Accidental Mysteries

Want to get away? There is a growing trend today — call it the “tiny house movement” — to build smaller, even tiny, sustainable houses. Many build smaller sheds as separate workplaces or retreats from a larger, main dwelling. Whatever the reason, there is something cozy and personal about a small dwelling. With today’s high power consumption and the associated costs, small dwellings designed to be “off-grid” is appealing to many. With just a small wood-burning stove and a simple, rainwater catchment system, basic shelter and independence from “the grid” is actually obtainable to those with a pioneering spirit and hearty inner-fiber.


Modern Shed believes in efficiency and ecological minded thinking with its prefabricated approach.


Sleeping quarters in small house by the Tumbleweed Company.


Small house in Toronto for sale for nearly $170,000.


Tiny, off-grid cabin in Maine is solar powered and completely self-suataining.


A build-it-yourself backyard bungalow on John Perreaults blog about neo-modern homes, pods, huts, and retreats: ARTOPIATECTURE.


Built from reclaimed materials, the builder prefabricated this tiny house at his shop two hours away from it’s current location and brought it up in pieces.


Students at Green Mountain College in Vermont built this shed for under $2,000 using reclaimed materials and lumber and windows from a local salvage store.


The 7-Up bottle house, part of Rockome Garden first started in 1939 by Arthur Martin in Arcola, IL. This bottle house (now destroyed) was believed to have been built in the 1960s.


Modern Shed will fully build and deliver or help you build the shed of your choice on-site.


Here’s a 144 square foot house made of ponderosa pine.


Framing out a small house in Lithuania, Vilnius.


A town within a city, a rebel neighborhood within a well-ordered society. This is Christiania (Freetown), Denmark, a small community smack dab in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark. Within this community are tiny houses, built by hand and with whatever materials are within reach.


A bottle house in Sultana, CA, photographed by Matthew E. Cohen.


This off-grid cabin for sale is located an hour west of Portland, OR and touts a shower, a propane range and heater, sleeping loft and gravity-fed water.


A little cabin on a ridge in Colorado is 8’ x 10’ of peace and seclusion.


Small A-frame house taken in 1972 by Ruth Mountaingrove. University of Oregon Libraries.


A handmade People's Museum has been constructed in Catskill, NY in the form of a lounging bobcat using discarded tree branches and cut offs from local mills.


A whimsical structure in the Catskills — entitled Lower Case “a” Frame — is a creative take on the traditional “A” frame house. Designed by installation artist Matt Bua of Brooklyn, NY.


Students at Northwestern University in Chicago built this small house as a way to explore less-impactful stress to the environment.