A family of 4 lives in a 560-square-foot tiny home. Here's what they love about its design — and what they'd change.
· Business Insider
Brielle Matranga
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- Carson and Brielle Matranga built a 560-square-foot tiny house for their family of four in 2022.
- Four years into living there, they have things they love and hate about the small home.
- They love their ceilings and bedroom, but they have regrets about their kitchen and storage.
When Brielle Matranga needs to go to the bathroom at home, she has to shimmy past her kitchen trash can.
It's not ideal, but sometimes that's the reality of living in a tiny home.
Matranga, 25, and her husband built the 560-square-foot house they live in with their two children. They love their small home, but four years after they moved in, they have a few things they'd change about its design if they could.
Read on to find out what Matranga loves and hates about her tiny home.
Have a unique living situation or cool home renovation to share? Contact this reporter via email.
Carson and Brielle Matranga have been living in a tiny home since 2022.Brielle Matranga
Brielle Matranga and her husband got the idea to build a tiny house in 2020 during the pandemic. Her in-laws owned the empty lot next to their home in New Orleans, but they hadn't used the space for anything aside from expanding their yard.
"We were like, 'Wow, what if we made a little tiny house?'" Matranga said. "I kind of didn't think that it was real, and then my husband was like, 'No, I'm for real,' and drew up plans with his grandpa."
The couple broke ground on the tiny home in the summer of 2020, building the house themselves with help from their family.
The full-time content creators finished building their home in May 2022, just before they got married.
Although the tiny home has been great for their family overall, Brielle Matranga said it has some drawbacks.Brielle Matranga
The house was originally 416 square feet when it was completed in 2022. It functioned like a studio apartment, with the Matrangas' bed sitting in the open-concept living space.
However, they ended up having children in the house, welcoming their daughter, Xalia, who is now 3 years old, and their son, Lyric, who is 6 months old. To accommodate their growing family, they added a bedroom, bringing the total to 560 square feet.
The tiny home works well for the family, but four years in, Matranga told Business Insider there are things she loves and hates about it from both design and lifestyle perspectives.
Matranga is a fan of her home's height.Brielle Matranga
The ceilings are 12 feet tall at their highest point, which Matranga said "helps a lot when you have a tiny home."
The ceiling height not only makes the space feel larger, but it also allows for more natural light. Matranga and her husband added smaller windows at the high points of their back walls, almost doubling the light entering the space.
"Anybody who is making a tiny home, I would recommend that," she said. "As tall as you can make the ceilings, make them. It makes it feel so big."
She also loves that there's a small foyer to her home.Brielle Matranga
The home didn't always have a foyer, but they added one to their floor plan when they built the bedroom. The living area is to the left, and the bedroom is to the right.
Matranga decorated the entryway with a shelving unit and family photos. She told Business Insider the small room made a huge difference in breaking up the house and making her home feel welcoming.
"When you used to walk in, it was like you just walked into the entire thing," she said. "Now it has that little space that makes it a little bit more homey."
She also likes that their home's loft makes the living area feel cozier.Brielle Matranga
Most of the home is in one large room, with the living, dining, and kitchen in an open-concept configuration. A loft sits above the living room, but it's accessible only by ladder because the Matrangas didn't want to take up too much space with a staircase. They invested in a telescoping ladder that they can fold up when not in use.
Matranga said they don't use the home's loft much, but she does appreciate that it makes the living room feel like its own room of the house.
"The main thing I love about the loft is that it separates the main area and gives it a cute little nook underneath," she said. "It creates that separation that makes it homey because when you have just one big room, it can feel odd."
Still, she sometimes wishes the items stored in the loft were hidden behind a wall.
"Some of the stuff we have is storage up there because we are limited on space, so I don't like that you can see that," Matranga said.
On the flip side, Matranga wishes they had made some changes to their kitchen.Brielle Matranga
They tried to make their tiny kitchen as functional as possible despite its small size, adding plenty of white cabinetry and a two-burner stovetop.
Matranga said she likes that there's a window above the sink to make it feel airy, and she appreciates that they built it on a budget by buying their cabinetry secondhand and using stair covers for their countertops.
But the kitchen also has pain points. First, the couple didn't plan for a trash can, so it sits in front of the pocket door that leads to their bathroom.
"It was something we really didn't think about," Matranga said of a trash can, adding that they didn't realize they hadn't planned for one until they moved in. She wishes they had built one into the cabinets, but every cabinet they have is full of food or kitchenware.
Matranga also regrets selecting such a small sink and deciding not to install a dishwasher in their home.
"We thought, 'It's only the two of us. We can handwash. If we eat off a plate, we can go wash the plate real quick, and we'll put it up. It's really not that big of a deal,'" Matranga said. "And then we had two kids."
"The dishes are the hardest part," she said of her kitchen. "Because our sink is small, it gets filled up quicker, and with four people, it's just constant dishes."
The Matrangas also regret not adding a washer and dryer to their home.Brielle Matranga
They didn't add a washer and dryer because their home is on the same lot as Carson Matranga's parents. They planned to walk over to his parents' place to do laundry, though they added hookups to a wall in their home so they could eventually create a space for it.
Much like the dishwasher, Matranga said not having their own laundry setup worked fine until she had her kids.
"Now, we're hauling four loads of laundry all the way across, and it's a lot," Matranga said. "You're sharing it with people, so it's really not ideal, especially for a family of four."
Even worse, the outdoor laundry room they had planned isn't really an option anymore because they built out their bedroom in the space they had set aside for it.
"I'm thankful that we have access and that we are close to family, but I wish we had prioritized that," she said of a washer and dryer. "Now that we have the addition, we really don't have space for it."
Likewise, the living area can feel chaotic because there isn't as much storage.Brielle Matranga
Matranga said the open-concept look of the living area is one of her least favorite things about her home, as it can be visually "overwhelming."
"I don't like that you walk in and you see everything," she said. "There's the couch, but then right next to it are all of my daughter's toys because she doesn't have a playroom. I'm often decluttering and going through stuff because it can get overwhelming."
More built-in storage or better separation between the kitchen and living room would have made a difference for Matranga, as she told Business Insider.
The storage in the bathroom works well for the family.Brielle Matranga
The Matrangas decided to create a full-sized bathroom, complete with a bathtub, a toilet, and a sink that's larger than the one in the kitchen. They maximized storage space by installing a shelving unit and towel racks on the walls.
"Anything that can be a shelf and go on the wall is ideal," Matranga said of a tiny home.
They also bought a vanity with a cabinet for under the sink and added on two shelves with a hidden compartment in the back so it could stow more items. The customization allows them to store toilet paper and other bathroom products with ease.
Their bedroom addition has made a huge difference in their home.Brielle Matranga
All four Matrangas sleep in their bedroom, which has a queen-sized bed for the couple and their daughter. Their son sleeps in a bassinet next to the bed.
They purchased Ikea closet systems for one wall, which Matranga said is her favorite aspect of the bedroom. The his-and-hers cabinets have deep drawers for their clothes, and Matranga's vanity sits in the center.
They also got a new bed that lifts to reveal more storage space inside it, so the couple can take advantage of the space they do have.
"I did not want a cluttered bedroom that felt like we were trying to put things where they didn't need to go," Matranga said of why prioritizing storage in the bedroom was so important to her.
The bedroom loft also creates more storage.Brielle Matranga
Like the living room, the bedroom has a loft space, though it has a permanent staircase rather than a ladder.
It works as an office space for the couple, which is great. However, Matranga's favorite thing about it is that she was able to create a mini-closet for her son underneath it.
"We had people build the addition, and underneath the stairs, they were going to completely cover that up with a wall," Matranga said. "A lot of space was going to be wasted."
Instead, Matranga had them leave it open so the nook could be her son's wardrobe. It's perfect for his baby clothes.
Although their home isn't perfect, Matranga still loves living in her family's tiny house.Brielle Matranga
Matranga told Business Insider that she thinks the size of her house makes it cozy for her family.
"It feels homey," she added. "Everything feels connected, and it's actually easier to clean and manage that way because there's less space."
The couple is now building a slightly larger home for their family, and Matranga hopes their new house gives her the same feeling as her tiny home, with a few tweaks. For instance, she wants an open-concept space again, though she'll add an archway between her living room and kitchen to create some separation.
For now, though, Matranga's love for her house outweighs any cons.
"Even though our tiny home might be small, it holds everything that matters to us," Matranga said.
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