Architecture Wednesday: Little Pink House

I sometimes think we could live in a tiny house, btu then I also sometimes think I need to understand what “tiny” really means.

This home, nestled on an expansive, 60-foot-wide flower and vegetable garden  lot is a rare blend of 1920s-era architecture and tastefully updated, modern industrial details, two things I love. It also features other things I adore, like vaulted ceiling, exposed beams, an urban sleeping loft,  open floor plan, and oak and slate floors, but, and here’s the rub, it sits at just 565 square feet. Now, our current home is 2545 square feet and much larger than this home, while our house in Miami was small, or so I thought, at 1300 square feet.

But 565 … ?

It’s all one room, save for a bathroom at the back and a room off the kitchen; the living and dining and kitchen and bedroom fill the main floor, while there is also a sleeping loft under the rafters up top.

I like the house … I kinda love it … but could you double it in size … or maybe almost triple it? Howsabout turning the two-car garage into a private, separate primary suite?

That might be as small as I go.

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Architecture Wednesday: Handcrafted Hideaway

This tiny home is just 264-square-feet—roughly one/tenth the size of Casa Bob y Carlos—and yet it feels so open and airy.

The blue-and-white home sits just 35 minutes outside of downtown Portland and about a mile up the road from Battle Ground’s Main Street, a charming thoroughfare lined with restaurants, cafes, boutiques, and antique shops.

Wrapped in lap siding on the lower portion and board-and-batten siding on the upper section, the home is marked by a massive deck and a custom cedar awning that extends from its front façade. 

The living area has a floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace that sections the room from the main-floor bedroom. And the kitchen while small, is as comfortable and functional as a standard-size kitchen, with a sink is nestled under a large window; an adjacent dining area accommodates as many as four guests, who sit comfortably on a built-in wood bench with a live edge and a pair of leather-upholstered stools that pull up to an oak-slab table. The table serves double-duty as it can also be used as a workstation.

On either side of the fireplace, there are angled board-and-batten pocket doors that close off the bedroom when privacy is needed. In the bedroom, a vaulted ceiling with a ledge where the walls and the ceiling meet creates a feeling of airiness. And on the opposite end of the tiny home, up an actual staircase, is the loft bedroom for guests, with windows to the forest outside.

It’s a wee bit small for, say two gay men and their three pets, especially when one of the men likes a bit of privacy, but it’s comfy and cozy and homey., and perfect for a getaway, as the builders rent the home as an Airbnb.

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Architecture Wednesday: Off The Grid Cabin

I know very little about this house … other than it’s little … it’s in Kona on the big island of Hawaii … and it’s 100% off-the-grid living.

All the exterior walls are glass, with a center cube that contains a bedroom, two bunks, a literal hallway kitchen and bathroom—for those more darning there is also an outdoor shower.

If you’re feeling claustrophobic in your tiny glass block there is also the wrap-around deck and the landscape to enjoy. I might not like living in this every day, but ass a getaway house this suits my needs.

Plus, you know, Hawaii.

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Architecture Wednesday: The Yorkshire Bolthole

This is the Yorkshire bolthole. Bolthole, you say? It sounds a bit perverted but the Cambridge English dictionary defines a bolthole as 'a place you can go to when you want to get away from your usual life and escape'.

Well, this is an escape, though it’s right out there for everyone to see. The Yorkshire Bolthole is also Grade II-listed—defined as a UK building or structure that is "of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it—and  is part of a glorious Georgian country estate.

Sounds fascinating, but what’s the catch? Well, it measures just 10ft 5” by 8ft 6” and just might be Britain’s smallest home at just 406 square feett.

It’s located on the Grimston Park Estate in North Yorkshire, and the Old Gatehouse, as it is more commonly known—doesn’t it sound a wee bit more glamorous than bolthole—is for sale at £225,000, or just a hair under $280,00USD.

It looks like a limestone cube though it conceals a semi-subterranean layout featuring a sunken living room and kitchen, bathroom—with freestanding tub—and a space-saving spiral staircase that connects to the mezzanine bedroom above, and a cozy private garden.

Yeah, it’s a wee house, but how much space does one really need?

The Spaces

Architecture Wednesday: The Little Cabin

We’re going small this week, with a tiny cabin nestled into a lush second growth forest on a bluff in Seabeck, a former mill town on Hood Canal, Washington. The tiny cabin was built over an existing  20′ x 20′ foundation, with the new two-story structure offering 1,140 square feet of living space.

Visitors approach the site from the south, with a porch canopy marking the entry and framing the  view of the canal below. Windows dominate the north and west elevations, pulling the landscape and distant view into the home.

Oxidized black cedar and blackened cement infill panels clad the exterior—and I so love a black house—while lightly painted panels and soft pine plywood are used to brighten the interior. On the sunny western corner of the house a large patio reaches out into the landscape and serves as a jumping off point to the trail system wandering down to the water’s edge.

It's a tiny house, to be sure, but the views through the windows make it a much larger living experience.

Now, if it only had a 7,000-bottle wine cellar.

As always. click to emBIGGERate ...

One Kind Design

Architecture Wednesday: London Slender House

Who wouldn’t want to live in the narrowest house in London? This slender home—sounds nicer than ‘tiny house’—is sandwiched between two storefronts in the Shepherd’s Bush neighborhood and isn’t really that small.

Sure, it’s just six feet wide—meaning I couldn’t sleep wall to-to-wall without bending my legs—but it is also five floors of living, making it a very surprising 1,034 square feet of living space.

You enter a small … of course … foyer that opens to the main living room, which features an original fireplace, and is at the rear of the home. A wide window on the back wall, overlooking the private outdoor garden area, allows ample natural light to create a bright and airy aesthetic in the small space.

The kitchen and dining area are located one floor down on the lower ground level; the kitchen sits as the front of the home, with the dining area in the rear, and features black-framed, double-height glass doors that open to the private patio in the back garden. Though small in size, the kitchen has ample cabinetry, with expansive wood countertops that provide plenty of space for meal prepping.

Two levels up from the kitchen, the first-floor features one of the home’s two bedrooms, along with a small study area; a small roof terrace can be accessed from this level. Up another flight of stairs is the bathroom, which takes up an entire floor, with the other bedroom on the top floor, with a balcony that looks down into the bathroom below.

It's not everyone’s cup of tea, and I might feel a bit claustrophobic in a six-foot wide house, and loathe the climbing of the stairs, but it is quite a home for just the right person!

If you have  £950K or $1,339,737 US dollars.

 

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