New Photos

These past couple of months I’ve been having a ton of fun designing and building furniture for the Tiny house . I have made a desk, which opens to become a table, A bench with built in clothing storage underneath, another bench with shoe storage underneath, a drain board which doubles as dish storage, cabinets, a cooking stove hood for ventilation, and a variety of shelving.

Creating the opportunity and time to build these details has not always been easy. It has delayed my moving in further, and is accompanied with a certain feeling of restlessness. None the less, I took the time. If I had no place to live during this very mild NY. winter, I would have made due with less and moved in earlier. I consider myself lucky to have had this time. 

The benefits of building furniture are also quite clear. On the one hand, designing and building furniture is tremendously satisfying for me. Further, the results are better suited to the tiny house, compared to what one can usually find on the market. I was able to think through each component, and build to maximize usefulness and space efficiency. Each piece of furniture has at least two or three practical uses, and carefully sized so as to leave as much open space in the center of the main room as possible. I will speak in a bit more detail below each photo.  

Bench, 18" tall 15" deep. Shelves run on wooden rails with no hardware. Bench provides seating for 2 when the table is open, as shown above. Table leaf can fold down to access draws or open up the floor. (for those large dance parties...) The removable third leg is connected with 1/4 inch wooden dowels that are glued to the leg and slip into and out of holes on the bottom of the table. The table is curly maple, beautiful, but challenging to work with, as the grain is unpredictable. I friend with a joiner helped me connect and glue the top of the table.

Here i am standing on the bench of the previous photo, and shooting back to the rest of the house. Above right is the closet with swinging shelving to maximize space. The closet space, determined to some degree by the width of the bathroom was deeper than necessary. The hinged shelving was an elegant solution. The Kitchen, above left, is almost complete. I will post some photos of the cabinets soon.

Some computer work at the table. The computer shelf is also visible directly to the left and below the computer. That is where the computer will live, protected, and hidden from view.

Tapering shelves to the side of the cooking stove. Used a branch to add an organic detail. The insulation around my wheel wells is waiting for some spray foam, and then a wooden cover.

 

Wooden bench by door with a lower shelf for larger shoes and a smaller shelf above for indoor slippers. An adult mans shoe is often longer than the bench is wide. Thus, I store them on the diagonal so they don't stick out into the room.

Here is a detail of the dish drainer/storage. I like this method as it requires less moving around of dishes. Dished are washed, placed on the shelf to dry, and there it stays until it is needed again. The silverware rack to the right is similarly for storage. I can place larger serving utensils up top and knives and forks in the slots below. This will free up valuable counter and drawer space elsewhere. I drilled small cherry slats and slipped dowels through to connect them. I drilled small holes vertically and slipped in copper wire (actually 7ply copper grounding wire available in all hardware stores. Just untwist them for the individual pieces).  It remains to be seen how well this holds up to rot and mildew. I will keep you posted. I will add a small copper plate below this unit to direct the dripping water into the sink.