Spectacular Tiny House Inspired by Natures Most Magical Architects

Personally, I feel that our absolute best design comes from when we take our inspiration from the natural world and today we're about to visit an incredible tiny home where a beekeeper has built her hive. Hi Emily, it's so nice to meet you. Yes, so lovely to meet you. Thanks so much for coming out. It is absolutely my pleasure. Look at this place. Yeah, pretty special. This is astounding. The view that you have from here is absolutely breathtaking. Yeah, on the community there's a lot of other spots that are down low and I was quite crazy because it's a crazy hill to get up here and everyone said you cannot get a tiny house up here but I wanted the expansive view because I really feel like your outer world is a measure of your inner and I was like it's just so much more healthy up on the hill and wanting to look out at the view so yeah, it's crazy enough to make it happen. Yeah, I totally agree. It's such an adventure getting up here but once you're up here, wow, second to none. Thank you, yeah, it's a beautiful spot. And can you tell me about the community here because that sounds really interesting. Yeah, so it's one of the original hippie communities sort of back in the day here in the Bellingen Valley and some people from Sydney had this dream of this kind of utopia of a place to create and they manifested the land and got it really cheap off an old farmer and now the forest is kind of taken over and yeah, it's about 13 shares developed here and it's got a beautiful part on the Bellingen River as well so yeah, it's a really interesting place. And how did you come to be here? Well yeah, I sort of came to be I guess in a way. I was living down in Victoria and feeling quite isolated all through the pandemic and really wanting more tribe and sisterhood and community and my business was getting quite overwhelming and I wanted help with that and I had a connection in the valley from the woman that helped me birth my daughter and I was originally at another community down the road but then I met the women here and they just kind of took me under their wing and I found a little cabin here on the community and I started working with these women here on the land and yeah, it's sort of been like a real kind of hive experience in a way because I work with bees and I bought you know thousands of bees here on the land and then to be able to be working with honey and be working with these women, it's been a really beautiful journey for the last three years. Fantastic. How did you get into working with bees? Because it's quite a company that you've built up, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I just fell in love with bees and they slowly took over my life. Essentially, I've been working with bees for 10 years now and originally I went to Save the Bees Australia. He's an activist and does a lot of physical rescues of bees and I just got thrown in the deep end and you know catching swarms and doing activism and I lived and volunteered with him for five years to acquire the knowledge that I have and then I dreamed into and created my own business. Beautiful and it's not just honey that you make, you do have a whole array of really interesting products and different lines that you've taken that in, haven't you? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we kind of weave in herbalism and candles and yeah for me it's and with my home it's all about the embodiment of the bee so it's not just the physical hive products, it's also the energetics of the hive and the healing properties and how all of that works. It's called apitherapy, so it's a whole modality around using the whole hive. And I can see here in your tiny home you've obviously carried that inspiration through right into your house as well. Yes, absolutely. Well, more than anything the bees absolutely love beauty and they go out into the world and they are just following their passion and their purpose which is making love with flowers and they're bringing that back and they're making, you know, beautiful honey that sustains them but through this act they're also sustaining life on earth. Yeah. So through just, you know, being peaceful and following your passions and creating beauty, you know, you can make change and the bees have shown me that in so many ways. I love it. And why a tiny house? Yeah, so I sold a house in Victoria and just wanting to create something that was really unique and beautiful but also having the freedom, yeah, it just was a way for me to be here on the land, be creative and also have that freedom of it being able to move. Yeah, yeah. The design is so beautiful. Obviously you're carrying in the beehive inspiration with all of these wonderful hexagon windows. I just love the design. Can you tell me about the style of the home? So I'm also a little bit stained glass obsessed, you'll see all throughout the home and that's really, you know, because I'm a creature of light kind of just like the bees, I wanted light pouring in from all different angles all around me. So yeah, that's a real big part of the inspiration and a lot of it was materials that I found. I went and found beautiful windows and second-hand things and I kind of, you know, merged it and brought it back together. So with the build of the tiny house it was actually very organic like that. I kept finding windows and I was to the builders, I was like can we, can we fit this in here? Can we do this? Can we mould this? And they're like, oh, okay. So it kind of changed as it went, even the hexagon windows were not originally planned. Right, yeah. I think that's quite a normal progression, especially when you're working with so much recycled material in a house. You have to be a little bit flexible and be able to adapt the design as you find all of these cool treasures to incorporate. Absolutely, and I have a carpenter crazy enough to go along with it as well and try experimental things. Very important. And what size is your tiny house? Yeah, so it's nearly 10 meters long. I think it's 9.6 and then most of it is I think 2.4 or 2.5 meters wide but the bay window makes that a little bit oversized. Right. Yeah, so that's probably nearly three meters, maybe more for the bay window area. Perfect size. Yeah, just hard to move on the road. A little tricky to move but for something that doesn't really get moved very often I think it's worth it to have the additional space inside the house. Yeah, I've already gone over the top. It's already hard to move because it's tight. Fair enough. And you've got the outdoor bathroom here as well, don't you? Yeah, because I wanted to actually utilize and have all of this space inside and I don't like cleaning bathrooms so I thought outside bathroom's perfect and then I also have a separate composting toilet which is also very unique. It's a confessional. Yes, I had this old actual confessional door that I picked up, you know, with like the little window so that was kind of the inspiration and then we just got bush poles and it's a very simple structure but then I thought I'm gonna freak people out and put all of this like religious memorabilia in there so it's kind of like, you know, a cross with like Frida Kahlo topless and like it's got a nun that kind of looks like the Mona Lisa like her eyes are watching you everywhere you go and I've got like a bible there. Sounds like a very awkward place to use the toilet. It's just a bit of fun. I really like that, that is awesome. Well, this parking spot is absolutely breathtaking and I love all of the beehive inspiration in this tiny house. I cannot wait to see what you've done inside. Can we check it out? Yeah, let's do it. This is absolutely stunning. With all of the stained glass, the light just falls in here so beautifully. Yeah, I really love it. It's also handy, you don't have to clean your windows as much. True. On a practical level and, you know, it's kind of like living with rose-colored glasses. Yeah. In a way I've just surrounded myself in stained glass. Yeah. So it's been a love that's turned into a bit of an obsession. I've started a stained glass collection. Yeah. And I have a lot of it now. I don't blame you. I love the way that you've also carried that into all of your light fittings in here too. Yeah, yeah. I just love all of the little touches of glass and color and it also kind of reminds me of Morocco as well because it's very bright and colorful over there and my daughter's half Moroccan so yeah, you'll see throughout the home there's a lot of Moroccan feel and color and inspiration in here as well. And having all of this glass in here as well just makes the house feel so expansive, especially these hexagonal windows. They look so good. Did you have to have these made? Yes, I did. I had a glass company cut the hexagons for me and then the carpenters handmade the windows out of hardwood. So I love the effect. Yeah, I feel like I'm living in a hive. Yeah, it really does give you that impression. I just love that it immediately connects you to that aesthetic. That is very cool. And the way that you've used this very rustic timber in here I think really helps with that as well. Yeah, I really love all of these timber features because a lot of it was actually milled here on the land from trees that were already fallen over so a lot of it's like sustainable hardwood as well with the bush pole. And do we call it a ladder? Do we call it stairs? What do we call it? Well, I've always wanted a spiral staircase. And you know, they're not that practical, really, because they take up a lot of space. So I was trying to think of a way that I could put a spiral staircase into the tiny house that didn't take up a lot of room, but was still fun. And I don't know if I'd call it practical. It's not practical at all. It does make for a beautiful feature. Yeah, yeah. And because the steps are so small, it actually doesn't take up much room. And I just love that adventure of winding your way up to the bedroom chambers. Yeah, yeah. And it's fun. My daughter loves it. And it's interesting. It's kind of like climbing a tree. Like a lot of people freak out when they come in here with other children and stuff because there's no protective rail up here at all. But you know, I'm a believer that, you know, kids climb trees and fall out of it. And my daughter is six and she's never fallen from here or anything. She's just cautious and she knows and gets really fun. She gets to kind of climb a tree every night when she goes up to her room. Yeah, perfect. And so her room is just above us here. Yeah, yeah. She had a lot of say in the design of her room as well because I wanted her to, yeah, be part of the magical experience and love it and to want to spend time in her room as well. So the entrance is circular and it's kind of the idea of a rabbit hole. Like you're kind of entering into a magical world. And I've also got this beautiful kind of church feature here. It was always a dream of mine to buy and renovate a church. And I thought, I'm building a tiny house, I'll make it a bit churchy. So that's why there's a bit of those features in here as well. But it's open so that she can still call out and look down and, you know, not be totally closed in her room. So yeah, it's nice. And it's also good for the airflow, just adding extra ventilation to her room. That's a lovely feature to add. Yeah. Beautiful. And your choice of furniture in here is really lovely as well. It definitely has that antique vibe. Well, it just adds a lot of character and fun. And I've incorporated a lot of bee artwork as well, which makes it really bright and colourful with a bit of Moroccan flavour as well. And I've added mirrors everywhere, which I feel also helps in a small space, make it feel bigger. Yeah. And also my daughter loves to dance and perform. So we put on music and she loves to just watch herself in the mirror, practice faces, dance. So yeah, it's a really fun, bright, open kind of space. Yeah, beautiful. What do you do for eating here? Nothing. I guess in this region, like we are in the subtropics, so it's not so important. I do have a good solar system, but I need to get a generator to have extra power for wintertime. Yeah. And you are off the grid in this home as well, aren't you? Yeah, it's completely off grid. And I was really kind of environmentally conscious when I was purchasing and thinking about all my appliances. And I've completely avoided gas as well, because I don't like changing gas bottles and I don't think it's very sustainable. So I've just gone for a very good solar system, a heat pump for my hot water, which works really well and doesn't take much power, and then electrics in the kitchen. So yeah, it's an expensive solar system, but I've been able to avoid gas and mains power and all of that. Yeah. I mean, it's worth overspec-ing your solar system just to have that peace of mind and not have to worry about things. Yeah. And what do we have through those doors there? Yeah, so this is my walk-in wardrobe. Do you want to check it out? Let's have a look. Yeah, so these are saloon doors. That is such a cool feature. And this is definitely a luxurious addition to the tiny house. To have a wardrobe this size is kind of ridiculous. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's the girl's house. The cabin I was in before, I was really sick of being cramped and not being able to find things. And me and my daughter both love playing dress-ups and love fashion. So it's really nice to have this space where we can play. And I definitely wear more of my clothes now that I can actually see everything and it's all organised. And then, yeah, my daughter's got her things in here as well. So yeah, it's a really great space. Yeah. I love it. It's brilliant that you've added this too, because this is exactly what you should do in a tiny house. It's so important that you build in these things that just bring joy to your life and make you happy. Like if you want something in your home, prioritising a space like this just makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I've been able to just easily fit in pre-made things and added a bit of hardwood. Behind you, we have a fireplace mantel that I've used as shoe storage and then put a hanging rack off. So yeah, it's been very organic the way it's all kind of come together. But I love the uniqueness and beauty of it. Very creative. Yeah. And down the other end of your home is the kitchen. Can we take a look in there? Yeah, yeah. Let's go check it out. The archway there is such a beautiful feature. Yeah, I really love it. And it's really that taste of Morocco, I guess, bringing that into the home. My daughter's father lives in Marrakech. And yeah, it's a real sort of Arabic style archway that they use in, you know, mosques and religious buildings over there. So it kind of adds this, you know, kind of sacred element and brings in the Moroccan touch into our home. Yeah. Yeah. You seem to be really connected with spiritual buildings. I just really appreciate beautiful architecture, but also the energy that spiritual buildings hold. You know, you walk into a church and you can feel the energy and the beauty. And, you know, I feel like in these beautiful spaces of worship, you know, there's so much love. And you can bring that into the home as well. Like Olive's grandmother, she prays in the home, not the mosque. And when you walk into her home, which is like this amazing, beautiful clay, Arabic style home, you can just feel the love that she's poured into the home. Very true. Lovely point. Beautiful that you've also incorporated this lovely sun seat right here in the kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. Just a really nice spot to sit in the storage underneath it as well. So yeah, it's just a nice comfortable bench seat. And it just adds that extra space as well. Yeah. Yeah. Great. It is a large kitchen. Yeah. I really love to cook and make things from scratch. So even though it's a tiny house, I still wanted, you know, a good practical kitchen. This is actually bone inlay. And it was a table I had custom made in India. And I ended up burning the top of it with a beeswax candle. And it was a very expensive table. So I was like, Oh no, what am I going to do? But I managed to repurpose the drawers to make drawers in here, you know, little touches of stained glass. And I've also used different materials for the kitchen bench as well. This was milled from the land and it wasn't quite long enough. So I've kind of got like a butcher's block in the corner. And then I found a really beautiful piece of pink marble as well for the corner. So, you know, you've got all your different surfaces that you can actually like cut on the bench. And I found that at a second hand shop and they didn't want to sell it to me. I worked my charm and got it. Great. Yeah. Lovely big sink in here too. That's nice to see. Yeah. Yeah. So sick of little sinks not being able to like wash stuff up properly. So yeah, I've got a proper big double sink in there, which is great. And as you said before, all electric appliances, which is quite unique for an off grid home. Yeah, it is. I've got your little air fryer oven and a little cooktop. Yeah. And it works really well. Nice. Heaps of storage in here too. Yeah. Lots of storage, you know, for my pots and pans and all of that. And then I can also store bulk foods because the bench seat has all that storage underneath. So I've got, you know, 20 litre drums of like ghee. Yeah. I think in a tiny house, you don't really have that extra room to just have extra random crap you don't use. Very true. So I've got everything that I need and everything has its place and it also helps keep things nice and tidy. Yeah. Yeah. And again, tying into that beehive thing, we've got these lovely hexagonal tiles. Yeah. I love how the tiles run into the wooden floor. And it's quite funny because the white spots of tiles, that was actually an accident. I didn't order enough tiles and we ran out. Then the tiler was just really creative and he had tiles of similar thickness and he cut them in. And now it's one of my favourite features because to me, it looks like the larvae. Yeah. Like brood cells. Yeah. I love the touches of white through there. So sometimes, yeah, accidents end up working out really well. I completely agree. Yeah. Well, if I can fumble my way up the ladder, do you think we could have a look in your bedroom? Give it a go. After you, please. Yeah, that looks totally easy. Okay. All right. This is probably going to be really embarrassing. I'll give it a go. Oh, hey, no, that's actually all right. Yeah, you've got this. Yeah, there we go. That's okay. Cool. Actually a practical design then. I changed my mind. Wait till you go down. Yeah. So these windows, they actually open up, which is really beautiful to airflow through the tiny house. That is a lovely addition. Yeah. These windows are just so beautiful. Yeah, I love them. They're one of my favourite features of the home and I was just a complete mad woman. I've got a little trailer in my car and I did trips like all the way up to Brisbane when I saw these ones on my birthday. I went and got the front stained glass doors. Just when I saw it, I just pounced. That's exactly what you have to do because that's just the price you need to pay to get such beautiful materials. I think if somebody is really passionate about the idea of building a recycled tiny house, almost the first investment that you should make is a car trailer so that you can actually go and collect these little treasures when you find them. Yeah, absolutely. And your bedroom is behind you. Yeah, here it is. Come and take a look. All right. Again, just such beautiful colour in here. And you've also got more of the church light features with that window. Yeah, this is a beautiful church window that came out of an old church in Grafton. It's actually super heavy. And also the stained glass behind my pillows acts as like a bedhead because it's arched. So I love how it kind of doubles as a feature in that room and in this room. Yeah, it really does. It's quite interesting the way that you've boxed in your whole bed too. Yeah, I really wanted it kind of sunken in so that I could just jump into bed and also add extra storage here at the end for, you know, extra blankets and all of that kind of stuff. So yeah, I love it. And it's really kind of honey coloured as well within the stained glass and my lights and all of those kind of features and everywhere. I've just got those little beehive touches. This is actually an old frame that came out of a beehive I removed. Beautiful. That must have been a really interesting hive. I've never seen one that shape before. Yeah, yeah. These were all the individual frames kind of all stacked next to each other. So it was, yeah, hexagon hive. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah. And a queen bed for the queen bee. Yes, exactly. It's a nice amount of space and I've got, yeah, a really good organic mattress and it's just nice and comfy, you know, and it still feels like not too claustrophobic in here. Like once we're in bed, it still feels, you know, you can sit up in bed and I've got a skylight. So yeah, it feels quite comfortable. Like I spend time up here sometimes as well. Yeah. You have obviously poured so much love, creativity and meaning into this home. This must have been such a fun space for you to build. Yeah, no, it was. It was really organic and it was beautiful as well because there's a machinery shed down on the community. So it actually got to be built on the land and the carpenter that built it lives like two doors down as well. So in my production space where we're making all the honey was next door to the machinery shed. So I was able to kind of like, you know, daily check in, you know, on the house and how things were going. But also the builders had a lot of creative freedom and made a lot of calls and, you know, different things with the design as well. So it was really a joint kind of organic process. Yeah. And of course you share this home together with your daughter. Can you talk to me about her relationship with the tiny house and how she's adapting to tiny house living? Yeah, well, I mean, we were kind of already in a very tiny house before this. And it's kind of poetic as well because it was a hexagon two-story princess tower in the bush, but, you know, maybe like four meters wide. Right. So we were like, this is luxury compared to where we were before. But my daughter is a little bit over, I guess, off grid, you know, harshness. And I think it's been a really beautiful thing for her as a child to be able to see the vision and see her mother be able to bring it to life and her to really be interwoven into the whole process of having autonomy around what she wants her room to look like and that kind of power. And for her, you know, it's such a magical land where we live in this house, but it's kind of normal. So it's really beautiful to have this house and for her to feel comfortable to just express and explore and be colorful and be, yeah, here and grounded and safe as well. Beautiful. When I first moved in, it was a little bit of a shock because it had been such a journey to build and a lot of hardship over that time. So it was a bit surreal in a lot of ways to be in here and be, I was like, whoa, hold on, I actually built this, you know, I can enjoy it now. It's not the next thing that, you know, that I'm working towards to complete it. And so for me now, it's, it's a big symbol of a chapter and it's been quite a hard chapter as well. So I think it's evolving, you know what it means to me. But yeah, you know, for someone that's never really felt like I had, you know, a home or a place in the world to now have created something beautiful as my own home that can move with me. Yeah, it's something really special. And obviously a lot of collection and very clever material sourcing for this tiny house. Can we talk about the cost of the build? Yeah, so it definitely went over budget. They always do. I mean, including, you know, my solar system, you know, which was 20k and all of that expensive stuff in the trailer, probably 200k. Wow. But you have done a lot of really unique and interesting stuff in this. And obviously, every time you add an arch and incorporating all of these different beautiful shapes and materials and things, it does all add on to that cost, doesn't it? Absolutely. And sometimes, you know, you think you're saving money because you're getting secondhand materials, but actually it ends up being a lot more expensive, for example, the church windows because of the shape and the special flashing you need to get for them. And, you know, all of that kind of stuff at all does add up. But I think it's just a really beautiful, unique space. And I'm still debt free. Yeah. But you're about to move this house. So yeah, you guys have seen the hill and the challenge it's going to be to get this out of here. And I honestly, I thought I was going to stay on the community when I put it up here. I was not thinking of getting it out. But I'm hoping that I can get it back down the hill safely with a bulldozer. And I have a beautiful friend around the corner that I can store the tiny house at her place because I'd like to relocate up north. Me and my daughter want to do more dance and performance. And there's more of a community for that kind of thing up there. And we still want to do the honey. But yeah, just explore other things in life as well. So yeah, it's probably going to end up the hinterland of the Gold Coast. Gorgeous. We're going to go traveling for six months overseas. And then we'll come back and set it all up. But it's a very funny feeling because I'm actually not attached to it. You know, so yeah, whatever will be will be like I am also open to selling it. Right? Yeah. So whatever the future holds. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about building a house on wheels like that, that if you decide to relocate, it can come with you. But also, if you decide to sell it, it can end up absolutely anywhere. So it's just lovely to have that freedom and all of those options. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll see what's meant to be. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful. Well, Emily, I just think this is such a magical home that you've created for yourself. I love the color in here. I love the vibrance. And I love all of your philosophy and the connection to the bees that you've been able to build into this home. It really is a very special place. Thank you so much for sharing it. Thank you so much for coming to see it. My pleasure. I am such a fan of biomimicry. As human beings, we are part of nature. And I think that sometimes gets forgotten. And within nature and the natural world, there are so many lessons that we can really learn and benefit from if we incorporate those into our lives. I love the way that Emily has borrowed so much from the bee kingdom and all of her design philosophy and just love of light and color has made this such a beautiful and vibrant home. What an amazing place for her and her daughter.