Wabi-Sabi Modern Japanese Inspired Small Home

with the legalization of laneway homes in Vancouver the city was subject to an explosion of really innovative small space design and this next house that we're about to visit is a great example of that albeit with a very Japanese edge [Music] hi Tamiko lovely to meet you to meet you and it is wonderful to see this absolutely beautiful home here no thank you first of all can you tell me what was it that inspired you to build a laneway home well my my husband passed away we used to live on in North Vancouver and we had a big house kids were gone and the family had said well why don't you move in with your mom and so I was thinking oh that's a little bit too close and then the idea of a laneway house came up and that's what inspired me just like it's possible it was doable and my husband's brother said that he would design something so I was like okay I put my trust into you that you'll do something and that's where we started the main idea was to be close to my mom you know because I had gone through this very traumatic experience and so the family but on both sides just felt that I should be with somebody so that was the main thing and then after that once we decided on you know that we're gonna have a laneway house my brother-in-law basically took over and said okay it's not gonna be a cookie cutter you know we're going to do something that's a little bit more innovative and I think that he really took it to heart and really worked on that so I knew nothing about architecture or design or anything like that and so I'm really grateful that I have these people around me that did this so my brother-in-law who is an amazing architect my friend who was the interior designer and she passed away a year after the house was built and then the contractor her husband who was my husband's friend so it was all very much a labor of love everybody was involved and was adding their two bits and so it was really nice and they really they they took care of me which was great the design of this home is really something quite special it's very unusual with its lines and its edges can you tell me what inspired the aesthetic of this home it's a combination of very modern design that my brother-in-law really wanted and being different so what he wanted to do was more follow Who am I you know what what makes me different or my mom different and it was just that we come from an Asian heritage so let's try using some of that and that's when he thought of the wabi-sabi you know the imperfection and the beauty of imperfections so you've got these beautiful straight lines but you also have wood you know that you can see different patterns on and the staining of the cedar shingles they're hand painted and the age at different rates and it's that imperfection that just contrasts so much with the straight lines and this house is built in a hill the lane goes down so the house is actually built into the hill so when you look at the windows there and you say oh it's nice and bright but it's actually at ground level and it just gives us feel of spaciousness even though it is sort of like a basement playing with house what size is the home 640 square feet and what were you living in before the laneway I was living in a suburban house 2,000 square feet and plus a basement four bedrooms lots of space huge yard and so I had to do some serious downsizing yeah what was the downsizing process like for you well it was all combined with grieving over my husband and Adelaide grieving over my kids moving out going to University and all that sort of thing but I had to get rid of everything basically all the furniture was gone basically I wanted to get everything brand-new and start all over again so that's what I decided to do yeah yeah well the exterior of this home is just so unique and interesting and I cannot wait to see what it looks like on the inside okay come on in thank you this is absolutely beautiful the design of this home in here it just feels very modern and very clean and open doesn't it yeah it does and it was specifically designed like that I was so worried about a small house feeling really tight so it's all about feeling bright and airy even though it's a very small area small house so when you were designing this home what were the elements in here that you just had to have what was really important to you in your house I wanted light light was really a big thing in my place in North Van we were surrounded by lots of trees which is wonderful but it was dark and I just felt that you know I wanted to be able to see out and see what the weather's like I want to be able to see green but not feel really enclosed and so that was one of the main things and then the other thing was storage so that's why we had the built-in couches and so I wanted storage that I could put things here all my outdoor gear my ski gear and art supplies and things all can fit into these drawers and then I have a very small closet here but this is just for jackets and boots and things like that so that was basically all that I asked for so we've entered into your living room space talk to me about the design in here so we have built in couches for the kids to crash and people can just lounge here I never thought we would have a lot of people here but I've hosted parties that are 1415 people because it's sunken people just sit along here on the steps on the stairs and very casual and we can fit in a lot of people and in the summertime it moves outside onto the two patios and the floor is heated and so that's a wonderful bonus that I had asked for so that's my little extra special thing absolutely and this is a Polish concrete floor as well as concrete beautiful yeah the step here is just made from a single slab of old-growth timber and it was rescued from some construction or demolition site and it's just a beautiful contrast with the concrete and it's it's a really heavy piece of wood so that it holds up to traffic people walking on it all the time beautiful and then over here we have your dining space my dining / work area / everything it's got a beautiful view out here and it just feels very spacious I do get a lot when we have people over we have extra chairs which are stored over there underneath the deck and we get quite a few people sitting here and then I have this galley kitchen which I was really worried about having a small kitchen and then when they were framing and I was I just couldn't believe that I could actually have something that was functional and usable and I can have two two or three people that are working here back-to-back there's lots of space the fridge is tiny but it's only me that usually lives here so that's okay and that's not so tiny I notice it's tiny when the kids come over and the food consumption skyrockets gotcha but otherwise day-to-day yes you're right this is fine a good sized oven and stove top yep yep that's great and then the dishwasher is tiny and I love it it's hidden away perfectly matches all the other drawers so I'm really happy with that and you touched on this before but the whole kitchen and dining space does just open out onto this lovely garden are you the gardener here I'm not the gardener my mom is I just cut the check see god there's some beautiful little things in there and she also starts a lot of things from seeds and having this large window just open out onto that private courtyard garden gives such a sense of serenity to the home it does and it just makes it feel bigger too so you just you don't feel like you're in a box it's just really nice and then over here we have your stay away and it's wonderful how you've created this feature out of the circular window yeah and it's actually something that people that walk up and down the alley they always comment on that window so it's just a plastic layer that's been put on there on all of these windows for privacy so I get lots of light but I can't see them they can't see it and the way that the stairs are done in here it really helps to keep the space feeling very open and that was deliberately decided on because I didn't want to have a narrow passageway going up stairs I've just feel very enclosed and so they came up with these poles that go here so there's only a few of them that are acts for support the rest of them I think are just to keep that beautiful line going and then the bleached wood is just to keep that light airy feeling going I just like that wood again to reinforce that there's a lot of nature that's involved yeah well it looks really nice how that's been done and can we have a look upstairs sure after you this drum is really cool here it's there like a work of art can you tell me it is a work of art this was done by my son this was his first drum and according to indigenous tradition you give your first creation just like your first kill of a deer or something to an elder and he must have considered me an elder so this is where it's being stored right now and then with the bathroom it's really fantastic how this full-length light panel just let so much light in here it's really nice I was really worried about it even with that opaque plastic cover on it that people would still be able to see me at night backlit sort of thing and I was saying to my designer I'm gonna look like you know a James Bond opening sequence you know I was really worried and she goes but everyone wants to be in an opening James Bond sequence that was how you got convinced no but I think about that every time I go and so I just put a towel over the light because that's acting like a spotlight and it's fine nobody can see anything it really is a wonderful way of just making the space feel so much more open and again one of the things that I really love about your home is all of the interesting lines and shapes that are created with where the walls and ceilings meet each other and again that's really happening well in this room definitely yeah yeah we have a washer and dryer here that's hidden away that is very clearly hidden away yeah and then we have your bedroom in here and again there is just a tremendous amount of storage in here isn't there there is there's lots of cupboards drawers down here and then my favorite which is this large one that's up here oh wow this is kind of like the tiny-house version of an attic isn't it is my attic that's right so I need a very tall person like you a stepstool to get up to put stuff in there brilliant I really love how in this home and coming into this design process you really knew what was important to you and you really made sure that those things were built into this space so that you'd be happy here yeah definitely yeah I've been very happy with it and then you've got your heated floors up here as well and to me it's like a luxury but I figure I put in so much money into building a house just a little bit more and it just makes it so nice on a wintry day oh definitely yeah fair enough so talking about the money what was the cost of building this home this was about four hundred thousand and it ended up being totally about five hundred yeah way more than I expected but you can see that all throughout this home you have very high quality finishing yes it's architectural II quite a masterpiece in terms of the shapes and the lines of this home it's all a little bit complicated to build though I'm sure yeah so how long have you been living here now I'm trying to remember I think it's about three years right yeah and then it took about a year and a half to build got a long time yeah and how are you adjusting to living in the smallest space surprising that was very easy but probably because I had a year and a half living in my mom's house where I lived in Anouk and lived out of boxes and so when I came here I was like oh I saw his face so it was an easy transition and because I had gone from my big house to a nook in her house that was a hard part and then going from there to here was a very easy transition well I think it was the downsizing from the big house to my mom's house that made me realize how little I need and how little of things are important to me and I realized that living in a huge house it's all about where you can store your stuff and about getting more stuff the latest furniture and you know beautiful paintings to go on the wall and the bigger TV and when I got rid of all of that I didn't miss any of it so that was a big learning curve for me and I'm realizing that I'm very happy with a lot less which is that's a big lesson and I think that the living situation that we've made now between my mom and this house that now my kids can come and visit her all the time it's really special and I get to be near her when she's healthy or not healthy she's always around and so she gets to feel a part of my life it's really special and I really wish that more people would do this this home really is just so beautiful I can see how much love and attention was poured into the design and the construction and I can see that it really is a home that just perfectly fits you and your needs thank you so much for sharing it with me you're welcome thank you for coming my pleasure the design of this home really is brilliant it's beautiful its light its spacious it's efficient but what I really love about it is the way that it connects Tamiko with her mother so much of home is connection with family and those people who are important to us and that's really what this house has focused on and done so very well [Music] you

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 1,072,059

Rating: 4.9435954 out of 5

Keywords: living big in a tiny house, tiny house, tiny home, small house, small home, accessory dwelling unit, adu, laneway, laneway home, small house movement, tiny house movement, architecture, homedesign, interior design, wabi sabi, japanese, japanese design, japanese home, small house canada, tiny house tour, tiny house 2019, small house tour, wabi sabi design, architectural home, modern home, modern deisgn, modern architecture, modern small home

Id: bdEsVoqbD5s

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019