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Alan Reid’s 8×12 Tiny House Design


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Alan Reid has designed a 8×12 tiny house as part of our 2015 8×12 tiny house design contest. He calls this design The Lookout.

The total height of this tiny house without foundation is 13 ft. Alan said with some height modifications this could be built on a trailer but as pictured below it’s on a foundation.

He has spent some time creating these beautiful pictures below of the exterior and interior of his design.

In his design there is a desk area, kitchen and bathroom on the bottom level and a sleeping loft above.

Enjoy the pictures below of 8×12 The Lookout Tiny House Design.

Alan Reid’s 8×12 Tiny House Design

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Images © Alan Reid

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Images © Alan Reid

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Andrea is a contributor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the Tiny House Newsletter! She has a passion for sharing tiny and small house stories and introducing you to new people, ideas, and homes.
{ 19 comments… add one }
  • Diana
    April 4, 2015, 4:20 pm

    Love it! Very well designed for such a small space.

  • Eric Mccollum
    April 4, 2015, 4:21 pm

    Can you tell me what program was used to draw this?

  • LaMar
    April 4, 2015, 4:41 pm

    I like it Alan! Good use of a small space. Just a suggestion for modification: I would make the window over the desk smaller and put a smaller closet where the filing cabinet is and more cabinets above the desk window. That would let you put in an Ikea Solsta couch bed in that area where the chair is so you have a couch and bed for guests. Just a thought.

  • Robert
    April 4, 2015, 5:53 pm

    I tend to agree with LaMar. I do really like this home.
    There’s prolly a dozen ways a buyer could customize to their
    particular likes. Thanks for sharing.

  • Dominick Bundy
    April 4, 2015, 8:10 pm

    Tiny as it might be.. I really do like this one a lot. It has everything one needs. good size closet, desk for workspace and eating. place to relax, bath room and adequate kitchen. Perfectly done and thought out. Bravo to it’s creator..

  • Gary Goldberg
    April 5, 2015, 4:40 am

    Amazing that Mr. Reid was able to fit everything important into the tiniest of spaces. Not sure where the mechanical spaces would go — I’d think this home would work well in a temperate climate where you don’t need A/C and have access to city water/sewer/electric (no batteries). But that’s just nit-picking. It would be interesting to see what this design would cost to implement. Awesome job!

  • Karl
    April 5, 2015, 9:32 am

    Nice design. Well thought out. Good lighting and ventilation.
    After some consideration I have decided that the additional labor and detail involved in reducing the width of the upper level is worth it to reduce the boxy and top heavy look of many tiny houses.

  • Sherry Hardick
    April 5, 2015, 3:11 pm

    I would prefer that the bathroom door didn’t open right into the kitchen. Maybe have it open on the other side.

    • Alan Reid
      April 6, 2015, 3:12 pm

      Hi Sherry, the door to the bathroom doesn’t swing either way, it is a pocket door that slides into the wall.

  • Alan Reid
    April 5, 2015, 3:38 pm

    Thank you for your comments! As for the mechanical spaces, if you build this house on a foundation, a small hot water tank could be placed in the crawl space or if built on a trailer, a tankless water heater (electric or gas) could be mounted underneath the sink. As for heating this house, a flush mount electric wall heater could be placed in a number of places which would be plenty of btu’s to heat the whole house. Also, one of those gas marine heaters would do the job also. It might not be pretty but an AC unit could be placed in any of the windows. It could be removed during cooler times of the year.

  • Marsha Cowan
    April 5, 2015, 4:23 pm

    What an ingenious way to do the loft! You get so much more lateral space, and all those windows, too, for great ventilation and view. I love it. Lots of living space, too, for tiny house, and the bathroom is great! Thanks for sharing this. I think we all have a few new notes to jot down in our tiny house notebooks!

  • Roger LaPointe
    April 6, 2015, 12:47 am

    I like the design a lot as well nice use of a really small foot print. I also would like to know what program was used to draw it.

  • Heide
    April 6, 2015, 10:07 am

    This is a nice design but I think it would work best in a very mild climate. 1. As a 55+, the ladder would be a problem. 2. Is there any access to the foundation space? This is valuable storage real estate. 3. Is the roof slope adequate for heavy snow load?
    Thank you for sharing your design.

    • Alan Reid
      April 6, 2015, 3:31 pm

      Hi Heide, this design is intended for all climates and would handle most snow loads. With a metal roof, once things heat up inside, the snow will usually slide off. The crawl space inside the foundation could be accessed either from outside or by putting a trapdoor in the floor. Since this contest has a size limit of only 8 x 12 feet, it doesn’t leave enough room for a stairway, so the ladder is the only way to go to get to the sleeping loft.

  • Margaret Hoskins
    April 6, 2015, 11:04 am

    I LOVE this!! I love how the kitchen counter extending to the desk area gives you more space depending on what you’re doing (ie cooking v. using the desk area). I love to quilt and this would be great for that. I could absolutely live in this house! Great, great job!!!

  • Lewis Bird
    April 7, 2015, 12:07 am

    I am a teacher at the local high school in my area and we build a tiny house each year. I think this is one of the best 8×12 floor plans I have ever seen. I think we will use a lot of your ideas for next years house. Thank you this will be fun

  • Vicki
    April 9, 2015, 1:41 am

    This is an exquisite example of tiny is not just “enough”, but more than enough. I definitely could picture living in this beauty!

    I am 58, and figure the ladder could help keep up my fitness level (1-6 miles of power walking every day).

    I can easily picture this in the Smokies, where I want to retire. I wish you would also consider exhibiting a tweaked version using the IKEA couch, as it sounds like it might be a good way to go.

    Thank you SO much for sharing!!

  • treehouse in paradise
    April 10, 2015, 2:38 am

    I agree about the couch. This is more or less and office layed out this way. Nice though. Well done.

  • April 11, 2015, 2:03 am

    Beautifully done!

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