Garage Turned Tiny Home Michelle de la Vega

Michelle de la Vega is an artist – and perhaps it takes an artistic eye to see the creative potential in an ugly red-brown old garage. She transformed it into a low-cost tiny home in the very expensive city of Seattle, where affordable housing is hard to find.

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tiny home garage conversion before

Glue-laminated beams prop up the interior, also adding a lofted sleeping space inside accessed by a minimalist metal ladder.

Garage Turned Tiny Home kitchen

New windows and a side-slanted addition give personality to a boring symmetrical base structure – a new coat of paint and some color differentiation does not hurt, either.

Old mirrors, a bank of lockers, recycled bricks for the fireplace and other vintage and rustic touches further make the small space feel comfortable and homey, and helped keep the cost at just $32,000.

Garage Turned Tiny Home living area
Garage Turned Tiny Home entryway

More from the designer

“In 2010 a 250 sq. ft. Mini House Michelle designed, built and lived in for 15 years was featured in a 3 page article on the cover of the New York Times Home and Garden section. The house has also been featured in MORE Magazine, Scoops Homes and Art in Western Australia, Houzz and Inhabitat design blogs, and London designer Terrence Conran’s book How to Live in Small Spaces. Three of Michelle’s house design projects are also featured in Joan Palmisano’s new design book, “Salvage Secrets, Design and Decor”She has also been featured on the HGTV series “Home Strange Home”and is featured in the pilot season of Tiny House Nation airing in August 2014.”

Garage Turned Tiny Home fireplace

About Michelle de la Vega

Michelle de la Vega is a multidisciplinary installation and community engagement artist based in Spring Valley, MN and Seattle, WA. Her creative ventures probe social and aesthetic boundaries through fostering dialogue, bridging divides, and investing in community on a wide scale. Michelle’s social practice model deeply integrates groups and individuals into the generative processes and exhibitions of her cross-disciplinary installations. Her conceptually driven projects include sculpture, immersive environmental design, video, collage, photography, choreography, text, and partnership building through project based community engagement.”