Tiny homes can often look anything but open and cozy, but Hikari Box, the most recent offering from the Portland, Oregon-based firm Shelter Wise manages to be both. It’s light-filled and has all the comforts you’d expect from a larger home, which includes a well-sized kitchen and bathroom, a spacious sleeping loft, and a nice lounge area.
The Hikari Box has 263 square feet of interior living space (not counting the lofts) and is 24 feet long. The name Hikari comes from the Japanese word for “light-filled”, which in the case of this home is achieved by having twelve windows and two skylights. Finding a way to let in plenty of natural daylight into tiny homes is important, since it does wonders for the appearance of spaciousness, which the designers of this one clearly understand very well.
The interior of the home features a kitchen with ample counter space, as well as a normal sized sink, stove, and even fridge. The bathroom features a toilet, shower and sink. There is also a large dining table running along one side of the living area, which can easily double as a worktable. The lounge area is located at one end of the home, and is perfect for one person.
The Hikari Box also features two lofts. One is used for storage and the other for sleeping. The latter offers enough space for a queen size bed and has a good amount of headspace thanks to the home’s shed-type roof, and is accessible via a clever set of stairs. These steps hide storage cabinets, which were inspired by Japanese tansu chests. The storage loft on the other end of the home is accessible via a ladder.
The home was also designed in a way to make it more appealing to those wanting to build it themselves. This is the reason why they opted for a shed roof instead of a gable one, which is much harder to build. They also put all the plumbing in just one corner of the house to simplify that aspect of the building process. The plans to build this home can be purchased via PAD Tiny Houses.
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