Tractor Trailer DIY Tiny House Comes With an Under-$7,000 Price Tag, Gorgeous Styling

Acorn is the name of Jack McKenna's home, one of the smallest tiny houses we've covered over the years. With a total cost of under $7,000, it might just be among the cheapest builds while also being a standout because it's a full DIY (do it yourself) project and because of the smart design that allows it to pack maximum functionality within a very compact footprint.

That last part is almost a given with the description of any tiny house, but it feels like an understatement in this case. Acorn, which owner Jack McKenna describes as a full DIY project but was more a family build, sits on an old double-axle tractor trailer he bought used for some £60 ($73) – 5 meters in total length and the standard 2.4 meters in width (16.4 feet by 7.9 feet).

The interior layout is 12 square meters (129 square feet), so it's small even by tiny house standards.

Despite this, Acorn still offers the basic creature comforts of home, with plenty of personality and style, and it does all this without feeling too cramped or claustrophobic. That's possible mostly due to the elevated, dual-level design – not a typical lofted layout, but a variation that avoids putting the bedroom too close to the roof in a way that would have made Jack uncomfortable.

To say that the trailer had seen better days when Jack bought it is yet another understatement. In fact, everything about this tiny is old, discarded, or otherwise trash, so in a way, this project is also an excellent example of upcycling. That's one way to keep the total price down, Jack tells Bryce Langston from the Living Big in a Tiny House channel, where his home is featured on an episode.

Using salvaged material may be one way to keep costs down, but it's also a sure way of extending a project beyond acceptable timelines because materials aren't readily available, and when they do come up, they require more work than what you’d get from the shop.

Jack worked on Acorn for three years on and off, whenever he came home from the university – but with help from his father and grandfather. The tiny is located on the family's farm in Colchester, England, which doubles as a nature reserve.

It's a beautiful example of upcycling and sustainable living, and can serve as inspiration for your next project, if that's what made you click this story. Everything, from the way reclaimed and salvaged materials combine to the layout and the neat, DIY gray water filtration system, is designed for maximum efficiency with a reduced carbon footprint.

The home is beautiful, too, from the combination of colorful tiling and hardwood painted in deep, rich shades to the design with the elevated kitchen and the king-size bed tucking neatly under the kitchen during the day. Jack himself came up with the design when he was just 16 years old, inspired by other tiny houses with comparatively small footprints.

At 13, he built his own version of Van Bo Le-Metnzel's One SQM Home, which is, to this day, the smallest tiny house in the world. When it came to making plans for his post-uni life, building his own tiny home came organically – as did the idea to start doing it while he was still in school. Construction began in 2020 – and probably constituted a far more successful endeavor than baking sourdough bread, like the rest of the world was doing then.

"It wasn’t that great in our heads, but now that we built it, it’s great," Jack jokes about Acorn.

That's understatement number three: the home features everything from a home office slash entertainment area to a bedroom and living room, a complete kitchen with a fold-out dining table, and a bathroom with a composting toilet, shower cabin, and sink. A wood-burning stove, a water heater, and electricity from the grid render it comfortable throughout the year.

If you're thinking compromises were made in terms of storage on account of the reduced dimensions, you're wrong. Acorn has plenty of floating shelves, hidden storage under the bed and throughout the kitchen platform, and even in the stairs leading up to the kitchen and in the cabinets here. It's not the kind of storage you'll find in a brick-and-mortar home, for sure, but it's more than you'd expect in 12 square meters.

In total, Jack spent £5,600, or approximately $6,800 at the current exchange rate, on the home, which doesn't include the land it sits on because that's family property. If you think that the budget was spread over three years, Acorn is definitely in the running for the title of the cheapest tiny house out there.