Open Concept Tiny Home: She Put the Living Room in the Middle
Helen had been interested in tiny homes for years, but she took her time before making the move. After two years of seriously looking, she found a 399-square-foot home with the open layout she wanted and made the move to North Carolina.
"I like the openness of it."
Six years later, Helen is still enjoying the simplicity of tiny living. Her home takes about an hour to clean, and she's found something else she was missing in her previous condo: a sense of community.
At a glance
Size: 399 square feet, 13 by 43 including the porch
Porch: 13 by 10, screened
Bought: 2020, as a resale, no loan
Paid: $77,500
Lot rent: in the $500s then, close to $800 now
Loft: yes, and she would skip it
What an Open Concept Tiny Home Actually Looks Like
Helen describes her home as basically two rooms. That is less limiting than it sounds, because none of the divisions are fixed.
"You got basically two rooms, but you could section it off any way you wanted to and it's got your high ceilings and it just fits."
There is no island anchoring the middle and no breakfast bar splitting the room in half. Where the kitchen stops and the living room begins was a line she got to draw herself. Most people would draw it by pushing the furniture against the longest wall, but Helen worked out that this would block every window on that side. She would have spent six years looking at a wall. So the living room went in the middle of the home, facing out, which gives her the window and keeps the kitchen out of view from her chair.
The layout also left her plenty of wall space, which she has filled with things she wants to look at every day. Her favorite piece was a gift. It is a cabinet she had to find exactly the right spot for, and it holds her craft supplies and the television she almost never turns on. Piper, her dog, has claimed the chair beside it.
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The Kitchen She Wanted to Be Small
Helen is not a cook and has never pretended otherwise. She has a sign saying she only has a kitchen because it came with the house. When friends invite her out she brings the leftovers home, and one dinner becomes a breakfast and then a lunch.
"You can see it's not a large kitchen and I love it because it isn't."
The kitchen runs along one side with nothing interrupting it in the middle, which is exactly what she wanted. The smooth top stove is mostly a surface to put things on. The full size microwave does the actual work. There is a large sink with a sprayer, a granite counter with a wavy edge she chose for the way it sits against the wood, a side by side refrigerator, and a dishwasher that came with the house because she bought it as a resale. The one window on that side looks straight into the trees.
"I can see the trees and see the birds flying and landing on the limbs."
A pantry she cheerfully calls a junk closet takes the trash can, coats, supplies and a step ladder. Nothing is cluttered. She puts that down to planning the move to what she calls the nth degree, and arriving already knowing where everything would go.
What a Walker Taught Her About the Layout
A few years in, Helen broke her femur. She spent six to eight months on a walker inside 399 square feet, which tested choices she had made for entirely different reasons.
Most of them held up. The bathroom opens off the bedroom rather than off a hallway, which she had liked because it feels like a suite. On a walker it meant one less doorway to negotiate. Both doors are pocket doors, so nothing swung into the space she needed to stand in, and there is enough clear floor that she could come in one way, turn around and go back out the other. She points out that this is unusual in a tiny home, where the bathroom is normally off a hallway. The shower was the exception.
"This is a prefab shower. It has its advantages, but it has its disadvantages."
The problem is seating. A prefab unit with a glass door leaves room for a small seat at best, and anything larger puts the door in the way. She already had a grab handle, so getting in felt safe. Sitting down was not something the design had accounted for.
She also swapped her queen bed for a full. The queen had left too little room to get around without catching the wall. Her church built the ramp outside, which she says is the only one in the community built to code.
The One Thing She Would Not Build Again
After six years of living in her tiny home, Helen says there is one feature she would probably skip if she were choosing again: the loft.
"I probably would not do the loft."
A sliding ladder provides access and can be moved out of the way when it's not needed. Helen mainly uses the loft to store seasonal decorations and luggage, but she needs help getting those items down.
Looking back, she thinks she could have found storage for those things elsewhere and used the space to make her bedroom feel more open.
The Porch Is a Room
The screened porch is 13 feet by 10, and Helen treats it as part of the house rather than as outdoor space. She put waterproof curtains up almost immediately. In wind, rain or snow she pulls them across and nothing gets in, and she can open some and close others depending on how much privacy she wants. The stackable washer and dryer live out here too, which keeps the noise and the dryer heat out of the main house and means the laundry is not taking up a hallway.
She treated herself to a chair when she moved in. There is a seasonal bunny ornament called Lettuce. She and Piper spend most of their time out here, and she has had tea parties on the porch and eats most of her meals there.
What It Cost, and What It Costs Now
Helen paid $77,500 for the home in 2020, buying it as a resale with no loan at all. Her lot rent was in the $500s then and is close to $800 now.
She is not bothered by the increase, partly because she has a comparison most people do not. Her last HOA ran about $350 a month for a similar set of services. For her $800 she gets the lawn maintained, trash collected twice a week, a clubhouse, two pools and courts.
"They do great with the amenities and keeping it very pristine. It's worth the money."
Heating and cooling are cheap, the house takes about an hour to clean, and her expenses went down when she moved and have stayed down.
The Part She Did Not Plan For
Helen bought the house for the space and for what it cost. What she talks about now is the people. She had been driving an hour each way to work, six days a week, and says you do not get much sense of community that way, even living in a condominium.
"You felt like you almost had instant neighbors because everybody wanted to know, well, who are you? And I would say, well, who are you?"
When she fell in the driveway she was screaming, because it hurt. People appeared faster than she expected. They called 911, held her hand and stayed with her, and that is what she puts first when she is asked why tiny living works for her.
It has also pushed her outward rather than inward. Since moving she volunteers at her church and visits people in medical centers. She was doing neither when the commute was taking three hours out of her day.
"I just have a good fulfilling life here. It makes you feel useful."
Her advice to anyone circling this is about timing rather than houses.
"If you want to downsize, the longer you wait, the older you get, the harder it is to make the change, but once you make it, you'll be thrilled."
For another North Carolina answer to the same question, a widow in a Hendersonville community built a fresh start after two years alone in a 3,000 square foot rancher. If Helen's verdict on her loft interests you, five real layouts without one show what that looks like, and you can see what we have filmed in your state.
FAQ
What is an open concept tiny home?
Helen describes hers as basically two rooms you can divide however you want, with high ceilings and no fixed island or breakfast bar cutting the space in half. The advantage is that you choose where the boundaries fall. She used that freedom to put her living room in the middle of the home so that she is not looking at the kitchen from her chair.
Can you use a walker in a tiny home?
Helen did, for six to eight months after she broke her femur. What made it work was pocket doors rather than swinging ones, a bathroom with enough clear floor to turn around in, and the bathroom opening off the bedroom instead of off a hallway. She says the prefab shower was the weak point, because a glass door leaves no room for a proper seat.
Is a tiny home loft worth it?
Helen has one and says she would not do it again. She reaches it by a ladder on a rail and uses it for seasonal storage, which she thinks she could have tucked elsewhere. Losing the loft would also have left her bedroom more open, which she would have preferred.
How much does a 399 square foot tiny home cost?
Helen paid $77,500 for hers in 2020, bought as a resale, with no loan. Her lot rent was in the $500s then and is close to $800 now, which covers lawn maintenance, trash collection twice a week, a clubhouse, two pools and courts.
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