In Texas, where everything is bigger, Ryan McLaughlin is placing his bets on something small. Specifically, a simple 160-square-foot cabin that he hopes city-dwellers will book for $149 a night to get away, find some focus, and reconnect with nature.

$45 Tile	$450 Flooring	$350 Window
$2,176 Furniture & Accessories	$40 Countertops	$310 Shower Fixtures & Finishes
$580 Sinks	$52 Doors	$128 Lighting
$110 Refrigerator	$161 Storage	$520 Toilet
Interiors Total: $4,922

Ryan, a Texas native, spent many years in Seattle as a digital product designer, but by 2017 he was looking to move beyond pushing pixels around a screen to something more three-dimensional. On weekends, he would escape to cottages in Washington’s evergreen forests, where the pace of life gave him time to think. He wanted to bring that meditative experience back to his home state. When a coworker introduced him to Seattle architect Sean O’Neill—who, like Ryan, is a fan of Scandinavian and Japanese design—he knew he had found the person to help him make his dream a reality.

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Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Almost immediately after Ryan and O’Neill connected, they were met by a cascading series of obstacles, starting with cost. To meet his budget of $25,000, Ryan, who had no background in construction, would have to build everything himself.

The easiest way to do that, it turned out, would be to assemble the cabin at his parents’ horse ranch outside Austin and then transport it more than a hundred miles north to its intended final location, his brother’s vineyard in the Hill Country town of Mason. Making the structure mobile demanded that it be built on a trailer base. That trailer base then determined the footprint in which O’Neill would have to squeeze a living space, kitchenette, work nook, full bathroom, and sleeping area.

To fit everything, the architect included a convertible sofa, a lofted bedroom, and a folding glass door to a deck that doubles the living area. And to compensate for Ryan’s lack of experience, he kept the design deliberately simple.

Over an eight-month period, Ryan tackled everything from charring the cedar for the facade with a blowtorch to hammering together storage cubbies. To enable the home to function off the grid, he also installed solar panels for power, a composting toilet for waste, and a water tank for the shower and sinks.

The result is a laidback, pitched-roof cabin in which every inch of space is thoughtfully allotted so that guests can spend the maximum amount of time outdoors. “Most tiny homes you see essentially replicate a normal house and downsize everything,” says Ryan. “We wanted to work our way from the inside out.”

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Sean O’Neill

Construction: Elsewhere Retreats

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Elsewhere Cabin Retreat