The Tiny-House Story

The Builder John West

What does a former Officer in the Marine Corps and CEO of a technology company do for a change? Why build Tiny Houses of course.

After over 20 years of founding and managing a technology company I was ready to do something completely new and different. My admiration for handcrafted items and the fond memories I had doing woodworking projects set me on the quest for a wooden, collectable, gift product I could build and market. The only question was what to build?

One memory that shaped my thoughts were the cigar boxes I collected as a kid. Those boxes become homes for all the little treasures that you seem to accumulate as a child. Things like rocks, coins, keys, marbles, baseball cards, nuts and bolts and everything else imaginable found homes in my cigar boxes. It was always a joy to open a box and sift through those treasured items.

I also remembered the boxes my grandfathers had that contained all manner of wonderful things. My one grandfather was a tailor so he had boxes full of every kind of button you could think of. For some reason those buttons fascinated me. My other grandfather was a real craftsman that could build almost anything. His cigar boxes were real treasure chests. If you needed a nut, bolt, screw or washer he seemed to have it plus an assortment of almost everything else. To this day that simple joy of sorting through my grandfathers cigar boxes brings a smile to my face.

Even today I find that I have different kinds of boxes that hold those things that somehow I can't throw away. Rummaging through them always brings back memories associated with a special saved item. In talking with friends they also had their own collections of boxes full of treasures. That's where the idea for a box came from. I refined that idea further to a wooden box about the size of a cigar box. Of course there were all kinds of people building boxes like that all over the world. It seems keepsake and treasure boxes have a universal appeal. So how could I make my boxes truly unique?

Once again a childhood memory provided the answer.

Growing up my family always had a village scene under our Christmas tree. That village consisted of small plastic houses set on a blanket of cotton snow encircled by my electric train. We spent days setting up the houses in our village. The log cabin was set on a box under the snow to make it look like it was on top of a snow covered mountain. We always made an ice skating rink from an old piece of mirror placed under a hole in the cotton snow. There was also a town center with our church, school house and various shops. We even had a farmhouse and barn surrounded by miniature animals. The unpacking and setting up of that village always defined the beginning of Christmas for me.

From those fond memories came my idea for wooden boxes shaped like the tiny houses under our Christmas tree. I wanted my houses to capture the architectural and visual detail that would make them seem real.I knew that to individually hand paint that detail on each box would be very difficult and expensive. I was at an impasse in how to build my houses until I discovery of the art of decoupage.Decoupage in French means "cutting out". It is the art of cutting and pasting paper cutouts on wood, metal or glass surfaces followed by numerous coats of varnish. The finished effect is that of being painted on the surface. With decoupage techniques I felt that I could achieve the fine detail on the outside of my tiny houses that I was after. The next challenge was to find an artist that had the skill to bring my houses to life. That proved to be a difficult task. Some artists were good at architectural renderings but couldn't draw people, animals and foliage that were all part of my vision. By fate I discover Francis Vail. Her talents, developed over many years could make Tiny Houses that were true works of art.

The Artist Francis Vail Fran grew up loving to draw and paint. From her childhood summers on Lake Minnatonka in Minnesota to today's time spent in a log cabin in Door County Wisconsin she developed a fine appreciation for all of nature. After receiving a degree in fine art from Syracuse University she moved to France and later Vienna to study the art, murals and architecture of Europe. Returning to the United States Fran built a career painting murals, architectural renderings, botanical and nature paintings along with portraits of loved ones be they Baby or Bowser. Her art is treasured for its detailed realism and natural use of color. With Fran as the artist and me as the builder we were ready to create our first tiny houses.

The Tiny House Process

The Tiny House process is a true collaborative effort. It begins with the brainstorming of ideas. What are those special houses of our dreams and memories? Once we select a basic type of house Fran creates a pencil rendering. I use that rendering to create a wooden model to validate scale and construction methods. Once we settle on the overall shape we then create detailed drawings. Fran uses those drawings as the outline for her artwork while I use them to build the wooden elements of the house. A lot of additional collaboration occurs as we select the plants, animals, people and building materials that define the vision and theme we have for a particular house. We want every tiny house to capture an emotion of fond memories. Each house is a living scene with all the people, animals and natural surroundings that make it special. Fran now begins the time consuming and meticulous task of creating watercolor paintings of every outside visable element of the house. She does these paintings in double the actual size to capture the intricate detail that makes her artwork look so real. From every view our Tiny Houses are wonderful original works of art.

Once Fran finishes her paintings we then have them reduced to actual size and printed onto high quality paper stock. Those printed sheets are then die cut to size for gluing onto the outside surfaces of the houses.

While Fran is busy with the paintings I concentrate on the fabrication of the wood elements that will be assembled to form the structure. Each house is constructed from multiple pieces of furniture grade plywood laminated with American Walnut. The complete inside and bottom of our houses features the natural beauty of Walnut hand stained to a warm glow and protected by multiple layers of hand applied Polyurethane. After a house is fully assembled the top is actually cut off from the bottom to form a lid. This lid is then hinged along the back so that it is easily lifted for access to the inside of the house for storage. The house is then ready for decoupage. Each cutout piece of printed art is now carefully glued to the appropriate outside surface of the house. Finally multiple layers of protective Polyurethane are hand applied giving the underlying artwork its hand painted appearance. As a final step each house is individually hand signed and numbered by me. It is our hope that each tiny house we build becomes a collectable home for all the keepsakes in everyones life.

As for the future we intend to continually add to our family of Tiny Houses. From city to country we are inspired by those buildings that have an emotional connection to fond memories of the past. We welcome your ideas for tiny houses of your own memories and dreams.
Both Fran and I derive great satisfaction in creating Tiny Houses. We hope you will have pleasure in owning a Tiny House of your own.

Thank You