Family Tiny House Design

crib bunk

I got an email the other day from a reader named Whitfield. Whitfield has two children, aged 3 months and 1 1/2 years, and was wondering how might a family of four with two young children find a way to live in a tiny house. Here’s part of what Whitfield asked:

“Most tiny home designs I’ve seen do not incorporate a whole lot of space for washers and dryers, and I NEVER see any with space for one crib, let alone two.  I was wondering if you knew of anyone else facing similar challenges, and how they’ve overcome them?”

The design challenge immediately grabbed my attention and I turned to my book thinking I’d already drawn a floor plan that might work – and found nothing. So I got to drawing.

Cribs are about 30″ x 60″ so I first placed two rectangles on the page and started playing with ideas and found that something new, a crib bunk, had to be drawn. A quick internet search proved that this is not a new idea at all, but that crib bunks are commercially available. Based on the basic required dimensions and safe slat spacing (less than 2 3/8″) I drew a sketch of built-in crib bunk. That’s the image at the top.

In one floor plan, the 24-foot house, you’ll see a separate room with two normal cribs. In the other two you’ll see the crib bunk placed in a space between the bathroom and main room. One of Whitfield’s other requirements was for a washer & dryer because they use cloth diapers, so you’ll also notice this in each design. I also wanted to be able to give the children a door so they could sleep for naps and earlier bed times.

Since space is tight I show two comfy chairs at the table for the parents since there are few opportunities for additional seating. You’ll also see two high chairs. These take up a bit of space so it seemed sensible to include them in the room. Ideally some kind of folding space-saving high chairs would be used, but I wanted to show that the bulkier ones could fit too.

Thanks again for the interesting challenge Whitfield – and good luck with you future project!

20-Foot Tiny House

24-Foot Tiny House

8x24 family

28-Foot Tiny House

8x28 family

 

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