Whether you’re in need of a guesthouse, art studio, home office, yoga practice space—or all of the above—a home addition or backyard ADU can do the trick. These multifunctional spaces open up new possibilities in lifestyles and living arrangements, and don’t necessarily have to break the bank. Ranging from $18,275 to $248,658, the clever projects below break down the costs of carving out some additional room.

A Creative Couple in Minneapolis Build a Multipurpose Backyard Studio for $18K

This 195-square-foot, shingled studio includes a library, reading nook, and workstation—and it’s totally DIY. Creative couple Michael and Christina Hara built the retreat just steps away from their back door, in order to carve out "space for creativity and respite from our chaotic, toddler-filled house," as Michael explains. The project, called the Fish Scale Studio, took eight months to complete, with Haras doing all of the design and construction themselves—for just $18,275.

The studio is a multipurpose destination for the hardworking pair (he’s an architect and product designer; she’s a fashion designer). Almost everything—from exterior lighting and interior furnishings, to the turntable and speakers—was designed and built by the creative couple.

A Moldy Shed Becomes a Lively Backyard Hangout for Less Than $40K

Once a dilapidated garage, this flexible garden studio in Seattle now serves as an all-weather hub for Ella Dillon, and her 10-year-old daughter, Isabelle. After moving into the Craftsman-style home in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood in 2006, Ella was ready to expand into the garden studio—envisioning it as a place for Isabelle to do arts and crafts, for friends and family to gather—and as additional storage for games, gardening tools, and exercise equipment.

The original run-down shed wasn’t very functional: The roof leaked, the carpet had sprouted mold, and the narrow quarters were sectioned off as two parking spots and two office spaces. So Ella engaged Mutuus Studio to help figure out an optimal design for the 360-square-foot shed—one that would encompass garden shed, exercise room, office, playroom, and outdoor dining space all while staying within a modest budget.

A Portland Couple Design and Build a Compact Home For $222K

A Portland, Oregon, couple Scott Mooney and Lauren Shumaker built this sustainable, two-bedroom, 624-square-foot ADU for $221,580. Spurred by the city’s generous accessory dwelling unit (ADU) incentives and a desire to reduce their environmental footprint, the couple—he is an architect and she is a construction engineer—designed and built the elegant backyard home with sustainability at its core. The "labor of love" came together after eight months of work with help from builders Kevin Smith and Taylor Thompson of Taylorsmith Sustainable Construction.

Named after its pinwheel-shaped plan, the Pinwheel ADU is framed with FSC-certified timber and clad in local, sustainably sourced Western Red Cedar. For energy efficiency, ZIP System® R-sheathing was used for continuous exterior insulation and weatherproofing, while large, high-performance glazing lets in an abundance of natural light.

A Cozy Studio Tops an L.A. Garage for $220K

When California lawmakers made it easier and more affordable for homeowners to build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), one Los Angeles family, a young couple with two small children, turned to local architect Martin Fenlon to create a compact and sustainably minded studio apartment atop their detached garage in Los Feliz. Working with a tight timeframe of just a little over a year, Martin crafted the 350-square-foot addition—named Rodgers ADU after the clients—for a total cost of $220,722. He also enlarged the garage to 400 square feet for extra storage space.

A Garage Becomes a Renaissance-Inspired Studio for $102K

In the backyard of a downtown Toronto home, local design practice Anya Moryoussef Architect transformed a single-car garage into a multifunctional, light-filled workspace that cleverly belies its compact 325-square-foot size for just under $102,000. The client—a former architect who now works from home as a screenwriter and art director—set high demands for the small space. He requested not only a workspace and a separate sitting room, but also plenty of storage for his art collection and scripts, as well as room for his golden retriever, Ollie.

To divide the garage into four rooms without creating an uncomfortably cramped experience, the architects and client found inspiration in the 15th-century studiolo at Ducal Palace, a Renaissance-era architectural triumph in Gubbio, Italy, renowned for its illusionistic wood paneling.

A Playful, Postmodern ADU in Los Angeles Is Built for $249K

"A sense of expansive space and careful use of light and color are things that make our ADU designs feel large, even when most of them are under 800 square feet," explains designer Bo Sundius, who co-founded Los Angeles–based Bunch Design and Bunch ADU with his wife Hisako Ichiki, also a designer. This surprisingly lofty, 850-square-foot ADU that the couple designed for a backyard in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles is the perfect example of how small spaces don’t have to feel so small. To make the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath dwelling look and feel as large as possible, Sundius and Ichiki maintained sightlines from one end to the other, placing the bathroom and the water closet in box-like volumes that are inserted within the house’s overall volume. They also used the long lines of the stepped ceiling to make the space feel much more expansive than its square footage might suggest.

Taking inspiration from iconic architectural designs, such as Italian modernists like Ettore Sottsass and Gio Ponti, and the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragán, they added a playful feeling to their design and inserted color throughout the home.

A Laser-Cut Steel Addition Sharpens Up a Michigan Home For $85K

After moving from Chicago to the cozy college town of Ann Arbor, one couple, Sharon and Robin, were eager to infuse a touch of urban sensibility into their new home. Built in 1914, the protected-status house had a detached two-story garage that they felt could be improved by building a contemporary addition to connect the structure with the main house. Sharon, a University of Michigan professor of architecture, was well-aware of Ann Arbor’s strict regulations on altering historic district-protected buildings, so she reached out to Kasey Vliet, the Principal of KASE Studio, who was a teaching colleague at the university. Combining requests from the couple and the historic district, KASE Studio successfully crafted a multifunctional 206-square-foot addition with an abundance of glazing—to promote views of the original architecture and the outdoors—that could also be easily removed should a future owner wish to return the home to its original form.

Related Reading:

8 Home Renovations Done for Less Than $300K

5 Major Home Improvements DIY’ed for Less Than $26K

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