Kitchen Dreams for the Huge Tiny House

Based on my desire to incorporate everything I have gleaned so far, this is the mock up of the kitchen in our Huge Tiny Cabin.

Nothing in this kitchen will be electric at the beginning of this journey, one it's not in the budget, and two, I think a passive house is pretty cool, I have lived without pubic electricity hookups,  before and its not that hard if you are prepared with batteries, a generator and solar power. Certainly we will end up on the grid but since this is a temporary house and will end up being my art studio and classroom its long term needs are not a fully functioning kitchen. 

The stove will be alcohol, that we do have to purchase, the oven will be solar and outside though in our BBQ area. The sink will be hooked up to a portable grey water filtering system as well as using all of the peelings, egg shells, 

and cuttings for the compost bin.  

Initially we will use our refrigerator as an ice chest, we know know it will hold an ice block for 5 days. At about 2 dollars a block, that will work out to about $10.00 a month in ice purchase. Of course there is the propane refrigerator on the market. I love that but at a cost of $1000. to $1300.00 that is something we will have to save for. 

So how are we going to light the kitchen? Eventually there will be electrical in the cabin, but initially it will be solar as well as battery and of course we will have a generator.

The three lights hanging from the ceiling will be solar spotlights rehoused in utilitarian shop lights. They aver very industrial looking, not quite like the mock ups. The solar panels will be mounted in the window. The window on this side of the kitchen  will get sunlight all year round. In the winter the solar lights light up just fine they charge by the natural ambient light even if it is snowing. There will of course be several battery operated lanterns in the room too. The other natural lighting will be from the skylights in the ceiling as well as the solar lights mounted in the window sill. There will be enough solar lights mounted on both sides of the room,  to give off the same light as a regular single bulb in the room.

The small lights usually last for about 6 hours once it gets dark. I don't know about you but I don't plan on staying up past midnight and that should be enough light. Plus, one solar light resting within three or four inches of each other will partially charge themselves. I know this because we have used solar lighting out at the property for the last ten years. Even a battery operated lantern will charge a solar light just a bit. The key is to make it work. Test out how close to put the lights together.

So, some of the other features in the room. We were given some counter tops. While we have not yet picked them up I will faux paint them and polyurethane them to give them the wood look.

The mosaic tile on the left wall, I bought 11 sheets of this tile a couple of years ago and intended to use them in a big piece of art. I used something else a slightly different color and ended up saving these in a box. I have designed this wall to only have a 12 inch high back-splash. I will add a side view picture below to show you a cutaway of the outside wall where this wall will be. note that the cabinets will stick out the wall at the back because of the way the land lies. Short of digging another 8000 pounds of dirt out of my way,  instead, I adjusted the walls design to fit the area.

The lower half of the wall is cut back and the clading, the decorative wall covering in front of the counter and cupboards is only designed ti function for beauty and for the 'counter' to extend into the room allowing for an 12 inch work space counter.  Remember this is a tiny house so every single space has to be designed for full function in a smaller space.

As pretty as the picture of the kitchen is mind you, I'm going to shabby chic up the walls behind the counter and on the wall behind the refrigerator. We will not be putting in drywall. Instead the walls will be covered in strips of wood from the pallets we have gleaned. They will not be even, so once the walls have been white washed, meaning a couple of thin watered down coats of paint are brushed onto the walls I will sand the edges so the wood peaks through.

The floor will be painted in squares but painted in the diamond pattern across the floor, in the jade green and grey, and then coated with polyurethane once they too have been scuffed up.  

The trim will be a grey white and the cabinets will be a country white. All of the cabinets are mixed matched but fit well together. Paint will blend them together. 

We already have everything for this room ready to go. The total current expenditure in this room will be the stove, $200.00 plus tax. The various paints, a total of $120.00. The hanging solar lights $35.00 and the sill solar lights $12.00. Tar paper that goes between the chipboard sheeting on the walls and the outer layer of finish. Because this wall is so close to the hill, it will be covered in sheet metal, which we have had for almost 2 years. 

I will add a blog later towards the end of this journey, with a list of costs if one wants to build a tiny house like this,  with brand new materials. 

No, we do not hoard, I used a bunch of it iin a very large artwork and thought hmmmm, wouldn't that work? Well it will, we will just paint it to match the rest of the walls. It will also show up as a wall-covering in our 'bedroom area', although I will rust that and then coat it with polyurethane. I have a few gallons of that stuff because I'm an artist. I might as well us it up on my needs for a change and get fresh for my artworks.   

Everything else has been gleaned.  

Over all the design will be sleek meets shabby chic.  

Feel free to wander around some of the other blogs on the Desperate For Housing Blog site. This is a long journey and we will be sharing all of the good the bad and the ugly with you. You can add comments or ask questions  if you like and I will do my best to answer them. 

We are still in need of 2 by 4's don't forget to check your garage for any poor ol' boards just laying around. We accept all used boards even if they have nails in them we will pull them.