Her Stunning Tiny Home w- Main Floor Bedroom & Standing Loft

I had heard about tiny homes for a while and the idea actually intrigued me, especially as I knew that at some point I would be retiring. The idea of having a fixed set of bills that I could count on was very important to me. So what I actually ended up doing was I turned my queen bed sideways. It's nice and open to the living room and I don't feel cramped in any way. My whole back area is kind of a garden theme, I would call it. Then you may have noticed I can actually stand up here. I'm 5'4 and I do have some headroom left here. It's funny, the things that worried me previously don't bother me at all now. Hi y'all, I'm Wendy. Come take a tour of my Texas-sized tiny home. Welcome to my living room. The vibe I wanted for this part of the room was just to be nice and cozy and comfortable. Wanted to be sure and reuse a lot of the vintage items that I had at my previous home. So for example, I brought this armoire in my previous home. This was in my bedroom so it served to house some of my clothes, but here it made more sense to use it in the living room. I have my TV as well as some of my things that I've collected over the years. So I purchased the couch new as well as this chair here, but the rest of my accessories I was able to bring with me and use from my former house just to give it that vintage cozy vibe that I like. Previously lived in a older home that was about 1,300 square feet. The difference was I had a yard, I had a two-car garage, also had like a 20 by 10 she shed outside for a lot of my decor items, a lot of my craft items. I really did have to think about that when I decided to move here. What was I going to do with all my things? How could I fit everything in the space? Because I didn't want to give up that lifestyle of things that I love, searching flea markets, going to estate sales. It was a little bit of a challenge to figure all of that out, but it's a process and I was able to do it and I've been very happy here. I think for me, I've got a creative side to me. My mother was an artist. I do have quite a few of her paintings throughout the house. So I grew up in a creative household and for me, decorating is my creative outlet. Overall, I'm very happy with the way this room feels and it's going to be like this for a little while. My kitchen has some vintage items as well that I've tried to bring into the space. So let's go take a look. So welcome to my kitchen. It's a, I guess what you would call a galley kitchen, but being that my house is a 16 by 40 foot Texas size tiny home, it allowed for a larger kitchen, which was one of the things that I really liked about it. It's nice and open to the living room and I don't feel cramped in any way. I actually brought this table with me from my old house. It was my dining room table. To make it work for this space, we removed one of the planks and then I found these legs, which are actually old porch posts at round top, raised it up. And so now this is a perfect space for me to prep. We eat at this table. I can sit eight here. The bar stools fit in nicely right underneath and don't take up any room at all. I do feel like I have enough storage. I have utilized some organizational items within the cabinets themselves. I did get rid of a few of my household items. For me though, getting rid of household items wasn't nearly as hard as getting rid of things that perhaps I've collected over time. I've just pared things down to items that I really need and really use every day. And it's worked out very well. So this house came with a full-size refrigerator, which has been a blessing. But if I had to live with a smaller refrigerator, I think I could do it if I had the type that's maybe like the single door on top and then the drawer on the bottom. I think that would give you a lot more space and options for storing things versus just having like a narrow side-by-side. I think it would work that way. So just definitely something to think about when you're downsizing and consider what are the needs of your family. Now we're in my utility area. And behind this barn door is a full-size washer and dryer, which did come with the house. So it's been great. I love having it so handy and so close to the bedroom. And when it's not in use, I have it shut and it's out of sight, out of mind. So behind this door is my utility closet. And it's a typical room closet where you've got vacuum cleaner, step ladder, extra bottles of water, and cleaning supplies. Hi, this is Blair. You may have recently seen me give a tour of my home. One thing I love about living tiny is the chance to redecorate and revitalize my spaces many times as I want because it's tiny. I worked in retail merchandising and I love making displays. So naturally, my home is also an ever-evolving display of the things that I love. I'm primarily a collaborative mixed media artist, but I'm learning some new skills, including sewing the cushions for this couch. I am constantly learning new skills to make my home a reflection of me. That's why I'm so excited that Craftsy is a sponsor of this video. Craftsy is an online community of makers and your only resource for all things creative. Craftsy has over 2,000 lessons from expert instructors in over 20 categories, including sewing, baking, knitting, and painting. My daughter is nine and she really loves her stuffies. I found a class on how to make a cake shaped like a stuffy, and I cannot wait to make this cake with her. I recently took one of the classes on working with alcohol ink pens, and I really enjoyed learning some blending techniques that I didn't know before. Craftsy is regularly adding new classes so you can always find something new to learn or connect with creatives to share ideas and stay inspired. If you want to expand your creative repertoire, you've got to check out Craftsy. The first 1,000 people to click on the link in the description will receive a premium Craftsy membership for the year for only $1.49. That's a huge savings over the usual price of $123. Click the link below and join thousands of DIYers and makers for getting inspired, learning new hobbies, and advancing their skills. One of the main draws, of course, was the cost of living. It's a lot less in a tiny home, especially as I knew that at some point I would be retiring. The idea of having a fixed set of bills that I could count on was very important to me. And even though I don't own the land that my house is on, I was able to assume the remainder of a 99-year lease. So I've got some comfort in knowing that my bills are going to be fixed for quite some time. So this house was built approximately six years ago. I've lived in it for the past two years, and I paid $161,000 for it. Luckily for me, I was able to take the proceeds from the sale of my previous home to purchase this house in cash, so I no longer have a house payment. My monthly rent for the property is $530 a month. That does include my water and my electric. And I am also able to deduct the cost of my cable and internet as well, because that was a clause in my lease. It's definitely been a lot more affordable. The water bill that I had at my previous home alone was $400. To go from that to a house fully paid for and just to have a little bit more expense for utilities was huge for me. This is my bathroom area. And when I first toured the home, I thought it was a little bit odd to have the sink area actually in the hallway. We're actually right next to my utility closet here. But as it has turned out, it's actually worked out very well, especially when I have guests over, because you can have people getting ready here and then other people in the toilet area if you need to get ready at the same time. So it's actually grown on me. I added the wallpaper here and just updated the mirrors, but I like this room. So this is my bathroom area. I do have a full size tub and shower. I've got my towels and linens sheets down here in this bottom part, and then the upper part is my medicine cabinet items. So I do have great storage in this room as well. My mom and I actually added the board and batten and the hooks for the towels, which I think is a nice touch. Plus, it's also very practical. She and I did the wallpaper as well, just to bring in a little bit of personality. This window, my mother actually found on the side of the road for me. She had it at her house for many years, and she finally ended up giving it to me. And I thought it was a little plain just hanging on there. So I added this wreath with some ribbon just to give it a little bit of color. My whole back area is kind of a garden theme, I would call it. I've got some nature-inspired items, my potting shed sign that was a find as well. So it was fun to give this bathroom some character. This shower curtain I actually made from some fabric that a friend of mine had left over from a project that she had. It's a super simple sewing project. Basically, you just have a seam across the top and hem on the sides and bottom, and you're done. So that's a very simple project, even for a beginning seamstress. And I like the way this room turned out. Now we're in my master bedroom. When I first purchased the house, I actually purchased it furnished, and they had the bed on this wall with two built-ins. So what I actually ended up doing was I turned my queen bed sideways, which is a little bit unorthodox, some people might think. But in doing that, number one, it allowed me space for this piece, which was very important for me to keep. And also, it makes changing the bedspread and linens a lot easier because you can walk all the way around the bed. This is a queen-size bed, and I bought the frame on Amazon. It's a little bit higher than maybe a typical bed. But the great thing about it is I've got six of those large black and yellow storage bins. All six of them fit underneath there. Even though they're things that I don't use often, every one of the bins are very accessible. In my master bedroom, I wanted it to feel cozy, for sure. So I painted the walls, and I brought in some of these paintings my mom did, as well as my headboard my mom and I built. These gates came from my grandmother's home in North Texas. So we just built a headboard out of the two gates. And then as well, this is actually a piece of fencing off of that same property that my cousins saved for me when they put new fencing out the house. So my boyfriend bent the cylinder shape for me, and then we just added a pendant light to it. I like the look that it gives, as well as this is a darker, cozier room. And so it puts off a lot of light as well. So this is my closet area. I've got two barn doors where my clothes are. And one of the first things I did was I added this custom shelving from the container store. You can hang it up by yourself, and all of the shelves are adjustable. So as your needs change, you can easily just move the shelves up and down. So that was a huge thing for me. I have clothes in here. And then this upper part of this area is my sewing items. I've got my sewing machine, extra fabric. One of the things I've done is I've bundled everything. So I can be like, oh, I need this fabric. I've taken it out, and I can just put the whole thing back up. So it helps to keep everything nice and neat. I had heard about tiny homes for a while, and the idea actually intrigued me. But I thought that the only way that I could live in a tiny home would be if the house was on some acreage, or maybe if the house was by a body of water, by a river, by a lake, or whatever. I love being outside, and I knew that I could live with less. But the way it came about is my brother and sister-in-law actually live down the street from me. They live in a tiny house, and I think they've been in their home maybe four or five years or so. And we were at dinner one night, and they said, you know, Wendy, there's a house that's come available. I think you'd like it. It's super cute. I started thinking about it, praying about it, and finally decided to put the wheels in motion. And four or five months later, I had bought myself a tiny home. OK, y'all, welcome to my office. This room was originally a bedroom. The bed sat right here, and we had two built-in nightstands. But since I work from home, it was important to me to have a dedicated office space. So we ripped all of that out, and rather than going to the expense of having someone repair the sheetrock, my son and I decided to put this beadboard up. It was initially painted white, but I just didn't care for how stark it was and how everything kind of popped off of it. I just didn't care for the way it looked. So I decided to go ahead and paint it black, and I've been much happier with the way that turned out. So don't be afraid of customizing your space. And all it cost me was a little bit of paint and a little bit more time. And I really like the way this room turned out. I have a lot of my collectibles and sentimental items in here. This picture my mom painted for me, which is one of my favorites. And actually behind that is my electrical panel for the house. So right above me here is the loft. Let's go check it out. Okay, so now we are up in my loft, and you may have noticed I can actually stand up here. I'm 5'4", and I do have some headroom left here. I realize this might be a little bit bigger than what you normally see in a tiny home, but this is a Texas-sized tiny home, and remember, everything's bigger in Texas. I actually had my bedroom up here at one time because it's nice and cozy, and you almost feel like you're in a tree house. But my son is grown, and so fortunately, it's just me living in the home. And so I use this space for my sewing projects, my craft projects. When we have people over, sometimes we'll watch a movie up here. So it's a great versatile space and could serve any number of uses. This is three separate pieces that I actually got from Ikea. And one thing to know that when you're furnishing your loft, it's hard to get things upstairs, so everything that's up here is able to be taken apart. The futon was shipped in the mail, and then we put it together up here. The table and chairs, the legs come off, so that was very easy to move up here as well. So when I started the process of even beginning to think about moving, and especially moving to a tiny home, about 10 different things had to fall in place to even make this move even possible. And I had prayed about it and stressed a little bit about it, you know, went back and forth. Is this the right move? It's kind of scary. But as it turned out, I've been very happy here. It's funny, the things that worried me previously don't bother me at all now. I would just say, if you're thinking about it, do your homework and go for it. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my tiny home. If you'd like more information, visit the link in the description. Thank you, and y'all have a great day.