Minimalism looks good in photos but is rarely ideal for family life, they say. Tiny houses are nice, but they could never do as a family home because there's simply not enough space, you hear. A tiny like Legacy aims to show that both these things are possible – and at the same time, no less.
Tiny houses and alternative mobile housing solutions have been at the forefront of many conversations, specifically in the context of the financial and housing crisis, heightened environmental awareness, and the whole #vanlife #wanderlust frenzy. For an ever-rising number of people from all over the world, mobile homes – whatever their shape, size, motor power, or number of axles – are an all-in-one temporary or permanent solution.
Tennessee-based builder Handcrafted Movement has been offering a variety of options for mobile homes since 2010, both standard-size and park models. The Legacy, introduced in 2020, is a borderline model that shows how a tiny house can be both family-friendly and still minimalist, compact, and elegant.
Tiny houses are a dime a dozen these days, that much is true. Tiny living has become such a fixture that you might even be feeling overwhelmed into insensitivity on the topic. However, shrugging the entire phenomenon as an Instagram-ready trend that hardly lives up to everyday reality would be doing it a severe injustice.
Photo: Handcrafted Movement
Legacy aims to show that tiny living can be a sum of great things, with applicability in everyday life even with for a full, six-member family. It sits on a 31-foot (9.5-meter) triple-axle Iron Eagle trailer with built-in leveling jacks, brakes, and road lights and is 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) wide, so it's road-legal with special permits.
Sleeping capacity is for a maximum of six people, grouped in twos in king-size beds, and that's the novelty of this particular tiny. The layout is relatively standard, with two lofts at each end of the trailer, but there's a spin to it that makes the unit stand out from what feels like a sea of tinies with dual lofts.
In much simpler words, instead of placing the master bedroom up in the larger loft, the builder chose to make the lofts of equal size and leave their functionality up to the owners. They could be both bedrooms, with sleeping for two people each, or one could serve as the living room, lounge, or even a home office.
Photo: Handcrafted Movement
Meanwhile, the room at one end that would normally be occupied by the living room is now the main bedroom, equipped with a barn door for maximum privacy. Handcrafted Movement calls it a "flex room" because it’s a very versatile space that can shut off from the rest of the house. Whether a bedroom, a large and proper office, or a library, it would be a space of the kind you don't find that often in tiny homes, where privacy is the first that goes out the door.
With the bedroom on the ground floor, some compromises had to be made – starting with the absence of a living room on this level. Instead, in Legacy, you get a small nook with a comfy armchair to watch TV, which, for some people, would suffice. Adjacent to this space is a dining area, with an elegant table and a sleek wooden bench, and then the compact but full kitchen.
The keyword with tiny houses remains "compromising." Whichever way you look at tiny living and regardless of what the builder tells you about how their products won't make you feel like you're compromising on something, some compromise still has to happen. Transitioning from a brick-and-mortar home to a mobile house can't happen without one, if only on consideration of the reduced footprint.
Photo: Handcrafted Movement
The same goes for Legacy. In order to be able to use this inverted layout with the bedroom on the ground floor, Handcrafted Movement cut into the space for the living room and the kitchen. But using minimalist styling, with sleek furniture, lots of exposed shelving, walnut countertops, and distressed oak hardwood flooring, has allowed them to make the most of these spaces so as to render them usable for the entire family.
At the opposite end of the trailer is the bathroom, with room for a stackable washer and dryer, a small shower, a high-efficiency flushing toilet, and a sink with vanity.
The Legacy tiny comes with a standard RV hookup for power, a Rinnai LP tankless water heater, and a mini-split for heating and AC. Optionals include a deck with an awning, if you're looking to expand available space into the great outdoors, and variations to the interior.
Photo: Handcrafted Movement
The Legacy tiny house is priced at $140,000, which again brings us to the old conversation about how tiny houses remain prohibitively priced, or even too steeply so, considering their size and features. That's a conversation we could have endlessly and still not reach a single conclusion.
For some, like the photographer who bought the unit shown in the gallery and turned it into an incredibly cozy home, the advantages of tiny living far outweigh the downsides regarding pricing.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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