchen wall is designed to be pulled out which makes available certain functions of the home. While not in use the wall can be moved back to allow more room for other functions to occur. This could include activities such as sleeping, eating or living.
At MIT’s Media Lab, exploration on tiny living showcases in a project called CityHome.
“CityHome is an ultra-efficient, responsive urban home, providing a hardware and software ecosystem for personal space customization. A micro-unit apartment developed by Kent Larson’s Changing Places Research Group.”
I know … pretty awesome right? Although designed with apartment living in mind, the same concept applies to the notion of tiny houses.
Put this up on the shelf next to flying cars … but great concept!
Explore your Own
Thinking about tiny houses as an alternative to entering into traditional mortgage loans and larger single family homes? Country living small homes living big in small spaces!
Browse to images below to start to get some ideas for what you might be interested in. We highly recommended reaching out to us if you have any questions.
We can provide you with some further insight into what your next steps might want to be.
Figure out a budget for the project, what your needs and wish list items are and then convey that to a design professional. It is possible to figure out if the project would be feasible to start from.
Understanding any building code compliance issues you would need to fall within or regulations that might impact the structure will be important to the overall success of the build.
Several Other Examples of Tiny Homes
by Thomas Werneken (https://unsplash.com/@thomaswerneken)
by Aysegul Yahsi (https://unsplash.com/@aysegulyahsi)
by Nachelle Nocom (https://unsplash.com/@nachellenocom)
by Roberto Nickson (https://unsplash.com/@rpnickson)
by Jef Owen (https://unsplash.com/@jediahowen)
by Jef Owen (https://unsplash.com/@jediahowen)
by Flo (https://unsplash.com/@flolu)
by Clay Banks (https://unsplash.com/@claybanks)
by Clay Banks (https://unsplash.com/@claybanks)
by Jaime Bishara (https://unsplash.com/@itsjaimeb)
by Andrea Davis (https://unsplash.com/@andreaedavis)
by Andrea Davis (https://unsplash.com/@andreaedavis)
by Andrea Davis (https://unsplash.com/@andreaedavis)
Q&A – Living in Small Homes
Tiny houses offer comfort and flexibility, emphasizing space-saving designs that maximize minimal living areas. They also require less maintenance and can lead to savings on heating / cooling costs.
Tiny houses are typically around 500 square feet or less, while small houses are basically to be between 400 and 1,000 square feet. The primary distinction is that tiny houses emphasize micro-living with innovative architectural features.
Sustainability is a key driving force behind the tiny house movement, with many designs utilizing energy-efficient features and recycled or reclaimed materials, contributing to a reduced environmental footprint.
Owners should consider their personal lifestyle needs, such as mobility, proximity to nature, and specific activities like fishing or biking. Features like secured storage and large windows for natural light may also be important.
Potential tiny house owners can look for a small number of manufacturers that offer pre-design units, which are for you to customize. Consulting with architects or contractors is also a good way to explore the feasibility and design of a tiny home.
Neil has over 20 years’ experience on a range of large (15,000 sf) and small (500 sf) residential, non-profit, and commercial projects with a small business focus. He has two kids with his wife, Victoria, and loves family time camping, hiking, and traveling. While he grew up in New England, Neil is a diehard Buffalo Bills fan!
