SmallHouseBliss

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Many of us dream of living in a cabin. One of our faithful readers has shared photos of the Tennessee cabin that her family calls home. She describes how they renovated the small cabin to make it into the perfect home for them.

My husband, my daughter and I share a small cabin with three dogs and four cats. Our home was built in 2004 as a vacation rental. When we purchased it in 2011, it had 585 ft2 (54.3 m2), very little storage space and needed some TLC. We are passionate about living in a small home, but we’re not minimalists. We love to cook, create artwork, play games, take pictures and be outdoors. All of these hobbies involve supplies or accessories. So, for us, the challenge of living in a small home came down to finding a way to store our things neatly in our living space.

When we moved in, the cabin had a 5’ x 6’ laundry room. The door to the laundry room swung inwards and there was a window in the room, so the space didn’t reach its maximum storage potential. We chose to turn half the laundry room into a mini walk-in closet that my daughter and I share. The closet door swings out into the little hall that leads to the bathroom and bedroom.

Enclosing part of the front porch gave us an extra 50 ft2 (4.6 m2) of interior space. We used the new space as a mud-room / office / kitchen addition. The remaining adjacent half of the former laundry room became a recessed space for the refrigerator and a 3’ deep, pantry-style cabinet.

The original bathtub had a large crack and the pedestal sink was broken. When the exterior wall was removed to enclose part of the front porch, we brought in a new, smaller tub. That gave us enough space to have a stacked washer and dryer in the bathroom. Luckily, there was also enough room to replace the pedestal sink with a set of cabinets. We chose stock kitchen cabinets, rather than smaller bathroom cabinets, because they offered more storage space. We installed a top-mount sink so that the drawers in the cabinets were fully functional, although one drawer did have to be modified to allow for the plumbing. We used cork for the counter.

We used several of the same cabinets in the main living space, but added to them to create open spaces and drawers. Wall-mounted adjustable shelving creates open storage for dishes, cooking accessories and art supplies. Several baskets store smaller items. Removing the laundry room door gave us wall space in the dining area that allowed us to install a bench, which provides more storage and also hides duct work. We’ve woodburned our homemade light fixtures, mantle, mirrors, frames, and boards above the doors and windows to add character.

The cabin only has one official bedroom, but it also has a loft space. We thought about enclosing part of the back porch to make a second bedroom, but our daughter wanted to sleep in the loft. We’ve installed a window, flooring, lighting and shelving for her. She loves it and tells us so often.

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small cottages

Photographs by/courtesy of the owner.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A small Tennessee cabin was renovated to become the perfect full-time home for a family of three. See 24 photos at Many of us dream of living in a cabin. One of our faithful readers has shared photos of the Tennessee cabin that her family calls home.

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The Piedmont Cottage sits in an older neighborhood of North Portland, Oregon. It is a small backyard cottage currently being used as a vacation rental unit. This cottage likely started out life as a single-car garage. Besides the overall size and proportions of the building, the large glazed opening in the narrow end is a giveaway, taking advantage of the existing structural beam over the original garage door opening.

The cottage has a footprint of 300 ft2 (27.9 m2). It has a pretty typical studio floor plan with a sleeping loft over the kitchen and bathroom at one end of the open living area. However the design has been nicely executed with details like exposed wood beams, a custom metal loft railing and ladder, and the bamboo floors.

In addition to the obvious benefit of recycling an old building, starting with an existing shed or garage has other potential advantages. For one thing, the location might be “grandfathered” in — Often an older garage is located closer to the property line than a new structure would be allowed. Getting permission to build may also be easier. The building authority is more likely to approve a project that does not lead to any increase in shadowing or view obstruction for the neighboring properties. And if the garage is original to a heritage house, as this one probably is, they might look favorably on a project that restores the exterior appearance.

When considering the feasibility of a garage conversion, a significant factor is whether the foundation and structure meet current building code requirements for a habitable building. The roof rafters in particular are often undersized, and wall framing close to ground level may be rotted. Then there is the issue of how to insulate the floor, which is typically a concrete slab. The easiest way would be to frame a wood floor on top of the slab, but that reduces the available interior height, eating into the headroom of any potential loft. It’s possible to break up and remove the old concrete, replacing it with a new insulated slab, but that is a much more costly option.

The Piedmont Cottage is available for vacation rentals through Airbnb.

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small cottages

Photographs courtesy of Airbnb.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

The Piedmont Cottage, a tiny backyard cottage that likely started life as a single-car garage. See 20 photos at The Piedmont Cottage sits in an older neighborhood of North Portland, Oregon. It is a small backyard cottage currently being used as a vacation rental unit.

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Surrounded by towering trees and the tranquil water of a man-made pond, “the Totems” has an almost mystical quality. The roof of the log cabin is carried by massive abstracted totem pole figures intended as a tribute to the spirit of the forest. Architect Henry Yorke Mann designed the small cabin for clients who wanted a guesthouse on their heavily-wooded 10 acre property in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia.

The totems and several other aspects of the cabin’s design reference the traditional plank houses used by the Haida and other northern Pacific Coast native tribes. The cabin is symmetrical with a rectangular plan and a central hearth. Although its walls are built of logs, the roof consists of thick cedar planks. And like the Haida plank houses, the roof is carried by several long beams running the length of the cabin, including one along each side wall.

Those side wall beams holding up the edges of the roof allowed the architect to run continuous strips of glass between the beams and the walls. The effect is that the heavy roof structure appears to be floating over the log walls below. The walls are constructed from 12″ by 12″ cedar timbers with dovetailed corners. The gable walls are mostly glass, with doors and windows fitted between the cedar posts of the totems.

The Totems has a footprint of 400 ft2 (37.2 m2). The cabin’s floor plan is organized by the central granite fireplace, which separates the living and dining space in the front half from the kitchen and bathroom in the back corners. An alternating tread stair behind the fireplace goes up to a snug sleeping loft with what must be an amazing view of the night sky through skylights that run the length of the ridge.

Once the small cabin was complete, the owners loved staying there so much that they decided to live there full-time, downsizing from a 5,000 ft2 house. They describe the cabin as being “like a Fabergé jewel box–it continues to unfold and reveal surprises, if you take the time to look.”

If you like this cabin, please share it!

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Photographs by Stuart Bish, courtesy of Henry Yorke Mann. Via Country’s Best Cabins.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

Surrounded by towering trees and a tranquil pond, "The Totems" is a small cabin with an almost mystical quality. Surrounded by towering trees and the tranquil water of a man-made pond, "the Totems" has an almost mystical quality.

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This light-filled home sits in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It was designed and built by architect Michael O’Sullivan for his own family of six.

The modest house has an L-shaped floor plan with a shed-roofed living pavilion running across the site and a lower bedroom wing extending into the backyard. The kitchen and dining spaces feature banks of tall, slender windows on three sides, making for constantly shifting light patterns as the sun arcs across the sky. Even the kitchen cabinets on the north wall are translucent to allow light through. The living room at the other end is more enclosed with a translucent window for privacy from the neighbor to the south.

The family lived on site in an old portable classroom during the home’s construction, which allowed O’Sullivan to devote long hours to the project — essentially all his free time for nearly two years. Neighbors also lent their assistance, with some putting in many hours of work as well. With no labor costs to cover and by making creative use of building materials, the architect was able to complete the 115 m2 (1,240 ft2) house for NZD 152,000.

To keep costs in check, O’Sullivan made extensive use of plywood as a finish material, putting it on the walls and the bedroom ceilings. But he splurged in key places, using materials that enrich the whole house and give it a Mid-Century Modern sophistication.

The living area ceiling is finished with cedar siding boards, fastened with an overlapping step pattern that adds texture to the room. A scattering of triangular cutouts conceal the recessed low-energy light fixtures. The centerpiece of the room is the kitchen island, wrapped in brass with a mirror-like sheen. Over in the bedroom wing, the home’s only bathroom is eye-popping, finished entirely with a green marble.

There are two bedrooms, one of which is a large bunkroom shared by all the children. However, O’Sullivan did design the floor plan to allow for the later addition of more bedrooms. Not only does that kind of phased approach make the house more affordable to start with, it also keeps the project down to a more manageable size for an owner-builder who doesn’t have prior building experience.

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Photographs courtesy of Bull/O’Sullivan Architecture. Via Dwell.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A one-of-a-kind home designed and built by an architect for his own family of six. See 13 photos at This light-filled home sits in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It was designed and built by architect…

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The Wee House Company is a recent Scottish startup offering energy-efficient small houses designed to appeal to first-time homebuyers, downsizing empty-nesters and anyone wanting to add a rental cottage or “granny flat” to their backyard. They now have three models, a studio, a one bedroom and a two bedroom, all based on rural Scottish vernacular houses.

The houses are largely factory-built and delivered as modules, with delivery apparently available throughout the United Kingdom. Once at the final building site, only a couple weeks of installation and finish work is required, keeping disruption to a minimum. Purchasers can choose paint colors and finish materials, with more involved customization also possible.

Here we show you one of their one bedroom houses having 40 m2 (431 ft2) of floor space. The floor plan is essentially an L shape with the addition of a small entry vestibule at the front. The vestibule’s inner and outer doors will help keep cold air from entering in winter. Once you step into into the living room, the kitchen is to the left while the bathroom and bedroom are accessed by a very short hallway on the opposite side. Scots seems to prefer having the kitchen in its own separate room, although here it is still fairly open to the living room rather than being closed off with a door as it often is.

The bedroom, like the living room, is very bright with both a window and a set of French doors. Having openings on two walls allows for effective cross-ventilation in hot weather. Custom storage units incorporating nightstands were built on either side of the bed.

The interior walls and floors are both finished with painted wood. The vertical installation of tongue-and-groove paneling on the walls is a style we associate with Scandinavian design but which seems to be common in Scotland as well.

The Wee House Company is currently offering the one bedroom model for £75,000. Visit their website to learn more.

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Images courtesy of The Wee House Company. Via Naibann.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

The Wee House Co. builds small modular homes with designs based on vernacular rural Scottish houses. See 22 photos @ The Wee House Company is a recent Scottish startup offering energy-efficient small houses designed to appeal to first-time homebuyers, downsizing empty-nesters and anyone wanting to add a rental cottage or "granny flat" to their backyard.

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This tiny cottage is just a few steps from the beach in Kerteminde, Denmark. Kerteminde is a small harbor town about a two-hour drive from Copenhagen. Built in 1945 as a vacation getaway, the cottage squeezes one bedroom into a floor plan of just 26 m2 (280 ft2). As you might imagine, things get a little bit tight inside.

The living room looks cozy but functional and has a nice wood ceiling. The bedroom is barely wide enough to fit the bed, but it seems to work too. However the bathroom is very cramped and the kitchen lacks both counter space and a fridge. The kitchen also has to double as the cottage’s main entry. There is some unused space in front of the kitchen window though. One possibility is to extend the counter under the window and steal a bit of space from the bedroom to create an alcove for the fridge on the opposite wall, although the bedroom is already very small as it is.

A better solution might be to expand the kitchen outwards, if you could get approval to do so. Pushing the wall out to align with the attached shed would give enough space for a compact but functional kitchen. Likewise, it might be possible to expand the bathroom into the attached shed.

If expanding the floor plan wasn’t allowed and we had to stick within the existing footprint, then I think we would swap the kitchen and bedroom. Most of the kitchen could be turned into a bed alcove, perhaps with pocket doors to close it off from the living room.

The bathroom could expand into the stove end of the old kitchen, and have a new entrance coming from the new kitchen in the old bedroom. That bedroom is wide enough that you could have counters or storage along both the exterior wall and the wall shared with the living room. Another option is to create a larger opening from the living room to the new kitchen. The covered terrace at that side of the cottage would then be the new main entrance, which makes sense as it is closest to the street.

What would you do with this tiny cottage?

If you come up with some really great ideas, the cottage is for sale through EDC. The asking price is 395,000 Danish Krone, or roughly US$57,000. Note, however, that it sits on leased land.

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Photographs by courtesy of EDC.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

With 1 bedroom in only 280 sq ft, this tiny beach cottage is cramped but it has a lot of potential. See 14 photos at This tiny cottage is just a few steps from the beach in Kerteminde, Denmark. Kerteminde is a small harbor town about a two-hour drive from Copenhagen.

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Annandale is a working sheep farm on the rugged Banks Peninsula east of Christchurch, New Zealand. While continuing to operate as a farm, several vacation rental units have been added within both historic and new buildings on the property, one of which is the Shepherd’s Cottage.

A century-old farmhouse that has been home to generations of shepherds, the cottage is located on a secluded part of the 4000-acre farm. From the farm entrance it still takes a half-hour drive to reach the cottage where it sits on a hill with sweeping views of pasture land and the Pacific Ocean.

The Shepherd’s Cottage has been carefully restored and updated with modern conveniences, integrated in a way that respects the character of the historic farmhouse. There is a full kitchen and a bathroom with shower, or you can opt to soak in the outdoor bathtub while enjoying the fresh air and views. The bathroom and kitchen are located in a shed-roofed extension at the back of the cottage while the living and dining areas occupy the main part of the ground floor, anchored by a large brick fireplace at one end.

The entire attic floor is a spacious bedroom with a large front-facing gable adding to the usable floor space. Decades of use and age have given a rich patina to the exposed wood throughout the small farmhouse.

To book a stay at the Shepherd’s Cottage, please visit the Annandale website.

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small cottages

Photographs by Stephen Goodneough, courtesy of Annandale..

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

The Shepherd’s Cottage, a restored century-old one bedroom farmhouse on a New Zealand farm. See 12 photos at Annandale is a working sheep farm on the rugged Banks Peninsula east of Christchurch, New Zealand. While continuing to operate as a farm, several vacation rental units have been added within both historic and new buildings on the property, one of which is the Shepherd's Cottage.

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The owner of a house in Maryland asked ART Design Build to replace an old one-car garage with a small accessory dwelling unit. She also wanted her new backyard cottage to be as energy-efficient as reasonably possible.

The tiny house has a footprint of roughly 340 ft2 (31 m2), plus a small loft. The floor plan is very efficient; despite the small size, the cottage seems quite spacious with a good-sized living room, a compact kitchen, and a bathroom with space for a large vanity. The loft could easily be used as a bedroom, for those who don’t mind climbing a ladder, but this cottage also has a wall bed in the living room.

Triple French doors offer views of the garden and open the living room to a small covered sitting area. High windows on the cottage’s other three sides and a couple of skylights bring in extra light without compromising privacy. The light and the high ceilings help make the whole cottage feel bigger than it is, as do the internal views. The arrangement of the living room and kitchen maximizes the diagonal sightlines through the tiny house, and from the living room you can also look up through the loft railing to the far gable window.

One wall of the living room is given over to storage with a built-in desk flanked by drawers and open shelves above. Open shelves were also used in the kitchen, providing storage without visually encroaching on the space.

To maximize thermal efficiency, the tiny house was built with a double roof system. The structural roof rafters end at the walls with no overhang. The entire cottage was wrapped in a continuous air barrier followed by two inches of rigid foam to eliminate any thermal bridging through the wood studs and rafters. A second set of rafters was added on top to provide the overhangs. The exterior was then finished with durable fiber-cement siding and a metal roof. The X-braced double “doors” at one end don’t actually open; they are just for decoration as a reference to the old garage. Heating is provided by a mini-split heat pump, although the owner rarely uses it thanks to the high levels of insulation.

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Photographs by Tsantes Photography, courtesy of ART Design Build. Via Houzz.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

This little backyard cottage feels spacious despite a floor plan of just 340 sq ft plus a loft. See 10 photos at The owner of a house in Maryland asked ART Design Build to replace an old one-car garage with a small accessory dwelling unit.

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Villa Maria is a family-sized vacation cabin on a small lake 40 km west of Helsinki, Finland. Though modern in design, the cabin was built using traditional methods. Each of the large-diameter logs was scribed and coped to fit the one below, and they are joined by hand-cut Scandinavian saddle notches at the corners. The cabin has a 90 m2 (969 ft2) floor plan with two bedrooms and a den. And of course, no Finnish vacation cabin is complete without a sauna.

The cabin’s main living area is a great room facing the lake. A log beam divides the space into an eat-in kitchen and a living room section with a Scandinavian-style masonry stove. Large picture windows provide views of the lake while transom windows above bring in extra light.

The two modestly-sized bedrooms open off the kitchen area. There is a two-piece bathroom along the entry hall, which gives it more privacy but does put it further from the bedrooms. The bathroom doesn’t have a shower as there is a shower room attached to the sauna.

The sauna is accessed through the den, suggesting that the den might originally have been intended as a change room for the sauna. Slightly altering the floor plan to have the sauna opening off the hallway instead would allow the den to be used as a third bedroom. There is also a small laundry room accessed from outside, although it would be possible to add a door from the bathroom.

The cabin’s outside amenities include a large flagstone patio plus a covered porch perfect for outdoor dining. To keep the diners fed, there is a separate log barbecue hut with a built-in brick barbecue. But the main amenity is the lake itself, just steps away for a post-sauna dip.

Villa Maria can be rented through Hawkhill Nature.

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Images courtesy of Hawkhill Nature.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A modern log cabin in Finland, built with logs notched and fitted by hand. See 16 photos at. Villa Maria is a family-sized vacation cabin on a small lake 40 km west of Helsinki, Finland.

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Nordurnes is a vacation rental cabin located on a 130 hectare farm in the south of Iceland, 80 km from Reykjavik. An older tiny house, it was renovated by owner and architect Maja Siska to open up the 32 m2 (344 ft2) floor plan. Aside from the bathroom and a small mudroom entry to the side, the small cabin consist of a single room with an open bedroom loft over the kitchen area.

French doors open up the living area in warmer weather, inviting occupants to step out onto the wood terrace and take in the views of the pastoral landscape and Hekla, one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes. The exterior is clad in traditional Nordic style with black vertical board siding accented by white window trim and red doors.

With no nearby development, Nordurnes is an ideal spot for taking in the Aurora Borealis. The night sky is pitch black, providing optimum viewing of the aurora and the stars. You can enjoy the aurora from the wood terrace or through the loft window while snug in bed.

While the Northern Lights are most likely to be seen in winter, the area offers many different attractions and activities throughout the year, including hot springs and geysers, waterfalls, bicycling, horseback riding, wildlife viewing and hiking on the volcano. Nordurnes can be rented through Homeaway.

Have a great weekend!

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Photographs courtesy of Maja Siska.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

Nordurnes, a tiny Icelandic cabin under the Northern Lights. See 20 photos at Nordurnes is a vacation rental cabin located on a 130 hectare farm in the south of Iceland, 80 km from Reykjavik.

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Surrounded by birch, ash and oak trees, this tiny owner-built cabin sits on the shore of a small lake in the Dordogne region of France. Despite initial appearances, the Woodsman’s Cabin is a recent build given an old-time rustic look with naturally wavy live-edge wood siding.

The French doors take you directly into the living space, which consists of a tiny kitchenette, dining and sitting areas. Most of the walls have a lime plaster finish, accented by some dark wood paneling and window trim. In one corner is a highly crafted winding stair with a branch for a handrail. It leads up to the cozy attic bedroom with exposed log beams. The bathroom, accessed by a handmade door next to the kitchen, is housed in a small lean-to-style extension attached to the side of the cabin. There you will find a composting toilet and a stone basin sink.

The Woodsman’s Cabin is off-grid but the owners included basic modern conveniences. The kitchen stove and fridge are both run off propane. Water from the lake is pumped into storage containers in the attic, where it can gravity-feed the sinks. It is filtered and purified to be safe for drinking. If you want a hot shower, the water can be heated by a coil in the woodstove, which is also the cabin’s only source of space heating. A couple of solar panels generate electricity for the water pump and the 12-volt LED light fixtures, handcrafted by the owners from tin cans mounted on pieces of branch.

The Woodsman’s Cabin is available for vacation rentals through Covert Cabin. Enjoy the photos!

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small cottages

Photographs courtesy of Covert Cabin.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

The tiny off-grid Woodsman's Cabin in France, built with rustic charm by the owners. See 16 photos at Surrounded by birch, ash and oak trees, this tiny owner-built cabin sits on the shore of a small lake in the Dordogne region of France.

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Old Luggage Van | photo by Ross Haxton

Ever thought about converting an old railway coach or caboose into a tiny house? The folks at Railholiday have done just that, rescuing and restoring several Victorian-era railcar bodies, then outfitting them as self-contained vacation rental suites.

Railholiday now has four cars available for visitors. Three are in St Germans, a picturesque village in southeast Cornwall, and one is in Hayle, a seaside town at the western end of Cornwall. The three St Germans cars are shown in these photos. They were all fairly derelict when purchased, with wood bodies that were rotting away and missing various trim and window pieces, as well as being covered in layers of peeling paint. Restoring them took months and months of laborious effort for each car. As the bodies had been removed from their chassis when taken out of service, new reproduction steel frames were built based on the original drawings. Each car was then provided with a fully-equipped kitchen and bathroom, a lounge area and one or two bedrooms.

Old Luggage Van | photo by Ross Haxton

The Old Luggage Van entered service in 1898 and carried passenger luggage until its retirement in 1932. At 24′ by 8′ it is small for a railcar, so has just one comfortable bedroom. At the other end is a sitting room with a pair of fireside chairs facing a woodburning stove. The connecting corridor has a galley kitchen on one side and the bathroom on the other, split into separate toilet and shower compartments. The original wood interior was stripped of paint and now has a Danish oil finish.

Mevy | photo by Ross Haxton

“Mevy” as it is now named started life as a Victorian passenger coach. It is about 38′ by 8′ and accommodates families, having two bedrooms. The master bedroom, located in what was the first class compartment, has been finished in an appropriately oppulent style with Italian velvet upholstery, maple and mahogany paneling and gilted gold detailing. At the other end, the guard’s room was converted into a bunkroom equipped with three children’s bunks. Clerestory roof windows run the length of the car.

Travelling Post Office

The Travelling Post Office, built in 1889, is the largest of the three at 48′ by 8′. It can sleep up to six with a bedroom, a double bunkroom, and a pull-out couch in the sitting area. The kitchen was built in the style of the original post office work counter and mail-sorting cubbyholes. It also has a three-piece bathroom with a shower.

To book your own railcar vacation, please visit Railholiday. Have a great weekend!

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Photographs by Ross Haxton and Kernow Dream Photography, courtesy of Railholiday.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

Three Victorian-era railcars were restored as self-contained 1 or 2 bedroom vacation rental suites. See 32 hotos at Ever thought about converting an old railway coach or caboose into a tiny house? The folks at Railholiday have done just that,

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Photograph © Roel van Norel

A remarkable vacation cottage sits at the edge of a clearing in a rural area outside Utrecht, the Netherlands. It was created by a partnership between Utecht-based studio Zecc and Roel van Norel. At first glance the cottage appears to be an ordinary gable-roofed house, and from some angles it might even be mistaken for a garden shed. Even the fully-glazed end wall isn’t all that unusual. But look closer and it becomes apparent that the archetypal house has been refined with a few unique twists.

Photograph © Roel van Norel

For one thing, the cottage has an asymmetric profile — the front side has a generous roof overhang while the back side has none. Instead, the slate roofing wraps over the edge and runs down the wall to ground level. On the opposite side, what looks from a distance like a windowless wall turns out to be a series of louvered shutters that extends the full length of the façade. When the shutters are opened, they reveal that this wall too is all glass.

Photograph © StijnStijl

French doors in the gable end lead into the living/dining/kitchen area, which takes up about two-thirds of the cottage’s floor plan. The far end is allocated to sleeping, with a bedroom area below and a loft above. The bedroom area can be kept open to the living area or closed off with a retracting wall of sliding panels. The shutters regulate the amount of afternoon sunlight entering the cottage. With the shutters closed, the spaced cedar slats still allow plenty of light in, along with a filtered view of the garden.

Photograph © Roel van Norel

The entire back wall of the cottage is lined with oak cabinetry designed and built by van Norel. These highly crafted built-ins house all the service functions, seamlessly integrating the kitchen, bathroom facilities, clothes storage and even a wood-burning fireplace. To fit within the narrow width of the built-ins, the normal three-piece bathroom is split in three. There is a compartment for the shower, a compartment for the toilet and a small handbasin, and a larger sink open to the bedroom. Having a shower directly off a bedroom seems like a great idea, giving a lot more room to dry off and dress than a cramped bathroom, provided the flooring is water-resistant.

Enjoy your weekend!

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small cottages

Photographs by/courtesy of Roel van Norel, and by StijnStijl, courtesy of Zecc. Via Inhabitat.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A tiny cottage opens to the garden with a wall of shutters. Built-in cabinetry houses bathroom, fireplace & kitchen. A remarkable vacation cottage sits at the edge of a clearing in a rural area outside Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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A child’s dream of living in a treehouse endures into adulthood, as evidenced by the popularity of treehouse hotels. These boutique accommodations allow grownups to make the dream come true, even if just for a night or two. A recent addition to these boutique accommodations is Resort Baumgeflüster (“rustling trees”) in Lower Saxony, Germany.

The owners wanted to turn their defunct farm into a tourist resort where guests could enjoy the natural surroundings. Treehouse architect baumraum developed a plan that would see some of the unused farm buildings restored for use as activity centers. Guests would stay in treehouses in the woods on a secluded part of the farm. Four treehouses have been built so far with more planned.

The treehouses are supported about 3.5 m (12′) in the air by fourteen slender steel posts. Each post is set at a slightly different angle, much like the surrounding trees. The outboard ends of the decks are hung from the trees by stainless steel cables. Untreated larch cladding helps the treehouses visually recede into the forest.

Each treehouse has an efficient linear floor plan with 35.6 m2 (383 ft2) of interior space. The living area and bedroom are at either end with a luxurious bathroom in the middle. The living area has a compact kitchenette and couches that can sleep two additional guests. The walls, floor and ceiling are all finished with the same larch used on the outside. Large windows allow for viewing the forest and bird watching from inside.

These treehouses aren’t just for summer; they are insulated and heated for year-round use, with in-floor heat in the bathrooms and radiators elsewhere. There is a certain appeal to holing up in a cozy treehouse while the snow flies outside! You can book a stay or learn more through the Resort Baumgeflüster website.

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small cottages

Photographs by Alasdair Jardine, Philipp Herrnberger and Photograph by Toma Babovic, courtesy of Resort Baumgeflüster and baumraum.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

The Baumgeflüster treehouse resort in Germany by treehouse architect baumraum. See 27 photos at A child's dream of living in a treehouse endures into adulthood, as evidenced by the popularity of treehouse hotels.

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Villa Kallioniemi is a family vacation cabin on Lepäinen, an island in southern Finland. The small cabin has a dogtrot design, with two enclosed volumes joined under a common roof with a breezway in between. Before air conditioning, dogtrot houses were popular in the southern U.S. states, appreciated for the cooling breezes that could flow through the center of the house.

Although these photos show the cabin in winter, it is intended as a summer vacation retreat. The cabin is heated, with radiators in the bedrooms and a woodstove in the living area, so it can also be used during cold weather. However the bathroom is in a separate utility building and the two children’s bedrooms can only be reached by an outside hallway. The parents’ bedroom, at the opposite end, is directly connected to the living area.

The children’s bedrooms are small, but the dividing wall can open up to create a larger single bedroom. The living space is also small but French doors open it to the breezeway, which functions as the real living room in summer anyway. The living space is enclosed by glass on three sides, with a kitchenette along the fourth wall. There is another a cooking area with barbecue and small sink in the breezeway.

Villa Kallioniemi has a simple, clean-lined form that the architects say was inspired by Finnish building tradition. The exterior is clad in vertical pine boards and the rafter tails were left exposed. The interior also has a pine finish, but the boards were whitewashed on the inside.

A small dogtrot house like this would be relatively easy for an inexperienced owner-builder to construct. The dogtrot design keeps spans to a minimum, eliminating the need for long and heavy beams, and also lends itself to being built in manageable phases.

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small cottages

Photographs by Marko Huttunen, courtesy of K2S Architects. Via ArchDaily.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A small family vacation cabin combines a dogtrot floor plan with a Nordic design aesthetic. Photos and floor plan at Villa Kallioniemi is a family vacation cabin on Lepäinen, an island in southern Finland. The small cabin has a…

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This nicely updated cottage makes us want to move to Brittany, France! It is located in a small hamlet in the Breton countryside.

The stone cottage has an open living area with the staircase separating the eat-in kitchen from the sitting room.

White plaster walls help keep the space bright despite having only two fairly small windows. The white walls are accented by the wood tones of the staircase, the open beam ceiling and the kitchen cabinets.

A woodstove installed in the original fireplace hearth should keep the room cozy.

The bathroom is on the ground floor, accessed through the kitchen. Beside it is a utility and storage room.

The upstairs bedroom takes up the entire attic space, but the central location of the stairs would allow it to be easily divided into two bedrooms.

The cottage was recently listed for sale with a price of €55,000, but has since been sold. To download the full-size photos, go to the gallery below.

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small cottages

Photographs courtesy of SARL Mayer Immobilier.

Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.

A quaint stone cottage located in a small hamlet in Brittany, France. See 8 photos at This nicely updated cottage makes us want to move to Brittany, France! It is located in a small hamlet in the Breton countryside.

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This mini tower is located in a central Melbourne, Australia, neighborhood. The “Tardis” as it is now called was originally an octagonal gazebo-type structure built on top of a backyard brick shed. Wanting to make better use of the structure, the owner asked Edwards Moore Architects to covert it into a micro-sized guest/rental suite while still retaining a separate ground-level workshop space. That was a lot to fit in, considering that the building appears to be only about 250 ft2 (23 m2) total, and much of that is taken up by the thick brick walls.

The architects split the ground floor into two, each with its own entrance. The larger part is the requested workspace while the smaller part is the entry and bathroom for the guest suite. The dividing wall was angled just enough to accommodate a shower, basin and toilet. The bathroom door doubles as a very steep stair (barely more than a ladder) to the rest of the guest suite upstairs. To access the bathroom, you have to push the stair to the right. An angled slot in the wall allows it to temporarily slide into the workshop space. If necessary, the stair can also be moved from the upper level using a rope and pulley system. Should that prove too inconvenient, you can also get to and from the upper level by an exterior spiral stair.

The upper floor is a wonderful octagon-shaped room. Floor-to-ceiling windows extend around half the perimeter, while the remaining walls are brick. It would be a nice size for a living room, a kitchen or a bedroom, but here it has to serve as all three. To make it all fit, the architects put a small kitchenette (with bar fridge and sink but no cooktop) on a raised platform. The platform is just wide enough to conceal a pull-out double bed, and the platform’s height is about right to double as seating. The living space expands to the outdoors through French doors that open to a nice deck shaded by a large gum tree. There is a limited amount of storage space within the suite. There are some shelves above the stairs, plus a small amount of underfloor storage in the corner where the stairs come up.

If you’d like to visit Melbourne and experience very tiny living, the Tardis can be rented through AirBnB.

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small cottages

Photographs by Fraser Marsden, courtesy of Edwards Moore Architects. Via Yellowtrace.

The "Tardis", a tiny tower house built within an existing backyard structure. See 15 photos at This mini tower is located in a central Melbourne, Australia, neighborhood. The "Tardis" as it is now called was originally an octagonal gazebo-type structure built on top of a backyard brick shed.