VIDEO DESCRIPTION: At just 14 years old, Drew discovered the tiny‑living movement online and immediately knew it aligned with the life she hoped to build. Over the next decade, she explored minimalism through van life, a cross‑country road trip, and eventually the full custom design of her own tiny home. This tour highlights how intentional planning, smart storage, and a clear sense of personal priorities can turn 320 square feet into a deeply functional and inspiring home.
In the kitchen, Drew designed a bright, efficient workspace with white quartz countertops and gray cabinetry that carries throughout the home. She intentionally skipped a dishwasher to save storage space, opting instead for a large sink and a streamlined three‑burner induction cooktop. Her convection microwave oven and nested cookware help maintain a minimalist, clutter‑free setup. Daily‑use utensils stay in her main drawer, while a hidden drawer organizes less frequently used tools—an example of tiny‑home storage strategy done right. Her pantry, placed directly behind her cooking area, maximizes convenience with deep shelves, space for small appliances, and a spice drawer she can access without taking a step.
Because her loft staircase offered valuable square footage, Drew turned each step into purposeful storage—two pull‑out drawers and a primary closet area that supports her long‑time capsule‑wardrobe lifestyle. Living minimally isn’t new for her; it’s something she has practiced intentionally since her early teens.
Her living room reflects the same thoughtful design. Drew chose a simple layout with a couch, side table, and TV tucked away until needed. Her lift‑top coffee table doubles as a dining setup, reinforcing the multi‑use philosophy that drives most of her design choices. While the space is still evolving, she appreciates the freedom to adapt it as she grows—perhaps adding a built‑in daybed or bookshelf someday.
Drew’s journey began with van life, including a full DIY conversion with her mom and a solo cross‑country road trip. By age 20, she committed to a custom tiny home with a North Carolina builder. The home cost $100,000 and sits in a tiny‑home community on a 30‑acre nature preserve where she pays $650 per month for lot rent. Her total housing costs remain comparable to what many people her age pay for shared apartments—yet she gets to live in a way that truly reflects her values.
Her bathroom features practical, space‑saving solutions: a medicine cabinet, compact vanity shelving, a 6‑gallon water heater, a combo washer‑dryer, and a tankless “macerating” toilet. While the layout works well for her lifestyle, she can imagine expanding the bathroom in a future build after learning what she uses most.
Upstairs, the loft houses her queen‑size mattress and offers enough space for comfortable rest. Drew intentionally chose stairs over a ladder, but she acknowledges that navigating them at night isn’t ideal for everyone. In the long term, she imagines designing a main‑floor bedroom if she builds another tiny home.
Finally, Drew emphasizes that her tiny‑home journey is about more than smart design—it’s about community. Living at Cranmore Meadows has surrounded her with neighbors who share her values, prioritize intentional living, and offer genuine connection. For Drew, knowing the names of her neighbors (and their pets) is an essential part of why tiny living feels so right.
Filmed by - / brian_bear_butler Edited by - / filmbro_
Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Custom Tiny House Living 00:17 Kitchen Design and Minimalist Storage Solutions 03:24 Multi-Functional Staircase Storage and Capsule Wardrobes 04:13 Tiny Home Living Room and Flexible Furniture 05:37 Tiny Home Costs and Community Benefits 08:36 Bathroom Layout and Space Saving Plumbing Tips 11:44 Sleeping Loft Design and Staircase Accessibility 13:04 Intentional Living and Advice for New Builders
AI Generated·May contain errors
When I was 14, I fell in love with tiny living.
I spent the next 10 years pursuing my dream,
starting with a van and eventually
Since I custom built my home
and I had been looking at Tiny Home Inspo for years, I really
designing this tiny home.
had a good idea of what I wanted my area to look like.
And for the kitchen, I knew I wanted enough
counter space to do all of my meal prep and baking projects.
For my countertops, I have white quartz.
I knew I wanted something that was nice and bright
because I do have gray cabinetry. And the
cabinetry, it also continues throughout the rest of my kitchen
and even my bathroom. And I really
looks and I didn't want too much of it
so it wouldn't feel too small in here.
I decided early on that I was not going
to have a dishwasher in my setup.
I made that decision so I could save kitchen storage,
which meant I needed a big sink to deal with all of my dishes.
Over here I have my three burner induction cooktop.
I've just found that three burners is plenty for me
and underneath I have my microwave and convection oven combo.
It's a pretty nice small size
and it allows me to have enough drawers to really fit all of my dishes
and pots and pans.
I think you always need to get creative
with storage in a tiny home, but with the kitchen,
I think it's really noticeable with the gadgets
that you grab every day. So for example,
this is my utensil drawer.
So anything that I want on a daily or weekly basis will be in here.
And then anything extra is going to be in the hidden drawer.
And I think this is a great
solution just for utensil storage in a tiny home,
because you kind of get better use out of one
drawer and also just makes more sense
to have your everyday items more accessible.
Down here is where I have all
of my Tupperware containers and with, you know,
your pots and pans, you want to get ideally anything that can nest.
That'll just save space really in any home that you're living in.
But in a tiny home, especially it's pretty important.
On the other side of my kitchen,
I have my fridge and freezer in addition to my pantry.
And I also have storage for my plates and bowls and stuff like
that.
Something that I enjoy about tiny living is that I am one person
and it truly makes sense for me
because I don't need a fridge
or freezer that's any bigger than this. If it was,
I would probably fill it with food that I didn't really need
and it would probably be wasteful.
And the same idea with the pantry
is that if you have a pantry that's a certain size,
you're probably going to fill it with stuff.
So you really only need one that's small.
And when I was living in my van, my pantry was like
Not much bigger than a shoebox.
Perhaps that means you go grocery shopping more often,
but that's not a bad lifestyle.
So my pantry is conveniently placed
because I'm cooking right here
and all of my ingredients are immediately behind me.
And while we open the door, there is a large open area
so I can have, you know,
Tall bottles of olive oil.
And I also have some small appliances like my air fryer.
And then these drawers do pull out.
And what's nice is that I keep all of my spices right here.
So I don't actually have to move my feet.
If I need to grab a spice while I'm cooking,
I really just have to turn around.
So if you are designing a tiny home,
it's helpful to have things conveniently located.
So it just makes your lifestyle easier.
So I knew that I was going to have
a staircase leading to my loft and which
meant I had the opportunity to utilize the storage area.
So for each area I decided to
give it a slightly different purpose.
So I have two drawers right here that both pull out
and I have a door right here that opens
which is kind of my primary closet space.
Since I have identified as a minimalist for most of my life,
I think as my style has evolved over
the years, it has always been a capsule wardrobe.
And I don't know exactly how many pairs of pants
or pairs of shoes that I own.
I probably only wear, I think 80% is actually generous. I could
I could probably do some downsizing,
and I live in a tiny home, so that's saying something.
So I grew up in a traditional sized home,
which had both a living room and a family room.
And as you can imagine, it's not like we use both at the same time.
And I feel like most living spaces in traditional sized home,
they're filled with, you know,
armchairs that you never sit
in and coffee tables that you don't really need.
So I found that my setup here in my tiny is perfect for me.
It meets my needs.
I have a couch big enough for me and my dog, possibly a guest.
And on the side, I have my coffee table.
In addition to the TV, they're not front and center
because I'm not using them all the time.
I can pull either of them out when I need.
The coffee table also doubles as my dining room setup.
The top of it actually lifts up so I can enjoy a meal
and then set it aside when I'm not using it.
it's really special living in a space that you've designed yourself
because it's perfectly curated
to your lifestyle and your needs
but i do feel that the space can evolve with you for example
in my living room setup it's really bare bones i just have a couch
and a few furniture pieces
because i wasn't sure what i wanted
for this area right now i'm pretty happy with the setup
but i have considered making it
a bit more permanent perhaps having a fixed day bed with
with a bookshelf.
Not sure what I'll do right now
but at the moment it definitely works for me.
When I was about 14 that's
when I discovered the tiny home movement on YouTube and social media
and I was definitely hooked from the beginning
and it also evolved to me discovering van life
and just people who travel full time and live minimally.
When I was I believe 16 or 17 I decided that a tiny home was
too big for me and I wanted something that could travel easier
so I started looking at vans and I
was on Craigslist
and Facebook marketplace trying to find a van that was in my budget.
I bought the van with essentially all the money that I had.
It was actually the first car that I
ever owned and my mom
and I did the conversion ourselves the summer before my senior year of
high school and after graduating I took a solo cross-country road trip
and I was able to have
some adventure and obviously living minimally on the way.
After traveling off and on,
kind of having that lifestyle part-time,
I was kind of outgrowing the space.
And I decided that I wanted to take the plunge
and commit to owning my own tiny home.
I was around the age of 20 when I got on the wait list
with a custom builder here in North Carolina.
And it was almost a scary decision, but,
In a way it was easy because it's something I always knew I wanted.
I paid my deposit, signed my contract,
and after a year of waiting I had a design and
a build process that was about six months
and it cost me in total a hundred thousand dollars.
And I rent a lot in a community that sits on a 30-acre nature preserve
and I pay $650 a month.
I discovered the tiny home community
that I'm currently in through word of mouth and I came
several times for tours to check out the area
and meet the existing community members
and it's some place that I saw myself
and I've been here for about two years
and truly can't imagine my life any other way.
It feels super right in the
moment and it's really nice knowing
that I'm living the life that I always wanted to.
With a lot rent of $650 a month and some bills in addition to that,
like electric, Wi-Fi, etc.,
I am still looking at the same monthly expenses as someone else my age
who is maybe living
in an apartment with roommates or something like that,
which means for the same amount of money,
I am able to pursue a lifestyle that really resonates with me.
I would say that if you're getting started
on your tiny home design journey,
you really know your wants and needs better than anyone else.
It almost doesn't matter what
everyone else does and what is popular
because your home could look entirely different from
someone else's. And that's what makes a custom home
so special is that they are unique.
So just because something's popular,
you don't need people to talk you into having
this appliance rather than that one.
You know your needs better than anyone.
So for me, bathroom storage
was even more important than kitchen storage,
just because I have a lot of stuff to keep over here.
So for the bathroom vanity area,
I wanted to make sure that all of my everyday products
were accessible and within reach,
because if I don't see them, they don't exist.
And there's a lot of stuff I grab on a daily basis.
In addition to the shelves,
I added a mirror medicine cabinet that just gives me some extra
storage. You definitely need some creative solutions like
that living in a tiny home.
And my hot water heater is actually located under the sink
behind all of Roxy's dog towels.
It is only six gallons.
Honestly, I know what you're thinking
with a six gallon tank water heater.
It is pretty small.
It gets the job done, but if I could upgrade it, I would.
In addition to maybe getting myself a dishwasher,
just having more of those luxuries in a tiny area,
it does make living here a little easier
and just more comfortable.
But believe me I've been in this house for almost two years
and I can say that it's enough for me.
Over here I have a combo washer dryer.
So it's two-in-one and also the drum is pretty
small which means you would rather
do a few small laundry loads throughout the week.
rather than a big laundry day.
I wanted a combo unit so I could save space up top and have a linen
closet. If it wasn't for this thing,
I don't know where I would keep all of my extra towels
and bed sheets and all the toiletry products that I hoard,
so that's why I have this.
I opted to have a very small shower in my tiny home.
I didn't want to dedicate the space to a tub
or even a large shower.
I just knew that I needed enough space to get the job done.
So that's what we have here.
In addition to shower storage, I only needed a little shelf to put,
you know, a few bottles of what I use.
Having this small shower in addition to my
smaller toilet, it means I'm able to really make
the most out of my tiny bathroom area.
My toilet, it's a macerating toilet,
which I had never heard of one until I had one in my own house.
It works similar to a garbage disposal,
and the appeal is that it's tankless,
which means when you press the button to flush,
water comes in through a hose,
and it goes out the back.
Because it's tankless, it saves a bit of space.
I've had a fairly good experience with it.
You know, daily use, it's fine, but
A non-traditional toilet means it has
non-traditional problems so you know
troubleshooting something like
that a normal plumber sometimes can't help you but I think
because I want to save space
in this area it's definitely the best decision for me.
I think overall I'm very happy with my bathroom layout
and I think it's a really efficient use
of the space that I have but if I were to redo my tiny home
or live in a new one one day
I probably would dedicate a bit more space to the bathroom just
because it's a place I spend a lot
of time in you know with my getting ready routine
that I probably would want more area to get that
done and also have enough room
for you know traditional appliances like toilets. So right
So right up the stairs, I have my loft.
I don't have much up here
because I really just use this area for sleeping
and I have enough room for my queen-size mattress
in addition to area on the end and the side.
Another thing I knew I didn't want in my tiny home was a ladder.
It's not for me. I couldn't
see myself using a ladder every day to get up and down from my loft,
so I did opt for a staircase
up to the loft. But I will say being in a tiny home it's
not your average staircase and you do
You do still have to...
Literally crawl out of bed,
go down the stairs in the middle of the night when you have to
go to the restroom.
So I understand that it's not the easiest thing to live with.
I do think a staircase,
it makes living here far more comfortable compared to a ladder.
But I do recognize that sleeping up here
every night probably isn't for everyone.
For my current tiny home layout,
I knew that I wanted my bed up in the loft and out of the way.
But in the future, if I had the ability,
I would probably have a bedroom on the main
floor so I wouldn't have to deal with climbing up the stairs every day.
It was no question in my mind
that I would enjoy living in this tiny home,
especially since I custom built it to my needs.
But something I didn't exactly anticipate was
how much value I would receive from living in a tiny home community.
And I'm surrounded by like-minded individuals that
Prioritize intentional living.
And it's a really supportive place to live,
especially at my age when it's common for my peers
to not know the names of their neighbors.
But for me, I know the names of their pets and everything.
We are really close.
And I think this community is really important to me.
And my tiny home experience wouldn't be complete
without Cranemore Meadows.
Thanks for watching, and if you want
to keep updated with my tiny home journey
or any of my adventures,
I'm exploring with Drew on TikTok and Instagram.
