It’s a difficult time right now to be a homeowner, or rather, to try and become a homeowner.
With rising property prices, along with the ever-changing cost of energy and electricity, as well as the need to be environmentally conscious when thinking about buying a house, it can feel disheartening to try to look for a good place to set down roots and keep all of these factors in mind.
This isn’t a unique problem in the US. Across the globe, in a time of worldwide uncertainty for people’s homes and families, there is a bright new wave of inspiration that is quickly becoming one of the premier ways to get on the property ladder and keep within a tight budget.
The answer, as people are finding out, is simple: Container homes.
With a massive abundance of shipping containers going to waste across the world, those people, with little know-how and planning, have started to convert these old storage spaces into modern, comfortable, and perhaps most importantly, affordable homes.
Plus, with their relatively low cost to upscale, many have also seen this style of home design as an excellent solution for homelessness in local areas.
Not convinced yet? That’s okay. It’s a pretty new industry, prospective homeowners are starting a new game, it’s certainly not an easy one to play.
That’s why we’ve compiled a few examples in this list of amazing small container homes, to prove that this isn’t just some fad or half-baked craze that’s just so happened to have swept across the world and that millions of people are jumping on this inventive new way of solving the basic human need we all deserve: A right to a good home.
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Canyon Container Home, California
With the resourceful use of three container units, this passion project in California is the starting ambition of its owner’s larger plans.
With the storage containers arranged into a U shape, the central open area between them is supported by a wood frame, allowing for an even larger floor plan than would otherwise be possible.
— firefly+finchContainer Home Floor Plans
With the wooden roofing also not eating into the building’s precious ceiling height, the 12-foot wide 13-foot high interiors are surprisingly spacious, with a floor space of over 800 square feet really giving its occupants the room they need.
Knocking through 2 of the container’s walls allows for an even bigger living space, with plans to further expand as they await a review from San Diego county.
Nederland Container Home, Colorado
This off-grid, solar-powered family container home, based in Nederland Colorado, is an example of what these old metal storage holds can become.
Located in a rocky outcrop, about 10 miles west of Boulder, this home uses 2 containers as the basis of its design, but rather than being parallel like many container home designs go for, where the two vessels would have the side facing each other knocked through and filled in to create a single space.
Instead, the builder, Andrew McMullin, chose to have the two containers faced at an angle, so that one end would open out over the brilliant view of Hurricane Hill, and continued to build an extension that filled the gap between the two containers which now functions as the lounge and dining space.
It’s a design that has certainly created a striking and gorgeous home, complete with a view of the breathtaking forest landscape beneath the house. A lot of clever engineering went into the creation of this home, and it certainly shows.
Desert Dwelling, Arizona
Our next home is this incredible dwelling based in Phoenix, Arizona. Made up of 4 Shipping containers fashioned into a single home, this new home is definitely pushing what might be considered a ‘small’ home by container standards.
But it certainly goes to show the potential that this new inventive market has to offer if the size is no object.
With a view out of each window, almost 3000 square feet of floor space, and three bedrooms, this is as large as many traditional built dwellings you can find on the market.
The BoHo Box Hop, Ohio
Part of a series of container home getaways found in a forested corner of Rockbridge Ohio, The Boho Box Hop feels surprisingly rustic, given the 2 heavy metal containers that make up the frame of the house.
But the wooden shingles that adorn the corners of the rooves make it almost feel rustic, in a remote log-cabin kind of way.
The interior design makes the most of the narrow container vessels, able to fit in all the comforts of home, with a lounge/table area at one end of the container, a galley-kitchen design that manages to accommodate the staircase to the second floor, where you’ll find a comfortably snug double bedroom, surrounded by views of the surrounding woodlands with the large expansive windows.
The home even manages to make enough room for a roof deck, for the early morning breath of fresh air you’d expect from a cozy little home hidden in the wooded hillside.
The Helm, Texas
An incredible example of using a limited amount of space in beautiful and creative ways, The Helm is a small rentable home-based in Waco Texas, fashioned out of two shipping containers, and a lot of resourceful engineering!
The ground floor consists of a cozy living room that takes up the entrance of the home, with a galley-style kitchen that fills the center of the bottom floor, yet still finds enough room to allow two people to stand comfortably in between the countertops And the end of the storage space still leaves enough room for a walk-in shower, sink and toilet, along with an air-conditioned, spacious bedroom that takes up the farthest end of the bottom container.
Impressively, the design makes enough room to fit a second bedroom on the first floor, with its own bathroom as lavishly fitted as the first, complete with an open patio with enough room for outdoor seating, and a stairway down to the second entrance.
A home that has room to house four people, or a generous living space for just two, is an excellent example of the brilliant ways people have transformed an empty space with limited room and turned it into a wonderful, comfortable home.
Ty Kelly Shipping Container Home, Montana
Wanting a life away from the hustle-and-bustle of big-city life and all the stresses that come with it, Ty Kelly, builder, and architect, created an off-the-grid home for himself out in the wilds of Montana.
Created by joining 2 shipping containers together, this floor plan allows for a comfortable 720square feet of living space out on Montana’s quietly scenic prairies., with an all-glass wall allowing for a front-row seat to this calming view. With a one-bedroom, one-bathroom design, all Kelly’s amenities are covered.
He even has a small patio deck for comfortable outdoor sitting when the weather is right.
This simple, yet effective and modern home comfortably allows for a single person the room and space to get away from the busier parts of life and give yourself a chance to tune out of those everyday stresses.
El Tiemblo Container Homes, Áliva, Spain
Although on the larger side of the container home, this homemade up of 4 separate storage containers allows for 2045 square feet of living space, cost Infiniski, a construction company based in the capital Madrid, less than 200,000 Euro to build and assemble.
With a spacious lounge area, washing facilities, and a kitchen on the first floor, bedrooms, and a balcony are able to fit on the first floor, the cost of a traditional home with this amount of space is only further proof that the possibilities for containers homes are amazing.
Containers of Hope, San Jose, Costa Rica
Finished on a budget of $40,000 dollars, the Containers of Hope project by Benjamin Garcia Saxe as part of a collaboration between himself and his clients.
With 2 containers together, the modest 1000 feet of floor space that these homes provide is plenty enough for Saxe’s clients. The panoramic view provided by the many windows that cover one side of the home allows for a jaw-dropping view of the sun, regardless of the time of day or year, from sunrise to sunset, from spring through to winter.
The open-roof ventilation system that supplies the home also makes sure that it is never too hot for its occupants.
Considering that the final product costs less than much of the social housing for the poorest people in Costa Rica, it is a prime example of what good engineering and reusing whatever you can be made into a dream home.
