Tiny Houses and Shipping Container Homes

335 Sq ft tiny house at the beach with bathroom, full kitchen, two decks, and French doors. Source www.zillow.com

The above tiny house photo is of an amazing 335 Sq ft tiny beach house complete with bathroom, full kitchen, and French doors opening out onto two decks. Source www.zillow.com.

The tiny house movement has grown exponentially in the last few years. No longer do people crave the large scale multi storey houses of yesteryear. Instead they seem to yearn for the simpler life, living in a home that provides their basic requirements and no more. Hence the increased availability of tiny houses and smaller homes under 1000 square feet. The most popular size of tiny house seems to be between 300 and 500 square feet as it provides a generous feeling of inside space, but still gives one the full sense of having everything you need in a home.

Another aspect to the tiny house market is the increasing use of shipping containers as homes. These are often available in used form for very little investment and yet they provide you with over 100 sq feet of space that also provides a good ceiling height. To replicate the same floor, wall, and ceiling height dimensions in a standard built home, you would be paying considerably more. Given the vast availability of containers in either 20 or 40 foot lengths, the creative DIY person can certainly create a decent new home project from a number of containers. Not only that, but when completed they can look nothing like the original, and many times they look very attractive and desirable as well as providing much more floor space for fewer dollars than building a house from scratch.

Take a look through this gallery of 28 tiny houses and container houses as viewed from the outside. There should be a few styles that you like the look of or that give you some ideas of what might be achievable. So, of you’re looking for a ‘value build’ with limited financial resources (and space), then you may be hard pressed to find better value than considering building one of these home types.

534 Sq ft Finnish Tiny house. Source www.sunhouse.fi

Pietro Belluschi tiny house- Famous architect and son design teahouses in Portland. Source www.flickr.com.

Red shipping container house with shelter, deck and ranch slider. Source www.pinterest.com

2 x 20 ft shipping container tree house with timber exterior cladding. Source www.containerhome.info

This elegantly decorated 160 sq foot tiny house is truly amazing. Built to accommodate 3 people, it is called the Tiny Hall House and can be found in Massachusetts. Image Source: www.goodshomedesign.com/tiny-hall-house.