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Exterior of black tiny house surrounded by snow and trees
We built our tiny home with no prior experience.Erica Allen
  • Our tiny house is 350 square feet and we live in it with our cat and dog.

  • We took advantage of high ceilings, windows, and loft space to make our home feel larger.

  • The couch is a place for guests to sleep.

Jake and I always wanted to live in a tiny home on wheels.

We had the space to create one and access to YouTube videos detailing how, so we purchased a 32-foot trailer and began building a home for us and our two pets, with no prior experience.

We made the most of our small space.

We customized every inch of our home to fit our lifestyle

The tiny home owners sitting in the window spot of their under-construction tiny home
We mapped out the layout of our tiny home beforehand.Erica Allen

We were able to fully layout how we would use the trailer to fit our daily routines because Jake taught himself a 3D-modeling program.

We mapped out the location of our belongings so that we could keep everything in a specific place.

We made our ceilings as high as possible

Our home is 8 1/2 feet wide, so we wanted to maximize our ceiling height to make it feel like there is more space inside.

Since our home is on wheels, we have to abide by the legal road requirements so that when we do choose to move it, it can easily fit under bridges, stoplights, or other physical barriers.

When our family and friends see our tiny home, they say it is so big because of our tall ceilings.

Adding lofts created two extra rooms

Interior of the tiny house with kitchen, gray couch, and loft up above
There are two different lofts in our tiny home.Erica Allen

We built two separate lofts on either side of our tiny house to take advantage of our vertical space.

On the front of the office, there is a loft that holds our books, computers, and business inventory, which is accessed by a ladder on the wall.

On the back end, there are stairs that lead to our bedroom area with our bed and growing plant collection.

The leveled areas give our animals their own space and make our home feel larger. Our puppy is on the main floor and our cat is on the shelves in the lofts.

Our multifunctional couch is my favorite piece of furniture

Interior of tiny house with wood walls and extended gray couch
This couch also serves as a bed for guests.Erica Allen

Although we don't have much furniture, our L-shaped couch is still my favorite because it has a portion that opens up for more storage.

It's hard to convince ourselves to move to the bedroom loft at night when the couch is in the bed.

It's a great place for our friends and family to stay.

The couch is perfect for our living room, it has enough space for our dog's crate.

The more natural light, the bigger the space feels

Our design process included large windows on the main floor and both lofts to make the space feel larger.

Natural light and the outside world can be seen from the windows on each side of the house. Our front door has added blinds.

Our cat and dog love to bask in the natural light that comes from these openings.

The look of your walls can make a huge difference

Interior of the tiny house, looking into the kitchen with wood walls and lots of plants
We used wood paneling on all of our walls.Erica Allen

We thought of painting our walls stark white, but we fell in love with the warm atmosphere after we screwed in each board of plywood.

To make the space feel larger, we positioned the wood grain upward to draw eyes to the ceiling.

The same concept was used for our barn door. The funky grain makes us want to look at it.

The original article can be found on Insider.

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