Tiny House Coffee shop is going strong in Salida, CO

The tiny house we built for a client is now up and running as the best little coffee shop there ever was!  Really cute tiny house parked conveniently in Poncha Springs on Hwy 285 / 50 just west of Salida, CO on the way up to Monarch Mountain ski resort.

the picnic table is a great spot to sit and sip your espresso while reviewing your map and planning the rest of your trip.

If you’re in the area stop on by!  I’m biased of course, but the tiny house looks amazing and the coffee is some of the best I’ve had.  Organic, fair trade, and all the great things coffee can be.  Great job Michael and Sabra!

Dwell on Design 2014 – Los Angeles

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Dwell Magazine’s design show in L.A. – it was marvelous.  Total information overload, and I did notice a strange compulsion to pick up as many free brochures as possible… it was weird, and it wasn’t only me, I noticed other attendees frantically grabbing for free anything!  business cards, brochures, you name it, we wanted swag!

Here are some highlights, including photos of 3 Prefab houses that were driven into the convention center.

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Dwell on Design 2014

Dwell on Design 2014 – in downtown Los Angeles at the Convention Center. Downtown L.A. has gotten so much better since Gensler (one of my former employers) finished the L.A. Live development.

Tiny House Design Inspiration: The Micro House from Studio Liu Lubin

I had seen these tiny little fiberglass cubes before and they seemed way too small, but now Studio Liu Lubin has started combining and stacking their Micro House and it looks very cool!

Studio Liu Lubin’s Micro House.  Where you can sit, stand, or lie down (alone.)

 

Studio Liu Lubin’s Micro House – stackable fiberglass units.

 

Studio Liu Lubin’s Micro House.

Tiny House Inspiration: Pocket Shelter

I don’t know how this guy stayed hidden so long!  the house was finished over a year ago and it just now appeared on Tiny House Swoon.  It’s beautiful; the extruded front porch, the reclaimed materials, the interior with live-edge wood plank countertops and sheepskin couch covers…

Aaron Maret’s Pocket Shelter:

Aaron Maret’s Pocket Shelter tiny house.

Aaron Maret’s Pocket Shelter tiny house.

Tiny House Interior: Decorating

Well, seeing as it’s the fourth month of winter, I figured it was time to make some insulated curtains for our tiny house that we have been living in since May 2012.  Of course, I’ve been thinking about the curtains since… oh, maybe October of last year, but I was stalled because I couldn’t decide what color they should be.

Since it’s a small house, everything needs to relate, so I didn’t want to just add a new color or pattern.  I finally decided to go with a color scheme of gray and yellow throughout the house and I really like how it’s turned out!

Tiny house roman shade curtains in the closed position.  Curtains are lined with quilt batting to provide insulation from the cold winter weather.

Tiny House Inspiration – A Small Modern Dwelling on the Navajo Rez

Hello everyone!

happy happy holidays and to all a good night.  🙂

I came across a really inspiring small house (not tiny… but still very small!) and wanted to share it with you all for inspiration…

Nakai House by University of Colorado students – Tiny Living in Style

So this house was designed and built by University of Colorado students in collaboration with DesignBuildBLUFF for a client who lives on Navajo tribal lands in Utah.  DesignBuildBLUFF is a non-profit organization located in southeast Utah that works with college students to help Navajos on the Indian reservation.

Nakai House by University of Colorado students – Interior

The plan is essentially an open rectangle with lots of glazing.  Nooks off of a storage wall house the bed, bathroom, and closet.  An upstairs loft contains a guest bedroom.

Nakai House by University of Colorado Students – ground floor plan and loft plan

The bedroom nook is exactly what they talk about in A Pattern Language.  Check out this previous blog for more pattern languages that apply to tiny house design and more details on why a bedroom nook is better than an entire room for sleeping.

Nakai House by University of Colorado students – Interior bedroom nook built into storage wall.

The client is a collector of artifacts and memorabilia so one interior wall is entirely composed of shelving used to display her prized possessions.  The house becomes a museum gallery and her collections take center stage, rather than piling up in closets.

Interior storage wall in Nakai House

The thing I can’t get over is how this project was built in 80 days for $25,000…  Apparently they don’t pay the students for their labor.  Still, even if that number only includes materials, it is remarkably low.  Impressive.

Nakai House by University of Colorado students

Nakai House by University of Colorado students

Photography is by James Anderson.

Check out this Dezeen article for more photos.

Hope all is well with everyone!  and have a wonderful Christmas!

– Carrie

 

 

 

Futuristic + Modern Tiny Homes

I’ve been coming across of lot of “modern” / “futuristic” tiny structures lately and thought I’d share them with you for some out-of-the-tiny-box tiny house inspiration:

Modern Houseboat .

‘Thesayboat’ by Marek Ridky of the Czech Republic, ‘the houseboat built with a clear vision which can be summarized in Corbusier’s assertion that “human habitation should be a cell with a view of the stars”.’

Modern Houseboat: Thesayboat by Marek Ridky

Clothesline Tiny Homes has a New Project!

Shane and I are so excited because we are working with a client to design and build a mobile super mini mart!  It will be called the Beehive Mobile Mini Mart and it will be styled like an old Colorado mountain cabin.  The client plans to travel with the home around Colorado selling organic food and local honey.

For those of you who have caught the Tiny Fever I’m sure you relate to the obsession with dreaming up all sorts of structures that can be built on trailers.  A mini store is a great idea, especially with the wildly popular trend of  mobile food carts.

Our starting point with the design of the mini store was the OR mobile ski lodge, designed and built by a close friend of our client.

OR’s mobile ski lodge on the road.

Everyone Poops. Tiny House Toilet Options.

I came across an interesting article about toilets and thought I would share it with you all, as toilets seem to be a favorite topic of discussion among tiny housers.  Click HERE to read the Fast Company article about Bill Gates’ sponsored toilet inventions around the world.  One submittal:

China’s toilet submission.  Not sure where you sit.  Looks dangerous…

My fave was China’s toilet design submission that “extracts and disposes fecal sludge on-site”.  Not to pick on the Chinese… but c’mon, do I really want to dump fecal sludge outside my home?  I’m sure there’s some way to make it “odorless” right?  … but I have no trust for systems claiming to be odorless, as that has been our main complaint with our Incinolet incinerating toilet.

Tiny House Furniture Inspiration

Thanks for everyone’s comments on the last blog I wrote about entitlement.  Fascinating stuff.  On a lighter note….

I saw a really cool custom cabinetry unit online yesterday.  It combines a fold-down table and a Murphy bed.  This would work great in a Tiny House that was intended for more of an art studio / guest house and didn’t have a loft.

designed by Sarah Zames of General Assembly

you can read the whole post about the custom casework and remodel project here at Design Sponge.

There’s another company that makes fold down furniture like this too: Resource Furniture and their line called Space Savers has a wealth of folding furniture.  Their site has cool little videos of the furniture in action.