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All Photos/Editor’s Picks/exterior/building type : tiny home/building type : cabin

Exterior Tiny Home Cabin Design Photos and Ideas

After renting in San Francisco for a decade, DIY couple Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman bought 10 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the pair and their friends built a cabin compound complete with sheds, tree decks, a pavilion, a wood-fired hot tub, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower. The cabin is made from locally sourced, rough-sawn redwood, which the couple stained with nontoxic Eco Wood Treatment to give the panels an aged appearance and a dark patina.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing and a linear skylight help welcome the landscape within the cabin’s small footprint.
The exterior’s concrete walls pick up on the tones of the rocks that emerge from the surrounding hillside.
Moss-covered boulders at the base of Colorado Camelot tree house helped to inspire the design for the compact structure.
The goal was to be able to squeeze a full bathroom, kitchen, living room, storage, as well as a sleeping space that would accommodate a king-sized bed into the cabin's original tiny footprint.
The rollable wood-clad walls help the retreat further blend into the surrounding nature.
The couple built the cabin in Poland and eventually moved it to near the shore of Packer Lake in Austria.
On Bainbridge Island, Jim and Hannah Cutler created a cabin for reading and working. Sited just steps from the main house, it’s a welcoming retreat that the father and daughter share.
A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.
Ryan McLaughlin watches the sunset from the deck of the 160-square-foot tiny home he built, with no prior experience, at his parents’ horse ranch in Georgetown, Texas. Soon, the trailer-mounted cabin will be moved to a vineyard, where it will operate grid-free and be available to rent for short stays.
Measuring only 180 square feet, this exquisite, off-grid tiny home features a big sense of style.
Koto’s charred-timber workspace is an exercise in wabi-sabi design that embraces imperfection amid the natural world. The carbon-neutral structure is built from natural materials, and it can operate both on- and off-grid.
This 180-square-foot cabin offers 360-degree views of the Hudson Valley.
Tucked away in California’s Sierra National Forest, this remote and rentable vacation home has a cozy interior that embraces outdoor views.
Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.
FLEXSE measures in at 328 square feet, with an oval footprint that maximizes floorspace, according to the designers.
To optimize versatility, “the structure can be positioned on different foundations—concrete slab, metal piers, etc., which allows for placing it in the most remote areas, even on water,” says the firm.
Witzling and Underwood stepping out of the truck cabin.
Hexagonal and pentagonal panels come together to form this cabin’s oblong envelope. The unique architectural skin mimics the rock formations that surround it.
The 301-square-foot cabin is situated on 99 acres on Bruny Island, an island off the coast of Tasmania. For the exterior, the architects have chosen materials that "comply with the Bushfire Attack Level of 19," they explain, including bushfire resistant wood and zincalume metal. The cabin collects its own rainwater—storage tanks are underground for an uncluttered look—and the roof sports solar panels.
Italian prefab company LEAPfactory built this alpine shelter off-site and had it flown in via helicopter. Cantilevered off the edge of a mountain, the structure features a living room, a dine-in kitchen, bunk beds, storage closets, and an integrated computer to keep mountaineers and climbers up-to-date on the weather conditions.
Located at 9,459 feet in elevation and run by the Swiss Alpine Club, the Monte Rosa Hut has been a popular destination at the Gorner Glacier since 2009. Designed by Bearth & Deplazes Architekten and dubbed the “rock crystal” because of its striking, ultra-modern design, the innovative structure is also virtually self-sufficient.
Designed by Giovanni Pesamosca Architetto, this shelter in the Italian Alps fits nine beds within its triangular A-frame structure. Situated along the Ceria-Merlone trail at an altitude of 8,303 meters, the shelter is a memorial to Luca Vuerich, a well-known mountain guide who was killed by an avalanche while climbing an iced waterfall in the mountains near Tarvisio.
Designed by AKT II, Harvard GSD Students, and OFIS Architects in 2015, this bivouac in Slovenia's Skuta, the third-highest peak in the Kamnik Alps, was informed by traditional alpine structures and the challenge of building for extreme mountain weather conditions.
The Hammerfest Cabin is perched high atop a rocky slope.
The small cabin's cross-laminated timber (CLT) shell, composed of 72 unique wooden panels, is designed to withstand severe arctic storms and heavy wind conditions.
The new, semi-custom PreMade mobile units can be used in a variety of applications.
White concrete panel cladding and corrugated steel roof panels give this cabin a crisp, geometric form that almost melts into the landscape on bleary, snowy days.
Oozing with charm, comfort, and modern amenities, these 10 micro homes are eagerly awaiting to help you experience the tiny house lifestyle. But brace yourself—you might become an aspiring tiny-house dweller after just one stay.
"With both sliding doors open, the two decks connect seamlessly through the building, dramatically changing the sense of scale, space, and connection to the site."
Each Getaway cabin has a hot shower with bath products, and electric toilet, mini-kitchen, hearing, and either one or two queen beds with, fresh linens, and pillows.