The vast majority of tiny houses have the same basic layout. They are similar in size and shape to a large motorhome (not a coincidence, considering motorhomes were the original tiny homes). There is one large downstairs living space, and then one or two small lofts above for sleeping, usually with very low ceilings.
I am excited whenever I see a tiny house which breaks the mold. Such is the case for the “Carriage House” by Zenith Design + Build—the same company that brought us the impressive 72 hour “Classy Amelia.”
The Carriage house doesn’t have a horizontal, low build. It actually has a vertical build, with a large attached garage.
If you count the garage, it isn’t really all that “tiny,” but the main living space certainly qualifies.
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Wow … that garage holds quite a secret. The top features a huge deck surrounded by high railings. That greatly expands the livable space. It’d be a great spot for hosting parties, working on DIY projects, or just enjoying a bit of fresh air.
Seriously, the deck alone makes this one of the most exciting tiny houses I’ve seen in a long time.
Don’t you just want to lounge around on this deck with the tree boughs overhead and that expansive view all around you? I imagine in the spring and summer you might get some shade from the leaves.
An upstairs door leads directly into the home.
Here is the downstairs door, decorated with the same trim found on the upstairs door. I am really digging the color scheme. The muted blue and the warm brown contrast with each other, but do not clash in any way. They make great complements.
The front doors are really wide! When they are open, you can get a great perspective of the layout of the home just at a glance. The doors open right on the kitchen, with the bathroom in the back. A set of metal stairs leads up to the bedroom, which adjoins to the deck.
In many respects, it really is not all that different from your standard tiny house layout—just more vertical.
If you were to step inside the kitchen and close the front doors and look back at them, this is the view you would see.
Here is a glimpse of the bathroom.
Here you can see the fridge and freezer, which have been set back into an alcove in the wall. Next to that is a little extra cabinet and counter space. White cabinets blend right into the wall overhead.
Across from that is the rest of the kitchen. On the far right is the oven and cooktop. I’m not sure what that appliance is to the left of that (it looks like a second oven, but that doesn’t seem likely). Left of that is the sink and some cabinet space, with more cabinets overhead, plus a microwave. The white paint on the cabinets again makes them blend in with the walls, so the space appears as open as possible. Let’s head upstairs!
Now we’re in the bedroom. This is one of my favorite parts of the house—right here next to this railing. This section of the floor could’ve been closed off—and that wouldn’t have been a bad thing. But leaving it open like this means that you can look all the way up to the ceiling of the bedroom from the ground floor. This gives the entire home a more expansive feel.
Plus, there is still plenty of floor space in the bedroom, and there’s this cool little walkway here! The bedroom also still has plenty of privacy.
That stone structure is a fireplace. With its central location, it would focus heat in the bedroom, but it would be able to reach the ground floor as well.
The bedroom has the same spacious, airy feeling as the rest of the house. It’s rare to see a bedroom with a high, vaulted ceiling in a tiny house, but here you have one! It’d be amazing having the deck so accessible right there next to the bed too. If you wanted to step outside for a breath of fresh air in the night and look at the stars, it’d be as easy as walking two steps.
Not sure if this is a sculpture or a light fixture, but it’s cool either way.
Want to learn more about the Carriage House and Zenith’s other tiny house builds? Visit their official website.
Looks like a dishwasher to the left of the cooker.
That’s what I was thinking, too.
It is a cute little home, but I’m ambivalent about this particular build. To my mind, without the full height of second level walls it wouldn’t really that different from those we’ve seen dozens of times. The perpendicular plane produced by the garage/deck creates a sense of greater mass, but it isn’t actually living space, per se. The main level of the tiny home looks expansive because there is no furniture; If one were to add more than a tiny, hairpin stool space would tighten up in a hurry. Since the garage has a larger footprint than the house itself, I’m left with an impression of a tiny home squeezed into the constricted space between the garage and the retaining wall. Maybe I need more coffee.
I love it!! Please share the wood looking materials used on the garage. Keep up the good work…
I love the wood facade, what is that material?
I love it, to a point. I’m just wondering where you would sit and eat or rest, other than the bed. There is no living space, except for the deck.
Can you switch the layout too the kitchen and living room area upstairs and put the bedroom room down with the bathroom?
I’d really like information about pricing, including estimated fees to have the space built. While a lot of these tiny homes, especially the ones popularized in online magazines, are handsome (professional design teams…), the prices of the ones I’ve been able to get the information on rival or surpass the prices of many traditional homes outside of ridiculously priced markets like Boston and San Francisco. I went to this company’s website. No pricing. It’s getting harder to find the tiny homes that answer the original mission of the movement–affordability, independence, and sustainability.
One more comment. Since one of my objectives in owning a tiny home is to have as small an energy footprint as possible, I’d be concerned with efficiency controlling the climate of this space. In the summer, the hot air rises to the second level. If it’s hot or humid outside, opening the upstairs deck doors won’t be feasible. All that gas has to be cooled or dried. In the winter, the owner has to heat the entire volume of the space even if they’re only in bed or at a workdesk. And unless all those attractive windows are insulated with high technology, there’ll be significant energy transfer through them. The space is pretty but doesn’t seem energy efficient–and therefore costly (resources, money). To me, that defeats a major purpose of tiny home living, though the design website doesn’t advertise this unit as a “tiny home.”
Aesthetics are a win (with individual tweaking), but home efficiency practicalities would discourage me.