3 A-Frame Cabins You Can Buy or Build Yourself for Less Than $25K
A-Frame cabins are cropping up everywhere, and for good reason. Add one to your property, however remote, and you’ve got a compact, easy-to-maintain, off-grid escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. While some might welcome the challenge of putting together a kit—or building something from scratch—others might prefer a turnkey option. Read on to learn about three companies’ excellent A-frame offerings, all of which cost less than $25,000.
You Can Build This Tiny A-Frame Cabin With $3,000 and One Weekend
After a wildfire ripped through Jeff Waldman and Molly Fiffer’s 10-acre retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains in August of 2020, the couple was determined to build a new home. They were hesitant about investing too much money, though, as they knew that California was only getting drier and more prone to fires.
Enter their latest project: a sleek, airy, 10x12-foot A-frame mini-cabin, which the couple built earlier this year over a period of two weekends, and all out of easily sourced materials. The cost? A relatively miniscule $2,500. On their website, Elevated Spaces, which the couple launched shortly after the 2020 fire, Waldman and Fiffer are selling plans to enable even a DIY novice to build their own version of the A-frame cabin.
Inspired by their own cabin-building experience in the Catskills, Mike Romanowicz and Lizzie Kardon, the couple behind the DIY company Den, sought to create an easy and cost-effective way for anyone to create the cozy retreat of their dreams. They came up with a concept called "The One Day Cabin"—a structure so simple that it could be assembled by two people in just 24 hours.
Den’s prefab A-frame kit is cut with CNC precision, so the pieces connect easily. The lumber is predrilled, and the kit includes all the bolts and screws for quick assembly—no need to run to the hardware store. As far as tools and equipment, the kit calls for a ratchet set, one or two power drills, a painter’s ladder, a step ladder, and a staple gun. The flat-packed materials even come packaged in the order in which you need them to help streamline the building process.
Inspired by the classic form of the A-frame, the Bivvi Cabin is designed to be prefabricated in a controlled factory environment. As the firm notes, "this strategy reduces waste and speeds up production. Every Bivvi arrives fully built, eliminating costly on-site construction costs."
The compact cabin measures eight feet, six inches wide by eleven feet, six inches long and ten feet, six inches tall—which allows it to be legally transported on roads to its end destination. It also stays true to the company’s core ethos. "Our name, Bivvi, is derived from the word ‘bivouac,’ a small temporary shelter that can be easily packed and deployed in the wilderness. Bivvi embodies the same resourcefulness. From the way we design our cabins to the way we conduct ourselves as a business, we create the highest quality products through the most efficient means possible."
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