I m a Homeowner at 14 I Designed It Myself

I designed this tiny home when I was 11 and started building it when I was 12. I think it meant something that I was waiting to do for so long that I was just like, I'm gonna figure out how to do it. I think I did a good job of making sure that my dream came to life. Hey, I'm Emma. This is my tiny home. I don't live in it yet. Let me give you a tour. Welcome to my tiny home. The dimensions are down here, 18 by 10 wide, and then in the gooseneck, it's seven by 10 wide, totaling to 25 by 10 wide. When designing this tiny home, I wanted the kitchen to be right in the center and the first thing you see when you walk in. And then beyond that, you have the bathroom. Above, we have our loft space along with a netting that I chose to put in between. And right now we are standing in the gooseneck living room. When I am first designing a space, the first things I think about is what I want the main focuses of the space to be. So for when I was designing this one, having a big kitchen is really important to me because I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking. So my main, how I started the whole project was figuring out where I wanted the kitchen and how to make it as big as possible. When designing my tiny home, I really wanted to have the full 10 feet wide instead of the typical eight feet wide. And I found that would be really important in the kitchen space because the counter depth comes out pretty far and I didn't wanna feel too closed in between the two sides. I chose to go with an induction cooktop because we do most of our cooking on the stove at the house we're living in currently. And honestly, I picked it because I found a really pretty pink pot. But I really like how it looks and it's really clean in the kitchen. And we also have an air fryer that we're gonna put in here because two burners will not be enough for us. But having that additional air fryer, it's actually a pretty cool one and it folds up. So when I was designing it, I wanted to be able to have a little eating area. So behind me, including these stools and this little L shape to be able to sit there because we don't really have any other dining space when in here. I designed it for my little family of three. So me, my mom and my sister. And you could put someone on this side too, but I just designed it for three people so that my whole family could be able to enjoy a meal here. And then another important thing for me was this sink right here. I really think it's nice to have the window right above the sink so that you can look out when you're washing dishes. When purchasing the sink, I knew the style I wanted. I liked the rib design on the front. It actually has a different rib design on the back of it. And so I got to pick which side I wanted to have showing. I definitely think that the farmhouse style is pretty functional. When I'm washing dishes, I lay a hand towel across the front here so that anything that splashes wouldn't get me wet. But I do think it's pretty great because it is a pretty large size. So you can fit a lot and wash a lot of dishes in there, especially not having any sort of dishwasher. It's great to have the bigger size. For the butcher block countertops, I chose not to stain it and to leave it natural. So we just oil it. And when I need to cut something, I have a extra piece of butcher block and I set it in between our stove and our sink. And it's a nice chopping block and just to put things down and you don't have to worry about staining the actual thing. If you were to get a stain on it, it's pretty easy to just sand it off and re-oil it, but we try not to. We purchased the cabinets from a local wholesale cabinet builder. I chose to go the custom route for all of the storage in the kitchen because I definitely wanted to get as much storage as possible. For example, we could have put a Lazy Susan to access this back corner, but I opted to put cabinets on the backside of this counter. So I ended up with some pretty tiny drawers over here. They fit something about this wide. And so they're pretty small, but they do give extra storage. I have some little cups and stuff down there. I just wanted to maximize as much of that storage as I possibly could. I really liked the look of black hardware, so I thought that would look really good against the dark navy cabinets. I just wanted a simple modern style for the poles. And so that's just what I went with and I tried to incorporate it throughout. I went with open shelving instead of cabinets because I like to have the more open feel. And if you have big cabinets, I feel like it kind of closes in the kitchen a little bit. So these hold a decent amount and I put some hooks down here for mugs and things to hang, but they all are smaller just because I feel like we do have a lot of storage between this side of the kitchen and under the stairs. A tiny tip is just that for the most part, you're gonna wanna have doors to close all of that stuff away because I think if you can see clutter, then it makes the space feel a lot smaller and it's already a pretty small space. Here we are on the other side of the kitchen. Here we have all of our storage space and our fridge. One of my non-negotiables for the kitchen was definitely having a ton of storage in here. I think kitchens need the most storage and so really just being able to use every single nook and cranny you can find in here for storage was really important to me. So that's what I tried to accomplish in my design. Over here, we have our pantry space. This is actually a bigger pantry than we have in our home that we're living in right now. So it was really important to me and my mom to be able to have all of that space. And we have space for pans and any sort of kitchen cutlery that you would need. Continuing over here, we have my really cool vintage mini fridge and freezer. I really like the look of a vintage fridge. We actually bought this one off of Amazon. We were going to go with the name brand vintage fridge, but we decided to save a little bit of money and go with this cheaper option that still has a cool, unique look and is still a great quality fridge. And then continuing over here, we have two little spots to hang clothes. And we are in the process of putting pull-out drawers in these two right here. And then the rest of these are just more drawer space for clothing and whatever other things you would like to put in there. You can use this for kitchen storage or clothing storage. We also have a couple open shelves here and over there for cookbooks or any other things you'd like to put out on display. I think it would definitely be more convenient to keep the clothes upstairs. And I did provide places up there for clothing that can be folded, but I just designed this to have anything that you would want hung up to be in this area. When you're living tiny, there are definitely sacrifices that you are going to need to make. But I do think in order to get that hanging storage that you would like to have, it is necessary to have it down there because you would not have room for it up in our loft. But one of the pros of having your clothes down here is you're right next to the bathroom to change and you just have more space than you would up in the loft, being that you can stand over here. When designing the stairs, I wanted them to be like real stairs and I didn't want to do any ladders or anything like that to add the storage and just to make them easier to get up and down. I think the stairs turned out better than I was anticipating with all of the storage space that we were able to include. I wanted to be able to add like a little bit of extra square footage and more space to hang out. I think having the netting that's see-through was a really nice way to not feel like you're too closed in. My whole family were pretty short, so the height didn't really matter to us too much. Even though it would pop out into the kitchen and maybe feel a little more enclosed on that side, we decided that it was important so that the loft felt like it was big enough. Working with builders was definitely a fun and unique experience because I had the design all figured out and I knew what I wanted, but I had no idea how to go about that and make it happen. If my design wasn't possible in a certain area, they definitely found ways to make it as close to what I had imagined as possible. And they just had really great ideas about things that I didn't think about when it came to the design that they would definitely think about as the builder. It gave me more knowledge about what actually goes into building it, and they were also very willing to teach me about the building aspect. So there were definitely hands-on experiences I got. My earliest memory of designing, I was nine years old. I really wanted a little reading nook, and I was reading Harry Potter at the time, and you know, a little closet under the stairs, who could say no? We have a little room underneath our staircase. I asked mom if I could turn it into my little Harry Potter nook. And so I painted it my bedroom color and I put some rug tiles down and some cushions and a little floating shelf for books and painted a little tree mural, and that's my little reading nook. What inspired me to design a tiny home was wanting a bigger space to design because previously I'd just done my bedroom, the closet under the stairs. I had been watching design shows like HGTV and all sorts of things for a really long time, and I just, for some reason, it really fascinated me. And I wanted a bigger project, and this was a manageable way to do that. Something that's been really helpful for me when designing things is I take pictures of homes that I like and see how they would fit together and how it would look as a whole. And I'm like, okay, well, this is what I like from this one and this is what I like from this one. And then I just start sketching those in and I see how they would interact. I like to think that each space should have something unique about it, and so I always find that unique feature, whether that be a farmhouse sink or a retrofridge or whatever you have, depending on the space. And I think making everything else complement that one thing really makes a space look put together. Technology is really great, and it can be really helpful when you're designing spaces, but I think it takes away the creativity and the control you have over a space. And so I think being able to just be more creative and do things exactly how I see them in my mind is just easiest to do on paper. When I got the okay to start building and start creating for my mom, I was super happy. Honestly, we'd been dreaming about it for so long that I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that we were actually gonna do it, so it wasn't really real to me. And it still wasn't real to me until I saw it for the first time. I think it meant something that I was waiting to do for so long that I was just like, I'm gonna figure out how to do it. I think I did a good job of making sure that my dream came to life. We are still doing small details and adding and fixing some things, but I would say it took two to three years to have it at this point. My long-term plans for this design skill would probably be going to college for design. That's always been a dream of mine, and I'm hoping to be able to do that someday. I would also love to incorporate agriculture into that. I also really love livestock and that whole side of agriculture. So I think finding a way to include design and agriculture would be my dream job in the future. Hi, I'm Emma's mom, Rachel. When Emma came to me wanting to do a tiny home, I first thought, wow, we've really jumped from under stair cabinets and offices to something much bigger. And my hope as a parent has been to be able to say yes as often as is reasonable, and to just knock down barriers for her to be able to have her dreams in tiny spaces come true. We got this process started when good friends suggested that we consider something on wheels. We hadn't considered that before, and that really, I guess no pun intended, got the wheels turning for us when we found Trailer Maid, and it's all gone magically well since then. Working with Trailer Maid and their team was a fantastic experience. Most of our interaction was with the designer because Emma was gonna be highly involved in the design, and it was a great learning opportunity for her to be able to apply her graph paper, sketches and design into CAD, and work with the team to be able to bring that to life. We decided to go with everything we would need to basically have an exterior. So that included the trailer bed on wheels, the steel framing, blue siding for the exterior, a steel door, as well as all of the windows. That entire surround was $35,000. Additional costs included $35,000 budget to work with all of the labor and materials that we brought in with the various tradespeople. And then on top of that, we spent about $15,000 to outfit the home with appliances, as well as Emma's design choices. If other parents are out there and wanna consider this idea for their kids or other people in their life, I would say it's a really wonderful process to be able to see someone come up with their big dreams and apply it to a tiny structure. It's really quite cool to watch, and I hope other people might consider this after watching what Emma has created. I also think, practically, it can provide some really wonderful options for different ways of living, whether it would be something you hold onto or something you share with the person that's designing it. This is my lofted living room. It's in the gooseneck, and it's about three steps up from the main floor. I really like the idea of giving the kitchen as much space as possible, so I decided to move the living room up into this gooseneck area. I think having a raised living room creates a nice little feeling of separation from the kitchen, and so it makes this area more of a calm space. Just be able to curl up on the daybed, read a book, whatever you feel like, or just have a nice little conversation while you're sitting. And I really wanted to be able to have a lot of bed space, so I decided to make this daybed that would act as some form of a couch, but it also has this trundle underneath, so it's two twin-sized mattresses. And this is one of my favorite features, is it's a little flip-up container where you can keep extra bedding or whatever you don't wanna leave out onto this daybed. And then over here, I wanted to be able to incorporate some yellow chairs and bookshelves back here. Behind the chair, I thought would be a good spot for board games or anything you didn't really wanna see. And then you can have books, plants, whatever you want down here. And we have more just bookshelves and swaps to display whatever you'd like over here. I added a bunch of stuff that is also personal to me up here and on the shelf, so I think including personal touches throughout in the decor is really important. I think pops of color are really great to cozy up a space, and comfy things, pillows, blankets. I think also inviting decor. It is just a really inviting space to just be able to curl up, read a book, watch something on the iPad, watch a show, have a conversation with people, because this is the biggest spot where you can fit the most people. Overall, the living room turned out exactly how I wanted it to. It's a very warm and inviting space, and I love it. Welcome to my tiny bathroom. When I was designing this, I really wanted to have three main sections. So I have my storage section over on this side of me, the shower section on this side, and then the toilet and sink right in the middle. This is my beautifully tiled shower. This was a really fun project for us to do. We did this little half wall to create a little bit of separation between the sink and the shower, so you don't feel like you're brushing your teeth in the shower. And we added a little ledge just to be able to store stuff, and it's a great little shower seat. I really had a great time picking out the tiles that we chose to do in here. We purchased our tile from ProSource Wholesale, and we went in person to see how the herringbone and the honeycomb tiles would look together, and I think it turned out as great as I could have imagined, and I really love how the shower is. I even got the hands-on experience of being able to lay the shower pan. We had to do that a couple times. It's not often that you, when you're designing a home, get to have the hands-on experience with your builder to be able to create something, and this was one of the projects here that I did get to be a large part in doing, and so I got to watch him lay the tile, helped pour the concrete for the base, and it was just a really fun learning experience to participate in. I really love how it turned out, and I think it's a beautiful focal point in the bathroom. We decided to go with a composting toilet, and we plumbed it also for a flush toilet, but we chose to go with the composting just so that it's a little bit more environmentally friendly. We went with the separate so that it is easier to clean and a smoother process. We purchased this sink from Home Depot, and it was a gray color originally, and so I've actually had quite a time painting it. I'm still in the process. You can see the primer's still down there. We just painted it to match all the kitchen cabinets out there, and we just went with the smallest sink we could find. Even though the sink is pretty tiny, it has great storage underneath. When you open this up, you can put whatever you need stored under there so it's not on the limited counter area you do have. The bowl comes forward, and it is plenty of space that you would need for a sink. When designing this storage section, I needed to make sure we would have space to put a washer dryer in eventually for when we want that, so we left a big open section. For now, you can put just random bins down there, a laundry bin, whatever you need, but it's just an open space in case in the future we do wanna put something there. Also behind all of this storage, we have our electrical box, and so actually each of these shelves on top come out to allow you to open the electrical box, and then down here behind these shelves is where our water heater is, and so we actually have a false back, and that actually slides so that you can cover it up so you're not looking at the water heater, but then when you need access, you can open it up and have full access to whatever you need down there. So I really designed it to be as functional as possible while giving us the maximum amount of storage that we could have. This idea came from another tiny home that I saw. They used it to connect their two lofts because they didn't do a gooseneck, and so they had a loft on each side, and even though I wasn't doing that, I really wanted to incorporate it, and I thought connecting it to that loft would be a fun way to do it, and add a couple more square feet. It's a great space to just hang out, watch a show, read a book, and it holds multiple people. It holds up to 1,000 pounds, and so it's just a great extra space to have. This is our primary sleeping area. I designed this space just based on how big I wanted this bed and so this is a queen bed up here. We built these side tables to fit perfectly with the queen size bed, and then we have more storage by the foot of this bed for clothes or whatever else you'd like to keep up there. We have this giant window to just provide lots of natural lighting and to just make the space feel a lot bigger than it actually is, just because it is so small that having the natural light and being able to see outdoors really makes this space feel bigger. If I were to change anything in this space, I would have this be a queen short because it's not really possible to access the storage on this side where the bed is because there's no room in between the shelf and the end of the bed, so I would make the bed a shorter version because we all, my family's all very short, so it wouldn't be a problem for us to sleep in a smaller bed and then you can have more access to that storage space. Right now, I don't need to worry about going up and down the stairs, but if I were to design a home for future me as I'm getting older, I would have a main floor bedroom just so that we don't have to worry about any of the stairs and so that would just mean that you would definitely need more square footage lengthwise to be able to accommodate that. We were able to make the tiny home so short because we were able to utilize the upstairs spaces. If I had a main floor bedroom, I would use the loft more as a space for storage and also just an extra place for people to hang out and spend time. We live within city limits and so following the rules around parked units and what you are allowed to do and what you aren't allowed to do is what we've chosen to do to be able to make this possible for now. The functionality that we are held to in the city is basically to treat the unit as a glorified storage unit. We do preventative maintenance and we do labor on it to keep things up and running for the day we do have it moved to a different place, but we are not able to live in it at the present time. Future plans for this tiny home will kind of depend. We kind of have been thinking about it as either I would use it when I'm going to college or my mom would take it and she would put it on some land. I'm really excited about the option for Emma to be able to use this in college. I could see using this as a VRBO or just a place for people to be able to stay for a longer period of time when they're hopefully out visiting. Design is something I'm really passionate about and I love. So if you'd like any help with any designs, I'm trying to help build my portfolio and get more experience. The links will be in the description below. Thank you, bye. Bye.