For Whitney Morris, creativity is a way of life. Not only did she design a functional home from a minimum of square meters, but she also owns her own business through which she provides creative guidance for clients. She also has a blog and Instagram based on tiny home life. Currently, her Instagram account has 125,000 followers.
Creative designer and consultant
Whitney Lee Morris is a small space limited lifestyle consultant based in Venice, California. Firmly believing that you don’t need to “live large” to live beautifully, Morris uses his blog and Instagram to share tips and ideas aimed at helping individuals, couples and families live comfortably, fairly and more resiliently in compact spaces. Morris shares his experience and advice in various editions and performances, and is currently working on a series of online mini-courses.
How did it all start?
Morris House is a 1924 artisan-style building where she has lived since 2011.
He demanded that she think outside the box to be suitable for her entire family. Not only she and her husband live there, but their rescued hounds Stanley and Sophie, as well as their son West.
Fortunately, the cottage had several of its own assets. There are storage facilities throughout the house, for example, under the bed and sofa, which came with furniture, there are drawers. “We love maximizing space, built-in modules,” Morris told Apartment Therapy. “They are incredibly well thought out, as are the inside pocket doors.”
Another advantage: the many windows and doors of the house, which Morris called her favorite elements. “When the whole house is open, we enjoy the coastal breeze and feel like we're on the street,” she said.
Remodeling a house
Even with these existing advantages, Morris would have to take into account the different preferences of her and her husband when she remodeled her tiny house. “His aesthetics are modern and sophisticated, while mine is more rustic and warm. Both Adam and I like to simplify things, ”she said.
They will also have to keep everything compact: the dwelling is only 34 square meters. The property had only three interior rooms: a bedroom, a bathroom and a living room-kitchen. This meant that some rooms would also have a dual function, as the couple sought to create a place where they could live and work.
Moving to the bedroom was quite enjoyable, as it already had a built-in bed and the shelving surrounding it. Morris notes that they were not quite comfortable, because before they moved, her husband had a king-sized mattress, and she had the usual double. It's good that the built-in turned out to be closer to the royal one, and they could adapt it for themselves:
“Not wanting to buy another mattress, we decided to cut Adam's mattress to the right size. We tested several power tools before we learned that a standard bread knife is by far the easiest solution, ”recalls Morris.
Later, the couple had to reconfigure the bedroom to make room for their new child. “We did what many tenants with small spaces do, and decided to refit our closet in our small room,” Morris wrote on The Tiny Canal Cottage on her blog in 2016.
This meant that they had to move their clothes to an unexpected place: into the courtyard outside their cottage. They got rid of about half of their existing wardrobe, and then hung their remaining clothes in a cedar shed.
New kitchen
Another area that underwent reconstruction was the cottage kitchen. Morris did not do this until her son began to eat solid food. “We find that we spend more and more time in the kitchen together, and I began to be actively annoyed by the countertops. The condition of the sink, faucet and walls also began to be reflected in my eyes, ”she wrote on her blog in 2017.
Morris replaced the dark countertops with a simpler, calmer white, and added a pale gray background of rectangular tiles with enough luster to reflect the light. At the same time, the galley-style kitchen, which includes a cooking place and a full bar with two chairs, instantly began to correspond to the space of the rest of the house.
From there, the kitchen goes directly to the living room with a built-in sofa, which is laid out in the dining room. The couch did present some problems for Morris. “This is a headache. This is the perfect size for us, we are both very tall, but it’s difficult to keep it clean, ”she said.
Bedroom
Since this part of the house has built-in furniture, they are limited in updates that they can do. “The large sizes of cushions require custom covers, and it was not easy for us to find something within our budget,” Morris said.
Nevertheless, the sofa serves as a place to relax, and for very large dinners. Morris can easily set up a table in the middle of the L-shaped sofa and surround it with chairs on all sides.
Opposite the sofa - on the wall common to the living room and bedroom - Morris has a workplace. “During the day, this is my dirty but colorful graphic design office. In the evenings - this is our calm, cozy dining room, ”she said.
Since all of the available space at home was already taken, Morris also took advantage of the open area near him. Besides the added closet, the family has a games room on the porch and space for tables and chairs. There, they enjoy the evenings and views of Venice (a suburb of Los Angeles), which Morris called "warm and gorgeous" in an Instagram post.
Home comfort
Thanks to all of their changes, Morris said: “We somehow balanced our tastes to create a home office that's perfect for us as a couple.” Their lifestyle also simplified the reflection of their tiny home. “We need to be conscious and think about where and what we put, where things become redundant, and this permeates all other aspects of my work,” she said.
And it seems that Morris and her family do not plan to part with the tiny house in the near future. In a January 2018 blog post, she said that she and her husband had another tiny barn, the twin of their own home, which is only eight feet away. They plan to use it as a home for her parents when they arrive in the city.
