Could you live in a 210-square-foot room with everything you own and still live to blog about it?
Being New Yorkers, we have found that yes, it’s possible … but it’s not always fun.
There are a host of problems associated with inhabiting small spaces, from not being able to host a party of more than three people to your knees touching the door when you’re on the john. Those are just the realities of living in a small space.
Or are they?
Tiny House developers Minim Homes have figured out how to address at least some of these inconveniences. A (relatively) spacious living room fits an eight-foot couch/guest bed and the room is filled with windows that light the whole house.
Then there’s our favorite part: the 100” projector screen that pulls down to create a home-theater feel and can double as a shade when not in use. Nothing micro about that.
Elsewhere: the bed isn’t lofted, so you can actually sit up without hitting your head, and it rolls under a platform to save space during the day. There’s also a five-foot closet, so you don’t need to pare down to three outfits and one pair of shoes.
That said, the bathroom is somewhat — shall we say — European. That is to say, it’s common in many Euro cities to see bathrooms where you shower next to the sink and/or toilet, and squeegee down the walls and floor into a central drain. It’s called a “wet bath arrangement” and it seems weird to Americans, but it’s not that bad, and actually makes cleaning super easy (source: lived abroad in multiple dwellings with such setups).
Will a tiny house ever completely eradicate the claustrophobic feeling of being a bull in a china shop? Debatable. But Minim comes damn close (and we’ve seen a lot).
You can buy the plans for the Minim House for under $500, or commission the company to build one for you.
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