office interior design dublin
this week we're back in aucklandvisiting brenda kelly who's managed to transform a 20-foot shipping containerinto an incredible off-grid tiny home hey hey hey brenda how's it going okaythis is absolutely spectacular thank you beautiful place yeah i suddenly love itcontainer homes are something i've been passionate about since was a little girlactually i didn't realize how young it started to us going through moldjournals and back when i was even 13 i was scribbling little diagrams ofcontainers and how to make the most of the space with different furniture andlayout options and it's just gone from passion to a hobby and i ventured asideof you know one i just do this so how
big is a shipping container shippingcontainers a 20-foot container so it's roughly six meters long by about two anda half meters wide wow and the interior bit that i've got here is about fourmeters long so it comes to just under 10 square meters wowokay that's incredible because i mean when you think of somebody doing a20-foot shipping container build the last thing that you would expect is thatthey only use four meters eric yes what i wanted to do is keep it under 10square meters cuz that's the council requirement for not requiring buildingconsent right great solution yeah was it tough to build in that amount ofspace it wasn't actually and there's a
lot of planning that goes into it therei fed it absolutely everything i need and i'm really stoked with the resultsso it's been great okay let's have a look inside okay comeon in oh my goodness oh this is beautifully done thank you when i sawhow big the space was from the outside i would have never guessed it would bethis spacious inside yeah i think using white a lot helps certainly give it thatfeel and given i've got a mezzanine floor as well it's some given it a bitmore the high roof and especially the window view we just come and you justhit with that beautiful view i think really adds to it as well and i thinkwhat you've done by actually elevating
the living area i love the sleeping areaas well as really clever because that's just given it a whole place a realfeeling of greater spaciousness yeah kind of look up to it and in front ofyou it's slightly so it's a bit of oh do i put the living area at the top whichis traditionally what you're doing a tiny house but i didn't want to sort ofbe hit with it floor level of eye level i wanted to beable to come in and see the view and have that feeling of spaciousness so youhave put the bedroom down below sure and unfortunately i'm young enough thatgetting on my knees is not an issue so through it really well i'm really happyi did make that call and how high is it
in here in total it's a high q containerso it's roughly 2.9 and given off that installation the ceiling down it'sprobably about 2.7 at the moment right okay and when it divides up into thosetwo separate compartments over there what are we looking at there the bottomones roughly one meter and high tommy i want to make sure i could still sit upin bed and read a book and things like that so just the right amount ofheadroom and then this is roughly i think one point six five so you won't beable to stand up i can't no but i'm but when you think about it when you need aliving room you're not really standing anywhere yes ma'am so it hasn't been aproblem at all we just got a home in
better not hit the first time and thenyou know you learn oh i've got a lovely great big sofa space here as well i meanhad to be lovely for lounging out all this and it's great actually this somedoubles as a beard as well gift so votes also i am bb this comes up and then i'vegot my library and linen cupboard in the faring there as well it pops up in thisstorage underneath so everybody furniture and he has gotsort of built-in storage of some sun description to make the most of thespace and the kitchen is gorgeous again you've managed to pack a whole lot intoa very small amount of space haven't you yeah absolutely i think but the heightstill helps you can have sort of thought
height covers and you've also gotstorage up top sure and but yes everything i need thefridge is just a perfect size for me i've got my drawers my pantry my cutthree everything's got at space and yeah it's great and the office space here aswell yes i went from home two days a week so it was important i had my ownsort of dedicated desk and this just fits perfectly into the space and theonly non 12-volt appliances i have i've got a little can inverter that i usethis 150 watts and you just plug it in all these places pop around the face orall 12 volts so cigarette lighter or usb right so i can add my cellphonerun my printer for example or run off
this charging my camera batteries in mydrawer battery about the only things on e 240 volts for and thethose fine so let's check out the the lounge okay yeah see this is a reallyreally lovely space isn't okay and what an incredible view you have out herewell lately yeah it's my favorite seat in the house you've got right there justlooking out over there bush i can imagine whyand so the 12-volt tv up there as well yes travel tv with built-in dvd playerright and it's fun eh you've got a dvd of of a fireplace so you know in winterwould i have friends around come on and i've got the fire off so system is quitegood yeah but there's an aquarium up
there i know there's an aquarian upthere right now yes cats favorite program i'm here so umlet's check out the sleeping area okay yeah come on in this base is so cozyyeah it's just the right height i can sit up and be in and read a book andwhatnot and not hit my head i can make the bed quite comfortably yeah that'syeah it's perfect height really absolutely and the lighting here as wellyes we've got strip lighting along the wall and we've also got littleindividual lights for reading by as well fantastic and you've got your wardrobeall along the back wall there as well i do yes i've got a couple of shelvingunits and with a rail in between for
hanging storage so okay did it go on itoh wow see this is actually a really lovely space yeah awesome i do like tobe able to have a shower and wash my hair without putting my hands all gonefor a 900 white shower and studio traditional 7:50 right and it said as agood space is enough room to change and things like that which is greatabsolutely and i really like what you've done here with the the clear lightroofing as well it's bright lights and heats of natural light natural warmthit's great - you feel like you know you're you're in the middle of the brushwhen you're showering a little kingfisher that sits on the clotheslineand watches me yeah absolutely that real
outdoors bringing outdoors and that's umyeah i love it this is a utilities cover as well asadditional storage right and so obviously we've got our hot waterheating unit at the top it's got all my camping gear and tools and stuff andright down the bottom here a little draws we've got my two six voltbatteries right along with my 12 volt pump and accumulator tank under fear myfuses and things they're all tucked away in this cupboard and so the solarcontrol units here as well it is yes so at the moment even though it's slightlyovercast i can tell that we're drawing in close to one in rightand that one out going out at the moment
as well so i've got some lights on sooverall i've drawn in 964 empowers and used 8:05 so as you can see my littlepicture there there's a battery with a smiley face as long as he's happy i'mhappy sounds good to me and you put it onconcrete blocks i have yes this is a like just a tire that's been filled withconcrete that's great yes so given it's just a temporary dwelling and in alsothe beauty of containers you actually only need to support the four cornersbecause they're designed obviously to to have that structural integrity andsupport there so concrete blocks is all i really needed and this this containersoff grid as well isn't it it is so can
you tell me about some of the off-gridfeatures that have been built into it i shall carry yes i've got two 12-voltmetro to six volt batteries connected in series to give me 12 volt everything iswired up twelve volt there aren't many appliances these days that you can't get12 volts so i've just done it that way it means i can do all the wiring myselfas well you don't need an electrician sure i've got two one 35 watt solarpanels on the roof right and they basically just charged the batteries andyeah it's give me everything i need and what about what about rainwatercollection well if you want to come around the other side i can show youwhat i do there let's go so at the
moment i'm just collecting rainwaterfrom the roof of the shed which is only about two square meters right and goesinto the guttering as you can see notice i've got a hedgehog data system and howthat works is it basically this like a cylinder inside the down pipe in therainwater comes around the outside of the down pipe fills up goes through thislovely 2p into the two tanks i have set up right about to 220 liter tanksconnected to each other rain goes into the first one is waterseeks its own level they both fall at the same rate and once they fill up thewater comes back up here comes make up the drain flow and then comes down theinner tube and out through the storm
water which i'll connect up i haven'thad to do that yet right so you've got four hundred and forty liters of waterto work with treat how are you getting on with that it'sbeen fine i mean i've been here three weeks we have had a fair bit of rain butright i mean it's just showering washing that you're really using water for suredamn i haven't come close to running out so fantastic do you have a way ofmonitoring how much you've got inside the task very very young high techsolution tech solution very effective all righti like to always undo and pour more and if i have to do so and if it hasn't cometo that yet it's been fine so i've got
kind of an undercover entranceway rightand it also has my utilities cupboard which is storing my batteries and mywater pump as well as a whole lot of my tramping gear and things like that andbut the plan is also that these container doors they still open rightthe way up right so once the weather gets better i do my landscaping i'llhave a nice little patio out here and then those doors can open the indooroutdoor flow and so tell me a little bit about the the build process did you do alot of the build yourself i did in the india contracted out the sourcing andfitting out off the container and my source the windows and the doors a lotof things he can hand to try and say
well costs but i gave it toprofessionals to install and yielding a welder isn't one of my strong points andthat yeah i saw some of the materials myself and then when it came to doingthe painting and the installation and assembly and everything in between meand my dad we've there yeah i managed to cut it out and so the big question whatwas the budget the budget was around 30 grandyeah and i've come in i haven't added up the final tally but i think i probablyaround 30 35 grand i think for what you have accomplished here that's a reallyreally good price yeah yeah i'm definitely happy with it i mean a lot oflabor obviously didn't go in today so
that costing was it they don't havebeing another 20 grand vadym now it's been a labor of love andi've loved every minute of legend yeah really happy with the result well thankyou so much for showing us around you're here with a full house it's been a realpleasure and i think you've created something here that you can really beproud of thank you really appreciate it thank you cheerscreating a comfortable living space and 10 square metres as an incredibly bigdesign challenge and i think brenda has done a fantastic job and really makingit into a reality it's really obvious how much thought and design has goneinto each and every aspect of the house
and that means she's managed to createsomething that's going to be a comfortable home for mehe is to come