When Craige and Jennifer Walters bought a home 60 miles north of San Francisco, they expected a lot of overnight guests and so they decided to convert a portion of their garage (technically a carport) into a small home. The space they chose had been used for storage or possibly as a doghouse (they found it with dog beds) so they sheet-rocked it, put in a kitchenette and a bathroom (it conveniently had easy access to the hot water heater in the garage).

In keeping with their appreciation for a midcentury modern aesthetic, they kept the space open and worked with some of the original garage: the concrete floor in the bathroom and shower, the wooden support beams holding up the carport.

It’s only about 150 square feet, but a friend lived in it full-time for a year without complaints and when Craige and Jennifer rented out their main house one summer, they moved into this as a tiny home.

Craige, who designs bars and restaurants for a living, says he appreciates small spaces. “When I do bar interiors everyone wants to make them feel loft like and large. I’ll actually drop ceilings, shrink things down because people like intimate spaces, they feel comfortable in womb-like spaces.”