Our Favorite Tiny Home Ideas of the Year


Our Favorite Tiny Home Ideas of the Year

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When it comes to designing a tiny home, you have to be efficient with your decisions. The key to an excellent final product is finding the right combination of tiny home ideas for you. No two homeowners want the same things out of their house, so don’t be afraid to be unique with your design. If an idea is good for you and your family, then it’s a good idea!
What tiny homes lack in space, they make up for in efficiency and economy. With lower costs, you have the financial leeway to put a personal stamp on your tiny home. By finding the perfect mixing and matching of concepts you will craft a home that is one of a kind, and optimally suited to match your lifestyle.

Tiny Home Basics

The tiny home movement is a return to a simpler way of living. While most tiny homes still come with state-of-the-art technology, owners still approach life in their homes with an eye on reducing excess. Anything that isn’t necessary diminishes in importance or removed altogether, allowing for a happy and fulfilling life in a home that is just a fraction of the size of an average home.

What makes a small home tiny?

Although tiny may seem like just a label, tiny homes have a legal definition. For a home to count as a legal tiny home, it must have a footprint measuring 400 square feet or less. Although this classification is restricting in many ways, it also has inspired a great deal of creativity. Tiny home designers have to get the absolute most out of every little bit of space.

The finances of owning a tiny home

The cost of a tiny home varies by location, as well as which tiny home ideas homeowners utilize. One thing that is consistent across all tiny houses, however, is that they cost less than standard homes with similar amenities. On a fundamental level, tiny homes require less space and fewer materials and reduce a significant amount of your typical construction costs. Many tiny home buyers even have the money to hire an architect, even on a limited budget!

Pros and cons of implementing tiny home ideas

The primary benefit to owning a tiny home is keeping more of your money in your own bank account. The savings on your home don’t end after construction. With a smaller home, regular maintenance is cheaper. Tiny homeowners also face fewer repair costs, as there is less home to fall into disrepair. To round off the savings sundae, with less home to heat, cool, or light up, your utility bill shrinks as well. Many tiny homeowners also enjoy the reduction of clutter a tiny home brings. Moving in requires careful curation of your belongings, so you end up with few if any useless possessions.
Reducing your possessions is a worthwhile experience, but it’s not without its own stresses. Those who struggle to throw away their belongings are unlikely to enjoy the reduced space of a tiny home. There is also less privacy, as it is often hard to get away from others within a tiny home.

Tips for Choosing the Right Tiny Home

Just because your future home is tiny doesn’t mean it’s not still a huge decision. When you commit to living in a new home, you want to be sure that it’s the right home for you and your family. By keeping these tips in mind, you keep yourself in the best possible situation to choose the right tiny home ideas for you.

Try it before you buy it

Even if you already live in a modest home, the change to a proper tiny home is a big one. It’s likely that moving into a tiny home will mean many changes to your daily habits. An excellent way to make sure that it’s a lifestyle you’re cut out for is to try living in a small or tiny home before you buy. Whether you take up a short-term rental or a long-term vacation stay, spend some time living in a home which closely replicates the compact quarters of a tiny home. If you find that you’re already having struggles after just a week or two, it’s likely that you’re not ideally suited to live in a tiny home long term.

Assess your wants and needs

It’s critical to know what you want and need out of your tiny home, and the difference between the two. There are no hard and fast rules for what counts as a need. Just because others may find something frivolous, if it’s important enough to you, it’s a need. When you begin searching or designing your new tiny home, this list of what matters to you plays a crucial role in helping decide which tiny home ideas to implement.

Understand the benefits of different tiny home ideas

Just because tiny homes don’t provide a large canvas doesn’t mean designers can’t create stunningly unique art with them. There is a broad range of design styles and materials used in constructing tiny homes, and each carries its own pros and cons. By checking out several different styles and assessing their strengths and weaknesses, you can choose the right tiny home ideas for you.

Keep it simple, silly

At the end of the day, tiny home living is all about simplicity. Err on the side of the simpler option when faced with two options which you’re struggling to pick between. With a tiny home you have limited division between areas, so a single, unified theme helps to focus your efforts.

Nine Tiny Home Ideas to Build the Best Home

Now that you know if a tiny house is right for you, it’s time to start gathering tiny home ideas to design around. From the structure of your home to the way you lay out your living spaces, every decision is an important one when you have so little home to work with.

Take it on the road

A popular feature for many tiny home buyers is the ability to load it up on a trailer and travel with it. Obviously, this does prevent the home from having a basement or a permanent foundation, but what you sacrifice in those amenities, you gain back in the ability to go anywhere.
If you have to move but love your home, no problem! Just load it on a trailer and take it with you.

Live larger while living tiny with extra levels

Just because you’re living in a tiny home doesn’t mean you can’t still try to get the most out of it. A popular and easy way to add space is to think vertically. Adding a second story, or a basement if you have a permanent foundation, adds space without affecting your footprint. Just be sure to consider your build height if combining this with a mobile-ready home. Nobody wants to see their roof sheared off by a particularly low overpass.

Keep things in ship shape

Shipping containers may not be anyone’s first thought when considering home materials, but don’t overlook them. Containers provide a relatively affordable base for your home and are easy to customize. Once windows are cut, and exterior and interior cladding is added, outsiders would never know there’s a shipping crate hiding inside the walls.

Make use of hidden treasures

Installing retractable furniture is an excellent way to get the most out of your limited space. By installing a bed or table that folds or slides away, you get the best of both worlds. When needed, your furniture is there for you. When you don’t need it, put it away and create more free space to live in.

Lighter tends to feel bigger

Choose light colors for your interior to create the illusion of more space. Rooms with dark colors feel smaller and cozier, while light rooms feel expansive. Every little bit helps when space is at a premium, so light color schemes are a handy trick to make your home more welcoming and open.

Be generous with windows

Windows are your friend when designing a tiny home. The glass allows the outside world to enter into your home naturally. Not only does this make your home brighter, lowering your electric bills, but it also makes the home feel larger, as vision is allowed to continue outside of the confines of your tiny home’s walls.
For a more intense take on this concept, do an entire wall in a glass. An all-glass wall is one of the more innovative tiny home ideas around and radically transforms a home. When it comes to making a small space feel large, you can’t beat making one whole wall see through. This idea is particularly awe-inducing for homes with excellent views, like a lake house or mountain cottage.

Multi-purpose surfaces are your friend

Building areas that serve multiple purposes allow you to get much more out of a small package. A bench running alongside your dining room table transforms into a guest bedroom with the addition of a mattress. Keeping a chair tucked under your countertop allows you to transform it into a desk when not cooking. The more areas of your home which allow you to do more than one thing, the more options you have in your daily life.

Hang it up

Install hanging storage for your odds and ends. Keeping things like cooking utensils or pans on the wall frees up space for cabinets or walking areas. While aesthetics will likely prevent you from covering every inch with utility, you should still try to get as much out of your walls as you can.

Build a porch

One of the better perks of owning a tiny home is a larger yard, so take advantage of it. A porch gives you a place to relax and unwind at the end of the day, enjoying the sights around you. It also adds another patch of functional space to your tiny home. If you build a multi-level tiny home, the same applies to a top-floor balcony. The added height even means a better view to enjoy!

Finding Your Tiny Home

The best way to get the right tiny home for you is to combine these tiny home ideas. Choosing the ideas which appeal to your sensibilities provides a basic structure to start your planning. Once you have that base, work with a designer or architect to flesh it out into a fully formed concept and turn your tiny house dream into a reality.
Do you own a tiny house or have tiny house ideas that others would enjoy? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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