(New 2018 Update! My husband recently started a Tiny House blog called TinyHouse, BIG Design. Please visit it for more info and also for a copy of our complete floor plan!)
I have an exciting announcement about a little project our family has been working on behind the scenes for the past year. And by “little,” what I really mean is “tiny” – we’ve built a Tiny House on Wheels (THOW) to use in the mountains! Here in Charlotte, NC it gets hot hot HOT in the summer (I’m talking highs in the mid-nineties with crazy humidity), so we’ve long dreamed of being able to regularly escape to the nearby mountains. With just a 2 or 3 hour drive you can cool off by about 15 degrees (or even more on a good day) and have a whole new set of activities at your disposal … and pretty views, too! 
Why Tiny?
As I mentioned, we always dreamed of being able to spend more time in the nearby mountains, but buying a cabin or vacation house is just not in our budget. So, after putting loads of thought into our options (and being inspired by our recent RV trip and HGTV, of course!), we decided if we went tiny we could realize this dream sooner rather than later.
One of the things we loved about our time in the RV was just how simple life was. It was such a small space to clean and keep up with and didn’t require much in the way of housewares or other “stuff” in general. But, at the same time we are also very much sticklers for things that are well-made and high-quality, so building a tiny house seemed liked the best of both worlds.
Our tiny house is 300-square feet (not counting the sleeping lofts) and, since I am a food blogger and cookbook author, you can probably guess my priority when we were figuring out the design – the kitchen, of course! Many Tiny Houses on Wheels have equally tiny galley kitchens – some even just have a small beverage style fridge and no oven. But, it was super important to me to have a kitchen with plenty of room for cooking and recipe testing. So, here is what we came up with! I honestly love some aspects of this kitchen even more than my kitchen at home!
See our Tiny House Plans
My husband recently started a Tiny House blog called TinyHouse, BIG Design. Please visit it for more info and also for a copy of our complete floor plan (to scale).
Tiny House Video Tour
Only our Most Used Kitchen Tools for our Tiny House Kitchen
We’ve got all sorts of fun kitchen gadgets at home that only get occasional use – such as our panini grill and waffle cone maker – but of course there’s no room for luxuries like that in a tiny house kitchen. So, I thought it would be fun to share the list of our most used kitchen tools and appliances that made the cut for our tiny house. Between inexpensive finds at Ikea, sales at a variety of kitchen stores, and pots and pans that were factory seconds – I’ve been a busy little bee trying to find the best deal on everything we need.
Kitchen Tools and Appliances in our Tiny House
- Pots and pans: 3 Pots (1 quart, 2 quart, 4 quart) and 3 Pans (8″ skillet, 10″ skillet, 3 quart saute pan) – all factory seconds!
- Cast iron skillet: Great for homemade tortillas
- Cutting boards: A combo of wood and plastic all from Ikea
- Good set of knives: Most were a gift from a blog sponsor (yay!)
- Kitchen shears
- Colander and small strainer
- Salad spinner: I honestly didn’t even own a salad spinner before cutting out processed food, now I use it all the time for lettuce, greens and even fresh herbs!
- Steamer basket
- Set of graduated mixing bowls: I hope the big ones can double as serving bowls
- Baking dishes
- Big and small casserole dishes: Also from Ikea
- Pie plate: It’s an extra one from home, but we make quiche enough to warrant having one
- Small baking sheet: A regular sized baking sheet won’t fit in our tiny oven, but it came with one that I hope will work
- Cooling rack: Obviously great for baked goods, but we also use ours for oven-cooked bacon!
- Muffin pan
- Loaf pan
- Cooking utensils
- Basic cooking spatulas/spoons
- Rubber spatulas
- Small whisk
- Tongs
- Roux spoon
- Other small kitchen tools
- Box-style cheese grater
- Carrot peeler
- Small zester/microplane
- Silicone brush
- Can opener
- Potato brush
- Stainless steel measuring spoons/cups
- Glass measuring cups: Both 1 cup and 2 cup size, good for liquids
- Lemon juicer
- Apple slicer
- Small ice cream scoop: Great for spooning muffin, cupcake and cookie batter!
- Wine opener: Of course!
- Meat thermometer
- Small rolling pin
- Small Appliances
- Electric hand mixer
- Slow cooker: Cannot live without this one
- Basic toaster
- Hand-held immersion blender
- Waffle maker: This was our one “not really necessary” splurge, but the girls talked me into getting a Belgian waffle maker (ours at home is just a regular waffle maker, not Belgian), and I liked the idea of having something special like this that we only get to have in the mountains!
- Misc. Items
- Handful of jelly jars and lids
- A couple cookie cutters: I use these when making biscuits
- Milk frother: So I can make my Maple Mocha
- Still deciding
- What type of coffee/espresso maker: We tried a French Press and it didn’t go well
- Food processor: Not sure if we’ll have room for one (big or small) and will go without for now
- Full-sized countertop blender: Hoping the hand immersion style will do for a while and hopefully forever
For direct links to some of my favorite kitchen tools and appliances check out my Kitchen Essentials Page.
Other Kitchen Items
- Simple white dishes: Dinner plates, salad plates, bowls all from Ikea
- Basic set of silverware + serve ware
- Cloth napkins: At home we keep our cloth napkins on our chair so we can reuse them a few times before washing, but since we don’t have a table at the tiny house (we hope to mostly eat outside) everyone just has their own designated color
- Glasses: Very durable and also will nest
- Coffee cups: These were a fun splurge to add a little visual interest to our open shelving
- All-purpose wine glasses: Good for red or white, also from Ikea!
- Serving platters: I have the same elongated simple white set from Ikea at home and use them all the time
- Water pitcher: Also from Ikea and can double as a vase for mountain wildflowers!
- Tupperware: I love Lock & Lock brand for being completely 100% leak-proof, which means perfect for picnicking
- Pot holders: These will also have to double as trivets
- Little “nut” bowls – The other anthro splurge, just to add some character other than white dishes to the open shelves
- Insulated thermos cups – great for picnics and hikes without added waste from plastic water bottles!
Whether you live in a small space or need help figuring out what items are most critical when it comes to making real food (or even need ideas for a wedding registry) – this list might be a good place to start!
Also, I’ve never had open shelving in the kitchen before, but it’s obviously great for many reasons in a small space. My plan is to keep glasses upside down and to dust a lot, I guess. Anyone else with open shelving have advice on how to keep things clean?
More Pics
Here are a few more pictures for those who are interested! If you have (or want) a Tiny House on Wheels as well I’d love to hear about it in the comments! :)
Lentil Sloppy Joe Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (+ how to save money while eating well)
I am in the process of starting to build a tiny house and have always admired your house! I was wondering if you could share the measurements for your house? Did you guys use a tiny house loan at all, if so who did you go through? Thank you so much!
Love your home! I am thinking of getting one after I retire in a couple years. Could I ask who built yours and an idea of the cost. I really love the layout of your home. Thank you.
I had no idea that tiny houses were about 300 square feet. It is good to know that you can get a house this small and still be functional. My wife was talking about how she wanted to look into tiny houses, so I wanted to look into it to learn more.
This is one of the best “tiny house” setups I have seen to date.
It has always concerned me that kitchens generally sit under the loft area. If there was ever a fire!
The bench space is generous and your storage space is so generous.
I love the design, size and your ability to stay within the confines of the tiny house principals.
I am hoping to start building our tiny home at the end of the year. My biggest concerns are using water, electricity, and gas. How do you hook up to water sources and what type of gas system would you recommend. We’re a family of three and will use this as our full time residence.
Hi Shannon – I need to write a blog post about this on my blog at https://tinyhousebigdesign.com! In short, we own the land and use temporary connections (like an RV) to utilities. This was a requirement for our county. We installed a septic system and drilled a well. We use a 40 lb propane tank with a 20 lb backup tank (a typical tank you’d see on a gas grill is 20lb). This may work fine for you, but given you will be there full-time you might be better served with a larger, stationary tank (you can lease them from the gas utility) that they come out and fill for you. Fortunately, our lot had an overhead powerline running through it, so the power company ran an underground line from the pole to our meter and hook up (which we hired an electrician to install). – Jason
I love your tiny house. I hope one day to downsize to a tiny house. What is the towing weight and what type of truck do you use to tow it?
Hi Eileen – I wrote an article about moving the tiny house on my blog that should help answer your questions. Please check it out here https://tinyhousebigdesign.com/moving-tiny-house/. -Jason
We love your tiny home! My husband and I are newlyweds and also living in the mountains of NC. We are very interested in building our own tiny home and we’re wondering if we could get the floor plans for your home? This is by far our favorite plan!! Thank you!
Hi Savanna, you can take a look at https://tinyhousebigdesign.com/ for those designs. – Nicole
Hello my husband and I love the set-ups of your tiny house. I couldn’t find pics of the bathroom. Do you have a washing machine ?
Can you close the door to the bedroom ?
In France, where we are from, tiny houses are a bit unusual but we plan on getting one soon as we are down-sizing everything in our life .
Thank you for your advice !
Hi Reseda, take a look at their tiny house blog (https://tinyhousebigdesign.com/) for more information! – Nicole