Incredible Design Tricks Maximize Space in This Clever Tiny House 🤩

When two designers put their minds together to design and build the ultimate tiny home for themselves, of course amazing things happen. And that is exactly the case with this next inspiring tiny home that we're about to show you. Hey Eugene, how are you? Hi Bryce, I'm good thank you, how are you? Very well thank you. G'day Lauren, how you doing mate? Yeah good mate, how are you? Very well, it is so nice to meet you both and this house is something really special isn't it? Yeah it's fantastic, we absolutely appreciate it. Nice to have you around. It's great to be here. Now I know that you are both all-star designers and there is so much to talk about with this incredible tiny home you've built, but it is impossible for me to ignore your parking spot. Wow, look at that! Yeah we just built the house and we had no idea where we're going to put it and then luckily just as we were about to be finished we found this awesome spot, I mean we had to take it, that was basically a one-day decision to say yep we'll have to go here. We haven't regretted it since. Yeah a parking spot like this is the definitive tiny house dream isn't it? To be able to have a beautiful home like this and park it up in a spot overlooking the ocean, who could ask for more? Yeah I mean it's something that we were both talking about a lot when we were building the house and we're just like oh it'd be really nice to get somewhere out in Piha or something like that because we always come out here for the sunset and stuff so we ended up just talking with a whole bunch of friends asking if there was like any sites available and they ended up talking through friends of friends and stuff like that and kind of connected us through the site owner here so we're just like yeah it's a no-brainer. Perfect and can you talk to me about your journey into a tiny house and how all of this came to be? Yeah it's a long story, I mean I think when we met in high school around 17 years old we kind of realised we wanted to build a tiny home already then and we were trying to think how can we make this happen and started working in tiny house businesses just to kind of see like what tiny houses are all about and over time just understood yeah like how can we actually like pull this off how to build a tiny home and I think we spent years and years designing it making it perfect then we made the leave just started building uh DIYing it over two years on the weekends and it's been a great journey. Amazing and can you tell me about the process of DIYing your own tiny house and what that was like? It's been a really great process a lot of learning for sure a lot of googling a lot of YouTube but also just talking to friends in the industry. I think it's really great how many people are willing to help out as well like share their skills and stuff like that without anything in return it was like quite lucky. Everyone came around to help our family and friends were there the whole time we definitely know how to build a lot of uh things in a house now which is great so you get to experience every single little part of it so if we ever need to build another one or renovate a house we probably know how to do it now. I honestly think that is the very best thing about doing a DIY project like this is that it does empower you for the whole rest of your life with all of these really cool skills. Absolutely yeah. Now the actual building part of tiny houses was new to you but you are both no stranger to design can you talk to me about that? We've been in the industry for for quite some time I mean we got to working together with a bunch of tiny house builders starting out with Shea's tiny homes I mean she's really well in the industry and that was just a really invaluable experience to understand how do tiny homes fit together how's the process luckily of course that experience transfers to your own tiny house and that was just fantastic to really like think about the minute little details of how everything everything fits together. And just really think about our routine and kind of like how would we live in the space together where do we want things to be put how do we want the space to work around us kind of thing so yeah. Yeah and can you talk to me about the design of this home? Yeah for sure so we were trying to keep the tiny house as compact as possible because we knew we wanted to move it on possibly any kind of site so of course we wanted to make it as small as possible so it's 6.2 by 2.4 meters so it's definitely on the small side of tiny homes and yeah we wanted to keep the design of it as simple as possible like a like Scandinavian kind of minimalistic style so we wanted to go with a yeah natural timber exterior on the feature ends and then just a simple corrugate on the side to keep it maintainable but also just sleek. It was quite cost efficient as well so the size was also down to our budget as well so yeah a lot at the time I think Howard would be like 20 when we started building it so we had a very small budget at the time a little bit optimistic and we kind of blew past it a little bit towards the end. Yeah so with the exterior as well like you're saying it was very budget friendly so instead of going for like typical like cedar and stuff like that we found an alternative product which is like a Norwegian pine which is cost effective and can just weather by itself without needing to treat it was important for us not having to maintain it every two days of course. Plus I really like the silvered off look just a lot more natural in a sense so. Exactly yeah great and then you've added this deck to the home as well which obviously in this location was a must. Yeah oh for sure we knew we wanted to build a deck somewhere around the front to tie together the entrance with a side of course so we tried to build it as removable as possible taking that as of course a tiny home so we build it in a few pieces so we can take it with us if we need to but at the same time yeah just build a very simple deck to capture the views be able to sit outside enjoy the sun read a book. Kind of just creates another space as well for us to sort of live in and if we have friends over we can sort of congregate outside and see everything. Yeah and in regards to the size of your tiny home honestly I think these are the perfect dimensions to work in because it is still so easy to shift it gives you enough living room on the interior but I think especially now the trend of building these bigger and bigger tiny homes it actually makes it really difficult for people to find parking spots whereas a home like this really it could fit in anywhere couldn't it? Oh for sure it's movable and budget-friendly so I think especially for someone in our age at the time I think it was just the perfect choice. Well I'm really excited to see what you've done inside the home can we go in and take a look? Of course for sure. All right this is extremely cool for the size of this tiny house I can already see you have packed a tremendous amount into this space. Oh absolutely yeah this space is jam-packed there's about eight users for every single space and we're really happy that we have that. Yeah absolutely. I can see that you have been excessively clever with the way that you have approached the design of this tiny home. First of all can you just give me an overview of what you've created here? Yeah for sure so the house itself of course we've got a kitchen we've got a bathroom. The initial design was designed around the office so we're just trying to make the space work around that so that we can work from home. Yeah and then of course yeah on top of the office we have a lounge area so we can yeah hang out talk to friends read some books and then a lot of storage and then of course we've got a bedroom upstairs to tuck away so we've got our own little place to hide away so very compact a lot of different use cases in a small space. That is phenomenal and then of course immediately upon entering the home we're in your kitchen can you talk to me about the way that you've designed this space? Oh absolutely so for us it was really important that we have a full-size kitchen in even a small tiny home of course we love to cook and we didn't want to really compromise on yeah movable parts in the kitchen as much as we can so what we've done we've put the kitchen in the hallway space so the well traversal space is double used as the working space for the kitchen which just saves a lot of space in the tiny house it works really well for us and then of course in the kitchen we've got everything full-size full-size fridge full-size oven so we can you know cook proper meals bake cakes that kind of stuff and a lot of storage so we put a lot of time and effort to measure out exactly everything that we need so all of our drawers cupboards fit basically all of the different things that we've already owned or we knew we were going to own so it just fits perfectly and then Eugene came up with a really great solution for our pantry we've got a really cool pull-up pantry where we can store spices and everything like that in there as well so it's very compact of course like everything else in the home but it works really well for us. What a brilliant design and as clever as all of that is it's almost still overshadowed by the phenomenal view out that kitchen window I can just imagine how nice it would be to cook prep meals and do dishes when you get to look at that view. Yeah I mean it makes doing the dishes a lot more enjoyable obviously because no one wants to do that but um yeah sometimes you'll just catch yourself just watching the view and you kind of like pause yourself for a second and you're like wow just breathtaking you know and try very hard not to take it for granted you know it feels like a very privileged spot for us. And the bathroom again very very compact but very clever design with that one. Yeah for sure so we didn't really want to have for example the toilet in the main space taking that it's a really small space so it tucks away under the vanity which of course has a lot of storage in it and it really just cleans up the bathroom so you can have a tiny 900 millimeter wide bathroom that has everything in there that you need together with an alcohol shower a cool mirror and a nice vanity and it's everything that we need so it's compact but it works really well for us. And I think for us just having the vanity space was like the eye catcher so I really wanted some really nice finger tiles and build a specific sink that I had to have and it was a bit of money but it was so worth it you just had to have it and I'm so glad we made that choice so yeah. Absolutely just adding those little really eye-catching features goes such a long way to just making the space that much more beautiful eh? Yeah I mean it's a home at the end of the day so I feel like you shouldn't have to compromise on your style or your tastes and stuff like that so yeah I'm really glad we made that decision. Yeah and I love the way that you have simultaneously created that as a space that is so beautiful but also so hyper efficient because a bathroom in a tiny house it's not a space that you're using all the time and it is quite a utilitarian space so taking up a huge portion of the footprint wouldn't have really made sense but you have just done that so well. I appreciate that. And without a doubt this has to be one of the best tiny home office setups I have ever seen. Thank you so much I mean like we said it was one of the main things that we spent a lot of time and effort to get right. Everything folds away which is really important for us so we don't just have an office but we have a dining area as well which is yeah it's fantastic for us. I think regarding the desks we wanted to flow seamlessly into this space as well with the cabinetry from the kitchen we wanted to continue that okay so sort of having like integrated into the walls in a sense where if we were to fold down the desks it's not super intrusive. And who's lucky enough to sit over this side? Me. What's funny is that when we designed it I was initially planned there anyways because I was like oh I want to be close to the kitchen so I can get my snacks really easily but then when we moved on to the side I was like yes. Totally lucked out. I'm not switching. Yeah that decision was made and it was set in stone. Fair enough too. At least you get to work without any distractions. Correct yes that is always good. And Lauren gets the integrated shelf. So there you go as well it's a tiny consolation prize. Exactly. And as we move into this side of the home as well one of the things that I noticed is we really get to enjoy the full height of the home and it really does make it feel so spacious. Absolutely I think one thing that we really were thinking about I mean taking that you enter from the kitchen hallway area which is quite low and compressed having that extra double height space feels that much higher and then together with the picture window drawing in all the natural light it just makes it a lot a lot bigger than it actually is. It's funny because when we have friends over they always comment on that too having that double height space just makes such a difference compared to I suppose being in the kitchen where it does feel quite compressed. Yeah and of course with the full height in this part of the home it's enabled you to significantly raise up your lounge as well. Oh yeah that's completely right so what we were trying to do is create as many different areas in the home as possible of course having the lounge raised up the sleeping loft also raised so you don't just have one flat footprint and at the same time it adds a lot of storage which we knew that we really need. So of course the lounge itself has a full-size daybed which is amazing to read, hang out, drink some tea and of course enjoy the views. You can even sleep on there as well it's like long enough to have done that. It works really well plus the storage is really well accessible so underneath the daybed we have full pull-out drawers as well which is great for laundry and that kind of stuff. And just random storage that we needed. And how do you access the lounge space? So it has pull-out drawers upstairs so we just pull those out but sometimes everyday living we just get lazy and we'll just leave up there but yeah we have pull-out drawers and in those drawers we actually have storage as well and that's where we put our shoes and everything like that so it just sort of keeps everything hidden and it's integrated into this big pull-out drawer which we double use as storage but also extra pantry space if we need it and then it also has an integrated pull-out table that we can use for dining. What a great idea and then obviously you've got so much storage which is in that area because it does take up quite a large footprint. How do you access all of the stuff that's sort of further back in there? The pull-out drawer that has the stairs included it can also pull out all the way. And what we usually do is we'll just put down both the desks move the chairs and the door will open I'll just crawl under there and grab what we need. Great what a good design and then up here as well we've got your sleeping loft. How do you access this? Well just like everything in this space there's something that pulls up so we made sure to keep the ladder hidden away in the wall so it works basically just like a like a pocket door so the ladder slides out and it's perfectly secure and you can go up there without any problems and it works really well for us. I mean we love climbing so having a little bit of a climbing adventure every single day is fantastic. And it looks like quite a cozy comfortable space for sleeping as well. Oh yeah we didn't want to compromise on our sleeping space we knew it was going to be upstairs and of course a little bit lower in height but we can fit a full queen-size bed in there which is really really comfortable and because it is a smaller space it just feels really cozy kind of like in a tent which is awesome. And it's really nice in the because it's quite warm as like heat rises and stuff so we've got the extra warmth up there we don't really have to heat it up there at all. Great. And then if it gets hot we can just open up the window or turn the fan on. Yeah and then on top of that we also have full wardrobe space next to the bed as well so we again didn't want to compromise on storage there so we have a lot more storage than we ever used to have in any rentals we were in before which was a great great change for us. And we each have our own little section so Lauren's got his side on the left mine's in the middle and then we kind of share a space with extra items on the right. Very cool. And you have both been living in this home for quite a while now haven't you? Yep so we've been living in here for about two years now and it kind of went by really quickly. It's been a great time I think just being able to live in a space that is just so well designed for you and everything just works for you plus of course the amazing location yeah time will go past pretty quickly. Yeah I bet. And this is a home which is packed with so many design features and so many sort of clever pull-out features and ways of different accessing things and everything what's the reality and practicality of living in this space like? A lot of the things we do actually use as we intended of course some things for example the laundry caddy that we're going to use for our dirty laundry we've re-practiced as a storage unit that we use for our climbing gear which works well for us so we don't want to fold down everything every every two seconds so we've just repurposed some of the other drawers to go for that. Yeah long-term storage ended up in there as well so as we don't always need to pull that out it just ended up becoming really useful that way. But most of it actually does work the way that we thought. Is there anything about the design of your home that you'd now change? A lot of it is really like well designed to what we like but I'd say we probably would extend it by about just under a meter so it's seven meters long because we feel like that would just give us the extra little bit of space so rather than having a like a straight daybed we would have like an L-shaped couch. Yeah I think there's always a lot of things that you think what would I do differently and what would I change based off new learnings but I think the space looks fine so yeah. Very cool and obviously this was a DIY project you poured so much of your own labour and clever material sourcing into this space can we talk about the cost that this home took to realise? Yeah for just like any DIY project the initial price is not what we actually ended up with so I think it ended up being about 70 for materials of course as you can see we didn't cheap out on like the cabinetry of course that adds up. I think there were just some things that I specifically really wanted I really wanted oak in the house I've never had that growing up so it was just always that kind of aesthetic I really wanted to achieve. Yeah it was worth it for sure. One of the things as well that adds to the cost of course is being like half off-grid with a water tank it was like a last minute decision all right we're getting a water tank pump that kind of stuff yeah but you know it is just if it enables you to live in a beautiful space it's so worth it. Totally worth it. Well first of all it's home so we never thought we'll connect to a place like this of course I mean we've built everything we know everything in it even everything in the walls how everything is built so of course we were very well connected to it and it's just such a nice like refuge from the city of course like going out and then coming back into such a natural space that is partially off-grid you all you hear is birds you don't hear cars it's just a really nice connection you can just really decompress so it's kind of like living in a holiday home but like all the time. I think it's also a great accomplishment just for us personally because building your own house and living in it it just it's something that we're really proud of I'd say Yeah we'll look back at it for the rest of our lives most certainly. And after two wonderful years living in your home now you are both about to embark on a brand new adventure can you tell me about that? Yeah that's right so the owner of this section has decided to sell and we thought it was also a time for us to possibly look at other options so we put the house up for sale as well to see if someone yeah with a similar lifestyle wants to experience something like this out here and yeah we're going to move on and yeah move together with my twin brother and his partner and yeah we're looking to to buy something that can be rented something like that use our new learned skills and yeah add a little bit of value to the house that kind of stuff and find something beautiful as well of course we're probably not going to find a spot like this again but we'll do our best to find something that we love as well. Yeah I mean initially the tiny house was supposed to be a stepping stone to getting into a larger house anyways so yeah I think plans are kind of moving in the right direction. I love that you've built yourself such a beautiful home to live for several years and now the tiny house is fulfilling its purpose by being that stepping stone for you that really is a brilliant end to this part of your journey. Absolutely. Yeah well I really am just so impressed with the home that you've created here there is so much cleverness and thought that has been poured into each and every aspect of the design of this home and it's wonderful to see that it has been such a beautiful home for you both for the last couple of years thank you both so much for sharing it with me. No worries. Yeah it's been a pleasure. Pleasure is all mine. There is nothing small about the accomplishment of building a home like this Eugene and Lauren have poured so much of themselves into the design of this home each and every part of this house has just been so cleverly thought out and it really has come together into a home that is exceptionally beautiful exceptionally functional and ultimately has become this wonderful stepping stone for them this is a part of their life that has set them up for the rest of their lives and I'm sure that this will remain an unforgettable place for them.