The Arbutus laneway house | Smallworks

Today’s featured small house is a laneway house in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver allows homeowners with alley access to replace their garages with a second small house. The Arbutus is a recently completed project by Smallworks Studios/Laneway Housing. Smallworks specializes in the design and construction of laneway houses and backyard cottages in the Vancouver area. The Arbutus has two bedrooms and two full bathrooms in only 750 ft² (69.7 ft²) of living space. That sounds like it would be a bit cramped but the home maintains a general feeling of spaciousness.

The social spaces are on the ground floor with an open kitchen and living area. The living room end of the space has a vaulted ceiling open to the upper hallway, providing a visual connection between the two floors. A pair of wide French doors and flanking sidelights open the living area to the yard and bring in plenty of daylight. In good weather they allow the living area to expand out to a nice large patio.

Although the house has an over all feeling of spaciousness, the floor plans don’t show any obvious place for a dining area. Given that the kitchen already has a decent amount of counter and cupboard space, we would eliminate the kitchen island and put the dining table there for an old-fashioned eat-in kitchen. A lot of people love having an island in the kitchen, but a table can also double as an additional work surface.

The two bedrooms are upstairs at opposite ends of the house. The upper part of the vaulted living room provides a physical separation between the bedrooms, giving them both more privacy without adding to the home’s square footage. There is a full bathroom on each floor, with a stacked clothes washer and dryer located in the main floor bathroom.

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Photographs courtesy of Smallworks Studios/Laneway Housing.

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