Clever Tiny House for the couple features a long shower and light bedroom

A small life can mean different things to different people. For some, it’s about downsizing to something an “adequate size” after the kids are out. For others, tiny homes mean more financial freedom, while others are drawn to the extreme simplicity of tiny living.

For Leo and Shannon Honeywell, a married couple living in a tiny home community located in Asheville, North Carolina, living small means more space—and actual home ownership—than their former situation on a tight lease in Brooklyn. Their tiny home, nicknamed Apex, has been carefully designed to incorporate a number of clever features that make it one of the best tiny home designs we’ve seen to date. It includes an extra long shower and a great bedroom that you can stand in. We get a tour of this excellent tiny home via Tiny House Expedition:

The couple first became interested in tiny homes when they saw a TV show about them a few years ago. It was Shannon, in particular, who was pushed to move into one, when she realized it made more sense for them, compared to living in a less-than-ideal rent-controlled (but still expensive) apartment in the big city:

“The interesting thing is, the apartment we had in Brooklyn was a railroad-style apartment. So it was on the left side of the building, and it was almost exactly the same footprint as the house we’re in today. The house here is 40 feet by 10 feet, And our apartment in Bushwick was 10′ by 42, maybe 43 ft. But it’s really interesting because a lot of people ask us how much downsizing is for us. And for us, we didn’t downsize. It’s the exact same space, except it has all the things that it wasn’t. We have pre-worked – and we’ve acquired all the outside space.”

Working with tiny homebuilder Liberation Tiny Homes to realize their project, the couple put a lot of thought into their tiny home, and it shows. The cedar-clad exterior includes a pergola and an outdoor deck outfitted with a dining set for al fresco meals, while an accordion-style patio door opens to connect the indoor space to the outdoor deck.

The interior feels quite spacious, thanks to the cleverly designed layout. Here we see the living room, which is furnished with an L-shaped sofa, and a folding table that serves as the ‘breakfast table’.

To solve the problem of where to put their TV, the couple came up with an ingenious solution: They mounted it on a track, which would allow them to move and rotate it in any position.

They store benches, and that little treadmill, under the sofa.

Above the living room is their home office, which contains a dedicated desk. To address the headspace issue here, here’s another one of the couple’s clever solutions: having room to allow one’s legs to squeeze when sitting in the short office chair.

From the office loft, one can climb some stairs and through a skylight to reach the deck, which also has some comfortable outdoor furniture.

Returning downstairs to the kitchen, we see a light space with everything a couple would need, and a little more. There’s a propane stovetop, Breville multifunction oven, toaster, air fryer, farmhouse style sink, pull-out faucet, and some open shelves for dishes. The couple’s big improvement was the inclusion of a dishwasher, which was absent in their old apartment.

There is also a small vertical slide-out bar.

On the other side of the kitchen, we have a dark blue cabinet that houses a smart fridge, open shelves for spices, and a coffee nook that has an extra pull-out counter top.

After the kitchen is the bathroom, where we find the couple washer and dryer, the sink and the vanity.

The rain shower is really well done and behind its glass door we find this wonderful full height space lit by a window above. There is also a bench built in here, which Shannon uses to sit and sip her morning tea.

The toilet is in its own room so that the couple or guests can use it without cutting off access to the laundry, bathroom sink or bedroom.

A flight of built-in storage in the bathroom stairs leads to the bedroom, which is built into the gooseneck portion of the tiny home trailer. It’s one of the best tiny home bedrooms we’ve seen so far, because it’s an actual room that one can stand in, and it looks very cozy.

Past the bedroom, and up a further small flight of stairs is another loft, which the couple plans to use as a potential nursery room. Right now, it’s being used as a place where their two dogs and cat can sleep.

All told, the couple spent about $160,000 on their sweet little home and now only pay $600 a month to rent the land it was parked on. While it’s definitely on the higher end of the price scale, Shannon says their tiny house has actually helped them save more money:

“One of the biggest drivers for us in the small business, aside from the small life, has been to be able to use it as a way to become financially independent. So we’re really able to save for our future and think about what we want to do as we grow old together.”