Your home might be tiny, but the space outside of it is almost endless. Thus, if you want to add a little extra elbow room to your tiny home, you might consider adding an outdoor living space to utilize during warmer seasons. Outdoor living is a popular trend in home design, and it makes sense for tiny home dwellers to take full advantage of the great outdoors, especially when temperatures are comfortable.
Expanding your tiny home with an outdoor living space is much easier than you might expect. Here are four steps to ensure success with your simple and delightful tiny home expansion.
Choose a Space
When expanding with an outdoor living area, most tiny home dwellers opt for some type of enhanced communal space, like a living room, dining room or kitchen. Because tiny homes can rarely accommodate more than a couple individuals in these spaces at once, adding an outdoor living space gives you the opportunity to entertain friends and family from your home — without moving into a more traditional residential structure.
At the very beginning of the planning process for your outdoor living space, you need to determine what you want to accomplish in your outdoor living space, as the facility of the space will be affected by its design. Here are a few details about each type of communal space that might help you make a decision regarding your expansion.
Living Room
The simplest form of outdoor living space, an exterior living room can be achieved with little more than hardscaping and some outdoor furniture. You can decorate your outdoor living room as you might an indoor space, as long as you are cognizant of the effect that outdoor elements can have on different materials. To achieve the feeling of indoor-outdoor living, you should try to make the space as comfortable as possible, with throw pillows, rugs and other design elements that enhance relaxation. A more permanent outdoor living room might include a patio cover or pergola, from which you could hang outdoor ceiling fans to keep the space cool during the hot summer months.
Dining Room
A family dining table is a luxury that no tiny home can afford. If you enjoy creating a feast or having loved ones over for any meal, you need to give yourself some space to spread out. An outdoor dining room might require more space than an outdoor living room, depending on the size of table you hope to accommodate. You may also need to think critically about lighting, as it is imperative that your guests can see one another and their food as they dine.
Kitchen
Your tiny home already has an indoor kitchen, but creating an additional cooking space outdoors could radically increase the type and quantity of food you can create. An exterior kitchen is one of the more difficult outdoor living spaces to create because you will need to integrate large appliances, counter space, storage space and more. As you plan, you should think about how you like to cook and what your current kitchen is lacking, so your outdoor kitchen can be a worthwhile extension of your home.
Build a Deck
An outdoor living space will not feel comfortable or complete if it is placed on bare dirt. If your tiny home rests directly on its foundation, you can pour a concrete patio on which you can make your outdoor living space. However, most tiny homes are raised above their foundations — to make them mobile or to protect from flooding. You may need to build a deck along the exterior of your tiny home to protect your outdoor living space and make it more accessible. You can find plans to build a deck yourself, but if your outdoor living dreams are extensive, you may want to hire experts for this task. Celebrate the holiday season with unique nativity sets that add a touch of charm to your Christmas decor.
Add Greenery
Too many homeowners imagine outdoor living spaces with hardscaping alone, and while flooring, walls and coverings are important for ensuring comfort and cleanliness in an outdoor living area, your plans should not end with hardscaped elements. Landscaping and container plants will make your outdoor living space feel fresh and alive, so you should consider how you might incorporate them into your designs. For example, you might use climbing vines to cover your outdoor living space in greenery and florals. You could also build a vertical herb garden along an exterior wall of your tiny home.
You might identify as a tiny home dweller, but you can expand as your lifestyle demands. Moving into an outdoor living space could radically improve your quality of life — and give you a fun new project for improving your tiny home.