• Home Tours
    • Dwell Exclusives
    • Before & After
    • Budget Breakdown
    • Renovations
    • Prefab
    • Video Tours
    • Travel
    • Real Estate
    • Vacation Rentals
  • Photos
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Bathrooms
    • Kitchens
    • Staircases
    • Outdoor
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
  • Shop
    • Shopping Guides
    • Furniture
    • Lighting & Fans
    • Decor & More
    • Kitchen & Dining
    • Bath & Bed
  • Projects
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Modern
    • Midcentury
    • Industrial
    • Farmhouses
    • Scandinavian
    • Find a Pro
    • Sourcebook
    • Post a Project
  • Collections
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Shopping
    • Recently Saved
    • Planning
SubscribeSign In
  • FILTER

    • All Photos
    • Editor’s Picks
    • exterior
  • Building Type

    • House(15)
    • Apartment
    • Cabin(23)
    • Boathouse
    • Shed(9)
    • Beach House
    • Shipping Container
    • Prefab(13)
    • Farmhouse
    • Mid-Century
    • Ranch
    • Barn
    • Camper(2)
    • Airstream
    • Tent
    • Treehouse
    • Tiny Home(51)
    • Small Home(51)
    • ADU(1)
  • Roof Material

    • Shingles(4)
    • Metal(29)
    • Tile
    • Green(1)
  • Siding Material

    • Wood(34)
    • Concrete(2)
    • Metal(14)
    • Vinyl
    • Stucco(3)
    • Brick
    • Stone
    • Glass(11)
    • Green
  • RoofLine

    • Flat(17)
    • Shed(5)
    • A-Frame(2)
    • Gable(19)
    • Butterfly(1)
    • Hipped
    • Gambrel
    • Mansard
    • Saltbox(2)
    • Curved(4)
    • Dome(1)
    • Sawtooth
All Photos/exterior/building type : small home/building type : tiny home

Exterior Small Home Tiny Home 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.
A family chose MyCabin to construct prefab structures in their home country of Latvia. The prefab structures have space for work, sleep, and relaxation.
The Bracy Cottage — Front Facade
The Bracy Cottage — Front Facade
Why Now, More Than Ever, the ADU Is the Future of Home: Whether it serves as an investment, backyard office, or intergenerational housing, the accessory dwelling unit (ADU) has never made more sense.
The exterior of Site Shack is covered in steel panels that are bolted to the framing. Look closely and you won’t see any visible fasteners, as Powers Construction’s welder was fastidious, creating a seamless shell with just steel and glass.
The Nook exterior features shiplap cypress siding, a reclaimed oak deck, and an entranceway of oak blackened in the traditional Japanese method.
The cabin and back deck are cantilevered over a slope in the property.
The ground floor is split between Gloria’s bedroom and the kitchen and living area, with a bathroom at the center.
Gloria Montalvo’s weekend getaway on a reserve in central Chile is just 580 square feet, but the entire forest is its living room. Designed by architect Guillermo Acuña, it features a transparent facade over a skeletal pine frame.
With his mother moving from Massachusetts to California to be closer to family, architect Peter Liang created a 265-square-foot tiny home, dubbed the Kleines Haus, behind his sister’s residence in Oakland for the matriarch to land in. “Since we are a mixed family, it’s key that my kids are close to their grandparents,” says homeowner Stefanie Liang Chung. “Now their German grandmother is teaching them, and I’m grateful that I have an Asian partner who knows that you take in your in-laws.”
"Uncertainty seems built into life these days. But ADUs give flexibility to the least flexible thing we have—this big, cumbersome investment of our home.,
With a new baby on the way and the soon-to-be grandmother moving in, Seattleites Ilga Paskovskis and Kyle Parmentier asked Best Practice Architecture to expand their detached garage into a 570-square-foot ADU, which they now call the Granny Pad. “We can see the joy it brings Grandma when the baby comes over to visit,” says Kyle. “It’s the best part of her day.”
Pictured is a rendering of a 570-square-foot 2X lightHouse with a one-bedroom unit stacked atop a two-car garage.
Smart storage tactics are combined with a U-shaped sofa to maximize space in this delightful tiny home.
If you’re traveling to Puglia in Italy, one of the most iconic sights are trulli (trullo is the singular), an ancient hut that's specific to the Itria Valley in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Made with dry stone, trulli date back to medieval times.
Black-framed windows and doors tie in with the black metal roof and dark chimney.
The tongue-and-groove wood boards are divided at the half-height by a contrasting, black steel plate.
A simple material palette of wood, steel, and glass clads the exterior of each house.
The simple structures are a modern play on the traditional cabin with wood-clad exteriors and gabled roofs.
At under 100 square feet, the 8' x 12' Site Shack includes just the essentials: a wood-burning stove, a desk, and storage.
“We’d go to the salvage yard every weekend and painstakingly go through hundreds of windows, see one that might work, write down the measurements, run out to Jeff’s truck, and put it in the SketchUp model,” says Molly. The chair is by Christophe Pillet for Emu.
"The building form was intentionally asymmetric and clad in hand-stained, split-face shakes and metal," says Campos Studio.
Now that the daughter lives just steps away from her mother, Campos says, "The laneway has reunited the family and provided a house that reflects their cultural heritage in a subtle but significant way."
Perched above a pond on 14 acres in Champaign, Illinois, this hut was designed for enjoying tea and meditation. Dominating the 97-square-foot structure is a butterfly roof, which channels rainwater to a central spout to be directed to the pond. Adding to the zen experience are water reflections that are projected onto the soffit throughout the day.
The architects inserted skylights in an artful pattern in the rooftop.
At night, the exterior screen provides privacy when the house is illuminated.
Per the Kebony website, their wood products are composed of sustainable softwoods that have been modified with a bio-based liquid to give them the characteristics of hardwoods, making the end result hardy and durable.
The home's modular design is composed of an outer shell and an interior core unit that contains essential living functions, such as a bed, bathroom, and a small kitchenette.
The new, semi-custom PreMade mobile units can be used in a variety of applications.
The Site Shack in a pristine natural setting in British Columbia.
Pick-up points on the exterior allow the Site Shack to be transported by crane with ease.
The Site Shack is seamless in appearance without visible fasteners.
A tough, rusted steel exterior holds up against the elements of a construction site.
Powers Construction uses the Site Shack as a space to meet with homeowners and discuss the project.
Powers Construction originally developed the compact and contemporary Site Shack as a mobile workspace for their residential job sites.
Smart, lightweight, compact, and easily transportable, MARS Case was designed to circulate energy and create zero waste.
The exterior is clad in a mixture of stained cedar and shou sugi ban siding.
Even though the house can be connected to the city grid, it also has solar panels that collect energy from the sun and can produce its own energy.
A self sustainable, eco friendly, Australian made tiny home.
We're focused on every detail.
exterior view of the house
exterior view of the house
The award-winning tiny house builder ESCAPE has recently unveiled the first phase of Canoe Bay ESCAPE Village—a tiny home resort community in Northwest Wisconsin.
Fishbeyn and Wright love that their home is set in a natural landscape with an incredible mountain view.
Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Toronto loft is both home and art gallery—and the ultimate party house, thanks to two kitchens, a rooftop deck, and no shortage of conversation pieces. In warm weather, Montague’s parties spill onto the roof deck. To encourage guests to explore, Peterson designed two built-in light fixtures, made from LEDs behind white acrylic panels, that cast a dramatic glow across the sauna’s custom-made wood door, designed by Peterson and crafted by carpenter Daniel Liebster.
A basic box that’s as tall as it is wide (28 feet) and 16 feet long, this Portland, Oregon house consists of rooms stacked vertically: an unfinished basement on the bottom, a kitchen-living area and a bathroom in the middle, and a bedroom on top, with the stairwell hinged onto the front of the home. The only interior doors are those to the bathroom, basement, and root cellar, leaving the rest of the space open and unfettered. At just 704 square feet, Katherine Bovee and Matt Kirkpatrick's home is a great lesson in making the most out of every inch. Click here to see the interior.

The Dwell House Is a Modern Prefab ADU Delivered to Your Backyard

Learn More

About

  • About
  • Contact Us
  • FAQ
  • Editorial Standards
  • Careers
  • Advertise
  • Media Kit

Subscriptions

  • Subscribe to Dwell
  • Gift Dwell Magazine
  • Dwell+ Subscription Help
  • Magazine Subscription Help

Professionals

  • Post a Project
  • Sell Your Products
  • Contribute to Dwell
  • Promote Your Work

Follow

  • @dwellmagazine on Instagram
  • @dwellmagazine on Pinterest
  • @dwell on Facebook
  • @dwell on Twitter
  • @dwell on Flipboard
  • Dwell RSS

© 2025 Recurrent Ventures Inc. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • DMCA
  • Sitemap