Tiny House Floor Plans To Utilize All Your Space

With a little thoughtful planning, your tiny home floor plan can include everything you need for a functional space that fits your lifestyle.

Spoak

Tiny house living isn’t like moving into the forts we built as kids (although that does sound dreamy too). They are big statements in small packages. Tiny homes are about lifestyle choices, saving the environment, reducing clutter, and prioritizing what matters most.

Make no mistake: These petite spaces can be as luxe as 7,000-square-foot homes. From granite countertops to stunning backsplashes and hardwood floors — elevated home designs come in all shapes and sizes.

Aspiring tiny homeowners, we’re looking at you. If your home is an extension of who you are, then you’ll want to create a floor plan that has enough space for you to be “you.” With these small space tips and a helpful floor planner tool, you’ll be on your way to tiny home living in no time.

Tiny House Plans Around Your Life

When thinking about what makes a house a home, let’s do a little soul-searching and consider how you will use this space. Is the tiny home meant to be a vacation home or a guest house? Or is the plan to commit to full-time tiny living? Your home floor plans have to be flexible enough to fulfill that purpose.

Next, consider what features you love most about a space: simple minimalism, quality natural materials, airy surroundings, or cozy little details. Take a few weeks to note how you spend time in your home. The rooms you frequent most and what items you use daily will tell you what features need to be the focus of your new living space layout.

In tiny homes, every square foot matters; Floor plan designed in Spoak by Emily Perez.

Must-Have Appliances

If you want to make transitioning to a tiny home as painless as possible, start by planning around the kitchen. Kitchens are the hub of home activity, and a well-designed kitchen and dining area, even if small, can keep tiny living happy living.

Prepare yourself for one of the hardest decisions of your future tiny home life: Which appliances will be full-sized? Remember that space is limited, so choose the ones that you use daily. If a two-burner stove works just as well for you, skip that four-burner and spring for a dishwasher instead. If you don’t mind hand-washing dishes but require a soak in a real bathtub to feel human, lose the dishwasher and carve space in your layout for a tub. Spoak’s floor planner tool will help you find the best fit.

Don’t forget that some appliances work as well when on the small side. Washing machine/dryer combo units are a major space saver but still do the same job as their larger counterparts. The same goes for tankless water heaters.

Utility Space Savers

If you know what appliances and bathroom fixtures you want, it’s easier to configure your small home layout around plumbing and wiring. Choosing one manifold wall for kitchen and bath plumbing will save time and space. Remember that your kitchen, bathroom, and washing machine may need to be close to each other.

No one thinks about outlets until they need one and can’t find them. Realistically, consider how many electrical outlets you need and where they should be during the design phase.

Using electric or gas baseboard heaters requires much less space than, say, a wood burning stove. But if you plan for this to be your mini log cabin in the woods, you’ll probably want that storybook wood stove, so build it into your layout.

Multi-Level Living

Striking Roofline

The roofline is the most striking feature of your tiny home-to-be. Just as an a-frame or timber frame cabin evokes the perfect getaway, vaulted ceilings can make your small space feel much larger, inside and out.

Sleeping Loft

Can you retain the spacious feel of your open floor plan if you whittle out some of the overhead space for a loft bed or extra storage? A loft bed will free up your square footage and help keep your ground floor visually uncluttered. It might also provide a true primary bedroom feel, whereas a bed on the ground floor could feel cramped.

Yes, the staircase takes up some room, but it can double as a bookshelf or container with cubbies beneath each step for decorative storage. You could also install pull-out drawers in the stair risers for minimalist hidden storage that blends seamlessly with your woodwork.

Raised Living Areas

Even without an actual loft space, raising the living area a few inches can distinguish the space for a specific purpose while creating some sneaky pantries or caches below. For example, the raised kitchen floor may be partially hiding plumbing but can also accommodate toe-kick drawers that slide under the length of the food prep area for storing out-of-season items.

A cushioned banquette beneath a window may house drawers for extra blankets or games. An interesting take on this tiny home plan is to hide your bed beneath your raised living area in the slide-out drawer during the day, then slide it out at bedtime — no bed-making necessary.

Clever Storage

Hidden Compartments

Any unused square inch of space can be put to work as crafty storage.

Have a narrow gap between an appliance and a cabinet? Use it for a pull-out spice rack.
No space to hang pots and pans overhead? Install a pull-out pot organizer drawer.
Need more food prep space? Place a custom cutting board over the sink or stovetop for a seamless work surface.
Want in-kitchen dining? A drop-leaf or slide-out bar top that extends from under the kitchen counter lets it double as a dining table.

Vertical Storage

The concept of no wasted space works for vertical storage too.

Have space between the walls of two rooms? You can tuck a recessed medicine cabinet inside.
Need a work desk that is also decorative? Create a beautiful wood panel that drops down to form an instant office space.
Short on enclosed pantry space? Floating wall shelves with jar lids glued to the bottom are a clever way to store pantry items. (Simply unscrew the jar from the fixed lid to use them.)
Have ever-changing needs in your workspace? An old-fashioned pegboard is a handy addition, with moveable shelves that can be reconfigured with your changing needs.
Need a pint-sized method of managing clothing care? A fold-down ironing board with a swivel mechanism, stored on the wall near the washer and dryer, makes an excellent mini utility room.

Modular Furniture

Furniture pieces that are movable or have more than one purpose work wonders in a tiny house. Sofa beds or Murphy bed combos that range from twin to king-size can be super practical yet high-quality pieces.

A coffee table that raises to dining height, with pull-out side extensions that instantly turn your scaled-down living room into a dining room, would make for a smart investment. It’s a smart way to entertain without having to navigate around a big dining table on the regular.

Indoor / Outdoor Living

Be honest; when you first considered tiny home living, you thought of seamless indoor / outdoor living with gorgeous 360-degree mountain views. We all do it.

Even if you don’t have the mountains, all the extra light from multiple windows will make your tiny home build feel expansive. Definitely budget for multiple windows or, even better, consider sliding glass doors that will bring the outside in.

If you’re in a warmer climate, add a small covered front porch or an awning for a rear porch into your layout. It only has to have room enough for two to sit in the shade with a glass of iced tea.

A Leaner Dream Home

Whether your tiny home is meant to be your starter home or your empty nester dream home, you can sift through your modern lifestyle and come up with a leaner yet functional floor plan for your life.

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^{Photo Credit:}^{(Left) This NZ Life}

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^Sources:

^{The Psychology of Home | The Atlantic}

^{21 photos that show the ingenious hacks tiny-house owners use for storing their belongings | Insider}

^{Living in a Tiny Home: Benefits & Drawbacks | ABC News}^‍

Sign up for Spoak’s interior design suite to take the tiny house movement and make it your own.

Date Posted

January 29, 2023

Tagged

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Thingology

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Tiny House Floor Plans To Utilize All Your Space

Tiny House Plans Around Your Life

Must-Have Appliances

Utility Space Savers

Multi-Level Living

Striking Roofline

Sleeping Loft

Raised Living Areas

Clever Storage

Hidden Compartments

Vertical Storage

Modular Furniture

Indoor / Outdoor Living

A Leaner Dream Home

Sign up for Spoak’s interior design suite to take the tiny house movement and make it your own.

's

Thingology

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