When this teenager needed to get out of the house, Molecule Tiny Homes came to the rescue to help the family build this 6×10 treehouse-inspired tiny home that’s 16′ tall!
Best of all, it was built using mostly scrap materials and reclaimed lumber. Even better, it only took them a week to finish it! Talk about professionals…
If you’re interested in something like this (NOT on wheels) it’s possible for Molecule to design and build a similar unit for you and it can be transported on its side to your location. Pretty cool, right?
How would you like to have this tiny little escape in your backyard? I’d rent my house out and move in the backyard to live rent-free while someone else helps pay the mortgage! How about you? Either way- please enjoy and re-share this one with your tiny house friends below. Thanks!
6×10 Treehouse Inspired Tiny Home Built w/ Scrap Materials
Images © Molecule Tiny Homes
Images © Molecule Tiny Homes
Video: Treehouse Inspired 6×10 Scrap Tiny House
Learn more: http://moleculetinyhomes.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrap-wood-tree-house-extra-tiny-6x10x.html
You can share this treehouse-inspired Molecule micro home with your friends and family for free using the e-mail and social media re-share buttons below. Thanks.
If you enjoyed this treehouse-inspired micro house you’ll absolutely LOVE our Free Daily Tiny House Newsletter with even more! Thank you!
Alex
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1) VERY good video! Thank you for not blathering on and on and on and on about nonsense or featuring door knobs or pots of daisies. *clap-clap*
2) I appreciate the acknowledgement that this structure is “extreme.” How small can you go?, asks the person narrating the video. Well, I guess if you call a blanket wrapped around you, THAT would be as “small” as a shelter could go. LOL
3) So…I’m a tad confuzzled. Is the “porthole” in the ceiling supposed to facilitate access to the second floor? Sorry, but you’d need to be a bloody contortionist or gymnast to negotiate those angles and shallow depth. Or a tiny person…I think THEY could make it through the porthole. 😉
4) Execution is fantastic! Creative, wonderful, as a Hidey-Hole for a teenager, I’m sure he’s chuffed. And a flush toilet…hooray for modern plumbing.
100% positive comments on my part with a ? thrown in about the porthole.
I rather enjoy artistic touches and getting a feel of the space and beauty. I enjoy hearing how the people feel living in a tiny home and appreciate the fact that they took their time to share their journey. Life is a journey it’s not all about the destination. I have things I could share but I don’t do it because I fear the mean people out there that would pick it apart. Critical people are depressed people. Thank you to those who share I appreciate all of you very much.
yes, extremely small, ingenious designing. an escape not year round living but a godsend when offspring enter puberty…
I’m with you on the access to the 2nd floor. Brings to mind several of the bad dreams about stairways that I have on occasion. There’s always a section missing or, like this, nigh on impossible to navigate. The rest is cool. What was used for the shower basin?
Yes indeed Lisa! Glad to know I’m not the only one who thought of nightmares about trying to get through tiny ‘doorways’.
Maybe they got around the codes due to a “pre-existing” structure? That’s the simplest way.
Even so, I don’t think living in it and renting out the primary house would work as the house you’re living in would have to qualify as a “dwelling” and those require some minimum footprint – the qualifying size depends on the city. In a rural area, maybe – – –
I’ve been looking into exactly that setup, myself: live tiny out back and rent space in the primary. But the only way I’ve figured out is to rent art studio space – not living space. The city doesn’t have to know that the art studios are in the front house and the living space is in the building I told them, when I permitted it, was to be an “art studio.”
I’m hoping I can pull it off but it’s somewhat of a long shot. Does anyone have any advice as to how to manage it? In a city?
Hi, Two Crows. The video states that there “…used to be a garden shed where the bottom floor is now located.”
You wrote: “I’m hoping I can pull it off but it’s somewhat of a long shot. Does anyone have any advice as to how to manage it? In a city?”
You must be VERY cautious about living in a structure that’s not deemed a permanent residence, both in the city and the country! Sadly, I know of what I speak.
Case #1: A husband and wife next to us, in the woods of Michigan were divorcing but had no money to live apart. HE took the house and SHE moved into the garden shed. They lived happily like this for quite a while until an Electric Company person who stopped by to read the meter saw the illegal electric lines run out to the shed and reported them. Bottom line: a county inspector stopped by, examined it and forbid them from using it as a permanent structure. She was forced to move to another state and live with relatives.
Case #2: A client of mine had another story put onto his garage with an interior staircase and a small kitchen and loo. Again, everything was going fine until a neighbor who was on their second floor deck kept seeing my client LIVING full-time in his “drafting studio” and called the City on him. They came, inspected it and forced him to remove the entire bathroom features; he could keep the kitchenette. Again, they said it wasn’t “Coded for permanent living”.
You can try and get away with it for an unknown amount of time but I’d sure hate to be living with my breath held, waiting for someone to “catch me.” 🙁
As an architect, I have literally lost count of the amount of times that we’ve had someone anonymous call a city inspector over to one of our projects to make sure that we’ve got the right permits pulled. Maybe that person calling was pissed off royally because one of our trucks blocked the alley one.too.many.times. Or, perhaps the person is jealous. Or, just a plain malcontent.
It only takes ONE comment to the right department to shut you down and I’ve had plenty of those to deal with in my line of work.
Beware the bad tempered curtain twitcher! Surely a bird of ill omen!
alice h: Indeed! That statement needs to be applied to a t-shirt! LOL
I sure would like to go to your scrap pile-!! looks like lots of new wood to me LOL
This place is AWESOME. It has a TOILET!!! Why can’t everyone have toilets? This would be too small for me but as a single person, or for kids, it’s super. The best part was that the video was clear, the lighting was very good, and there wasn’t incessant conversation.
I imagine that little porthole access comes in handy during rains or cold weather. It wouldn’t work with my bad knees, but for a teenager I can’t see why not.
Excellent presentation…..to the point……straight forward and honest .not some pseudo decorator trying g to prove how creative she/he is!
Another one I don’t dare show my granddaughter. There would be instant clamouring for something just like it. Really nicely done.
It’s really cool, but isn’t a treehouse supposed to be up a tree?
Eric ,
Treehouse “inspired” design. 6×10 by 16 feet tall
Yeah, I caught that on my third reading…..
I liked seeing this, reminds me of high school days, when parents rented a similar one bdrm with small liv. space, I loved it!! As a teen that is.
I have two questions, how would anyone manage to get from one small loft he said, to the top floor in the middle of winter? Go outside and use stairs, so why the port hole? For fun in the night stepping on the guy on the little loft who may fall off,, needs a rail?
And question two, where do you wash hands from toilet use? Kitchen- ? Thanks for sharing, brings back memories. Nice Job w/ small spaces.
Jan Jones wrote, regarding the porthole in the floor: “For fun in the night stepping on the guy on the little loft who may fall off…?”
Oh dear, Jan. Did you bring up some memories of how my brother and I would terrorize each other when we were very young. Yikes!, I had successfully suppressed them ALL until I read your comment and then they all came flooding back to me. :0 Yes, I could easily see the Bottom Bunker have water/spit/body fluids drizzled upon them as they slumbered! Or, small bits of food, marbles or what not dropped upon them, only to be discovered when they awaken, covered in bread crumbs! Thank God that both my brother and I survived our silliness, forgave our trespasses upon each other and are now grand friends. 😀
I realize that the people who had this built for them are chuffed with the end result. If I were to have this built, how I would alter it is such:
1) If it was critical to have that porthole, then DITCH the silly railings and instead have an industrial-strength hinged Trap Door, instead. That way, if you really need to get from the lower level to the upper level via the door, you can easily flip the door ^UP^ and crawl into the upper level. This allows total square foot usage upstairs when the hole isn’t needed.
2) If this treehouse is used for any long term living vs. a sleep over once in a while, I would have installed floor to ceiling shelving on the back side of the hole, with a magnetic clip on the trap door and shelving unit so it “locks” in place when it’s pushed up. With the shelving, it can hold bedding, towels, clothing, books, stereo system and a fold-down desk that, again, can be closed up with a strong magnet. A nice folding chair with allotted storage space in the unit would help with the desk and when not needed, be tucked away.
3) I don’t know how many people who posted comments watched the video but rather than the nice open space upstairs shown in the photos, they ended up building a rather large, HIGH, and cumbersome bed platform that sucks the very space out of that tiny room! WHY?????
If you HAD to build a sleeping platform, than have it go width-wise across the entire room and then build in storage drawers directly under the bed for more clothing options.
Of, if you’re a minimalist, couldn’t a Japanese Sleeping System where they daily roll up their sleeping mattress suffice? If this was the case, then the aforementioned shelving unit that I suggested could contain the rolled up mattress on the very bottom of the shelving unit.
I love the execution and planning of the entire downstairs but now that I’ve had a day to think about it, it seems that the upstairs got short shrift. Poor Treehouse. 🙁
Love This!!! Very good video, too.
The perfect answer for a teenager who needs space . . .line ’em up for a family of several! The Northwest states allow secondary structures in many areas, so we can hope that tolerance will expand and spread. In the meantime, MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS SO THEY DON’T RAT ON YOU! (Underground utilities help, too, and blackout curtains . . .)
I agree that concise, succinct tours tell us all we need to know; please don’t muddle our heads and (yawn!) bore us with your decorating skills.
I’ve looked at a lot of tiny homes and find this to be the best use of space and design. I couldn’t do the porthole or ladder, but yea for the stairs. Kudos and a job well done!
I loved it, that is not to say things could be not changed . . not all tastes are the same. the whole time I was thinking as I watched the video was “it sure beats living in a cardboard box”. How many people living on the street would love to have a mansion such as this. No politics intended if I was living off the grid I could make due with this. As a builder I will say those outside stairs scare me, not that they’re terrible now, but they look like a accident in the future as the tread supports age. All in all, high marks for design.
I wonder if the porthole is to allow heat transfer and give moisture a place to escape? It almost seems like some space could have been saved by putting the porthole UNDER the bed with a railing to keep things from falling downstairs, if it is necessary to even have one. The reused play house structure explains how everything including tiling and plumbing was completed in a weekend, but very lovely project. Thanks for sharing.
I would love to visit that scrap pile!!!!
Wow!!!
What a cool little space! I wish I’d had the foresight to do something like this when I was a kid. Great job to all involved!
Ah, Dean. We’re ALL “still kids”, at heart! Visit a scrap-pile and live your dream…build one of these for yourself to enjoy.
Life’s Not Over Until You’re Horizontal With the Sod!
LOL! My point is, these days, I know better. I’d do it a “shade” differently, but for a young guy lookin’ to make his way in the world, this is one heck of a way to make a first impression. Cool little party pad. =)
Haaa. Funny comments. 🙂 I’d install a firemen’s pole in the middle of that porthole from the ground to the ceiling of the top floor. Also useful for passing munchies between the top and bottom floor. 🙂
I love this teensey little house! The video was great but I really don’t mind it when people ramble on about their decorating and stuff! I think they are just proud and happy to show it all off and share. Great job on everything! Even the ridonkulous little pass through hole that only a 6 year old can fit through! 🙂 Love it all!
Pretty awesome! Love it just as it is!
Title :WOOM SERVICE. I once lived in such a tiny space named
THE DEFICIENCY
These places have many uses, imagine one of these stormy nights when your spouse is sputtering molten lava, instead of being exiled to sleeping on the couch with the dog, you enter your regal room at the top, aided by a cool can of beer to soothe your mottled frayed nerves, you lie on your cot gazing at the stars , to coolly try to answer the
archaic question:”WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG???”
Oh, Gail, I laughed ’til I cried at your comment! When we have a house full (3 children that live here plus visitors) my usual ‘snore retreat’, the very comfy sofa bed downstairs, next to the dog’s crate, is taken and my ‘retreat’ is a camping mattress in the walk in wardrobe!!!! It’s a tiny walk in wardrobe, with just enough room for the mattress and myself wrapped in a duvet,but at least I get to sleep! The tree house is a lot bigger, though I would find the ladder access tricky. The living room sofa is no longer an option, due to slippery leather sofas and a hyperactive hamster!!
Actually, the degree of comfort I now experience in the walk in wardrobe has helped me realise I could live very tiny….at a pinch I could have a toilet, sink and mini kitchen in that space :). But there would only be room for me!!! Then I finally fall asleep!