Don't Judge This Skinny House From The Outside... It’s Better Than You Think!
Design
November 18, 2022
•16 min read
Here's why you shouldn't judge this skinny house from the outside... it's better than you think!
From slices of real-estate pie to livable cowboy boots, don’t judge these upcoming skinny houses from the outside, they’re better than you think!
Pie House, Illinois
At a glance this house seems pretty ordinary that is until you take a peek at its side profile. This Illinois home is known on the streets as ‘Pie House’. Why? Well, unfortunately it’s not because it’s made of pie; rather, it’s pie shaped.
This triangular abode angles down to an acute 3 feet on its smallest end and expands to approximately 20 feet at the other side! With these credentials, you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s no slice of heaven, but things get a whole lot tastier once you get inside! With 1,600 square feet, this slice o’pie has a deceptive 2-bedroom filling, meaning a small family could easily set-up camp here! And with 2 bathrooms, there certainly wouldn’t be any toilet queues either! With its strategic open floorplan, this house ditches excessive walls and instead allows rooms like the kitchen, dining room, and living area to seamlessly and spaciously flow into one another. But the question remains: why would anyone choose to build this Life of Pie? Allegedly, the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, which the pie-house calls home, has an ordinance which prohibits new houses from being built closer to the sidewalk than the average house on the street, meaning that what Pie House lacks in space, is made up for in its lovely front yard.
Thurloe Square, London
Like most modern metropolises, London needs to squeeze every last drop out of its prime real estate. This unsurprisingly often results in some fairly bizarre looking homes.
Take Thurloe Square, located in South Kensington, for example. While its façade says, ‘act natural’, as you navigate to the side, you’ll see it’s looking a little malnourished at just 6 feet wide! Apparently way back in the 19th century, artists would flock to the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and set up their studios. Therefore, construction whizz William Douglas saw this as prime time to capitalize on a recently demolished, albeit tiny, plot on Thurloe Square. Impressively, in this meager wedge-shaped building he managed to squeeze in 7 studios, and today each one sells for a whopping $1 million! Despite the lackluster exterior, each 580-square-foot home remarkably fits in 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And with a spacious open plan, top-notch décor throughout, and even a private terrace, you’ll forget all about the limited space!
Starter Home, Louisiana
While it’s pretty commonplace to dream of a huge, fancy mansion, does anyone ever really need that much space? The Office of Jonathan Tate, a housing firm in New Orleans, take a much more economical stance and instead create homes that provide only the space that is needed; they call them ‘starter homes’.
Straying away from the cookie-cutter approach, they aim to tailor each build to the needs of each prospective buyer, while also being environmentally friendly. How so? Well, their inaugural home, located in Louisiana, is built on a wood and steel frame, and cladded in corrugated metal, meaning this home’s recyclable, durable, and energy-efficient! And with it taking up just 16.5 feet in width and 55 feet in depth, this home economizes the urban footprint. I know what you’re thinking: it’s a bit of an ugly duckling, right? Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and once you behold the interior, you might just change your tune! Inside you’ll find a stunning home that adequately offers 1 bedroom, 1 and a half bathrooms, ‘half bathroom’ meaning a room containing a toilet and washbasin, and even an office space, earning its title as the perfect ‘starter home’! At $315,000, the house’s price isn’t quite as beginner friendly, however the housing firm project that prices will reduce as they continue to save the world one house at a time!
La Casa Estrecha
Located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, La Casa Estrecha has a pocket-sized 5-foot-wide estate, meaning this skinny home is slimmer than most people are tall. But as everyone knows, the little ones are often the feistiest, and judging by that canary yellow paintjob, this Casa is no exception!
Seattle Spite House
Next up is another serving of pie, located in Montlake, Seattle. Although it’s smallest end points to a tiny 55 inches, this pie house gets a lot of mileage out of its 860 square feet of space, boasting an impressive 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room!
While all that is great, unfortunately it’s a bitter-tasting pie! When it comes to this house’s origin, local rumor has it that in a divorce settlement between previous owners, the judge granted the husband the bulk of the marital home, while only sparing the wife a plot on the yard.
Horinouchi, Japan
While it might look a bit like an overgrown storage unit on the outside, this slender Japanese house, situated in Horinouchi, Japan is much more impressive on the inside.
Since urban land is generally limited in Japan, tiny, spatially economic structures are more common than you’d think. And while Horinouchi’s 594 square feet of living space might seem a little tight-fisted, its whitewashed interior makes use of every nook and cranny, creating a surprisingly spacious environment! With 2 stories of minimalist magic, this house manages to include all the basics and then some. On the ground floor you’ll find a hidden cozy bedroom, with a staircase that leads up to the open plan first floor. This airy atrium approach manages to create the illusion of space while also making room for a kitchen, dining area, and a living room.
Boot House, Texas
Houses come in all shapes and sizes, and none exemplifies this better than this cowboy boot located in Huntsville, Texas. It is genuinely a house and it’s quite the southern belle once you get inside.
With an annex adjoined to the back, this shoe buckles up 2 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and even a roof top terrace! And with 711 square feet, you can fit some surprisingly big feet into this shoe! So, which Billy-the-kid is responsible for conceiving this bizarre abode? Local artist Dan Phillips. With recycled materials and the help of construction workers, Dan was able to create this rodeo of a home and renting it out for $1,200 a month means he makes a purtee penny from his avant-garde real estate! He didn’t stop there though. In 2018, a year after completing the boot house, he constructed a neighboring matching hat home. Similar to its predecessor, this hat features 2 bedrooms and is made of recycled materials.
London’s Thinnest House
With millions flocking to Britain’s capital every year, it’s easy to see why London leaves no stones unturned when finding space to accommodate its ever-increasing population. And at just 6 feet wide, this house in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, looks like it’s been on a diet.
I know what you’re thinking: ‘who on earth could possibly live in that?’. But give it a chance, because beyond the blue exterior things aren’t so bad! With 5 stories and a total of over 1,000 square feet of space, this deceptive property actually gives you all the space you need and more! Boasting 2 bedrooms, a great sized bathroom and even a study, you’ll forget all about the whole 6-foot-wide thing. I guess the only thing that might be telling of the house’s slim proportions is that you quite literally have to emerge through the floor to access the top bedroom! This neat little floor flap provides a gateway from the stairs to bedroom and economizes space, meaning not one drop of space is wasted. So, if you’re a sleepwalker I would highly suggest you make sure that thing is closed every night!
Love2 House, Japan
Is it a plane? Is it a spaceship? Nope! It’s just architect Takeshi Hosaka’s home! Officially called Love2 House, Takeshi built this 204-square-foot home for him and his wife when they relocated to Tokyo.
Takeshi could only obtain this tiny plot of land, so he wasted no time and put his profession to good use, resulting in this cozy, yet unique home that is actually quite homely once you get past its industrial exterior. What’s the deal with that huge metal roof? Well, according to Takeshi, it actually serves a very important purpose: the arched, reflective opening allows for a soft flow of daylight to flood into the home year-round.
And light wasn’t the only thing that influenced Takeshi’s design. Inspired by the architecture of Roman villas, he wanted to emphasize the importance of spaces for studying, bathing, drama, music, and philosophy.
Keret House, Poland
Cuddled between two existing structures in Warsaw, Poland, is Keret House, more commonly referred to as the world’s skinniest house! And by skinny, I mean it’s a blink and you’ll miss it kinda house. And by house, I actually mean art installation.
Yes, this house is so skinny that it doesn’t actually meet Poland’s residential building codes! But if you breathe in and walk sideways, you might just find it possible to live in this 3-foot-wide estate! This sliver of a house is equipped with all the essentials; a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living area, meaning it has a few more amenities than your average shoebox! Jakub Szczesny, the creator of Keret House, intended for this space to be used by travelling writers, though if staying in a huge, expensive hotel was enough to drive a writer like Jack Torrance crazy, I’m not sure what’d happen in this place!
Tiny Tower, Philadelphia
If you had just a 12 by 29-foot plot of land available, there’d be barely enough room to swing a cat, let alone build a house. So, in the wise words of 80’s popstar Yazz, The Only Way Is Up!
Yes, this slender home in Brewerytown, Philadelphia, officially called Tiny Tower, certainly lives up to its name by structuring itself like a miniature skyscraper!
The Wedge, UK
Much like the pie houses we’ve already seen, The Wedge, located in Cumbrae, Scotland, has gained its apt nickname as a result of its tapered shape, which resembles a wedge of cheese! And just by looking at its 47-inch-wide front it’s easy to write this one off, but it gets better!
Extending to about 11 feet at the broader side of the wedge, this house is packed with 1 bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen and living room, all the while having stunning sea views! It’s not quite Malibu, and maybe a lick of paint wouldn’t go a miss either, but for $113,000 you’re getting a pretty sweet deal! Furthermore, this is a record-breaking house! This home was featured in The Guinness Book of Records for having the narrowest house front in the world! And if you needed more evidence of how skinny this home is, then look no further than its sign.
London’s Slim House
Yet another one of London’s super skinny offerings, this house located in Battersea is the Mary Poppins’ bag of skinny houses. While the exterior would suggest otherwise, this slimline city home somehow manages to pack in 4 double bedrooms, along with all the other essentials! With thanks in no small part to its resourceful open floorplan, this skinny house certainly exceeds all expectations, and its front is just the tip of the iceberg. The house is flooded with natural light due to its sloped roof on the back end, making its limited space feel super bright and airy! There’s a reason why they say ‘good things come in small packages’.
Boston Spite House
Like some of the abnormally skinny homes we’ve seen so far, this next one comes with quite the tale! This one is a slender home is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and had some bitter beginnings.
Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tailored Tiny, Australia
Tiny homes, motor homes and caravans are all the rage these days. Increasingly, people daunted by the prospects of affording a mortgage see the light in the form of these transportable trailers but can it really replace a home?
