A former garage becomes a transformable, tiny home in Bordeaux, France

French photographer Jérémie Buchholtz wanted an affordable apartment in Bordeaux, but he wasn't finding anything he liked. Then he stumbled upon a listing for a garage. The garage definitely looked like a garage; it had big metal doors that blocked out any sunlight and inside it was being used more as a junk room.

Most of his friends thought he was crazy to consider turning it into a home, but Buchholtz called his friend and architect Matthieu de Marien who specializes in converting stores, offices and other spaces into homes and asked if he'd come give his opinion.

De Marien took one look at the historic street and recognized it as something special. Passage Buhan is a private passageway where the owners each own half of the road so life extends into the street. And the history here is rich: a couple centuries ago, the laneway housed horses and their riders en route to Left Bank Bordeaux and the old stable still sits on the street.

Buchholtz bought the property and De Marien quickly cut into the old garage to create more light and ventilation. The roof is historic and couldn't be touched so he carved a 12 square meter (129 square foot) patio out of the small space, leaving only 41 square meters of living space (441 square feet).

In order to make the space feel larger, De Marien created a "house within a house": one large piece of furniture that includes the bathroom, bedroom, office, closet, a sofa bed and all of the home's storage. With everything contained in this large furniture box, the rest of the home was given more breathing room.
Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/a-former-garage-becomes-tiny-home-in-bor...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• tiny apartment
• tiny home
• small space
• transformable furniture
• transformer furniture
• space-making furniture
• space-saving furniture
• small space furniture
• small house movement
• small home
• maison garage
• garage home
• converted garage

[magn25]

Id like to get the building plans to that box

[karenhidef]

I'm loving this space!

[ghostbow]

Brilliant and lovely.

[DougglesMagnificent]

i love this kind of thing...my dream home basically

[hunhun23]

My family and I used to live in my aunt's house in Hawaii on the island of Maui back in the 1960's and the house was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath plantation home with a separate garage and small apt on top of it. Separate laundry room too. When my aunt moved back in she converted he back part of the house into 2 studio apartments and with the apt above the garage she had extra income coming in until she passed on.

[Sassymarkrep]

Growing up in Los Angeles, CA, I remember people turning garages into tiny living spaces and renting them out as apartments. It seemed to work for 1 person. I think this is a great option in this economy.

[phanchochan]

been there done that!

talk about the french then DEJAVU