Shipping Container Design: From Cottage Dwellings To Chic Contemporary Homes

My fiancé and I went down a several-month rabbit-hole/tiny house bender. Obsessed like fiendish addicts, we researched every and all tiny house style and got very close to pulling the trigger with a builder.

Cabins, A-Frames, yurts, T.H.O.W.’s (tiny house on wheels), cob/earth builds, and lastly. . . shipping containers. I poured through anything I could get my hands + eyeballs on.

The sustainability student in me got super drooly super fast over the shipping container homes. They’re readily available in every state and generally just sitting there like ghosts in a cemetery. They’re supremely affordable — if you want to get real fancy you can shell out a few extra k’s and get an insulated container that shipped perishables in its day and save yourself the trouble. And they’re incredibly adaptable and modular building blocks to create with. Like giant industrial LEGOs.

I’ve seen quaint and truly tiny houses built out of a single container only 8’ wide, 8.5’ tall, and 20’ long. (Again — if you want to get real fancy you can shell out more and get one that’s 9.5’ and potentially 40’ long.)

I’ve seen ultra-mod mansions comprised of a dozen containers that angle and cantilever and are reclad with cedar wood paneling or sheets of dark, modern metals.

So here’s a collection of our favorites.

From charming single-container cottages that kept their original funky color, to strikingly modern estates that Frank Lloyd Wright would surely approve of — these homes will reset your idea of those big utilitarian freight boxes you see sitting out in industrial yards.

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Designed by Price Street Projects. Source: Wink Go

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So many of these spaces and designs do such a great job at integrating the interior space and outside.

That’s a huge element for us: instant access to nature.

I love to see the walkways, courtyards, balconies, and patios that are easily created off of container builds. If we go that route we’ll definitely be incorporating as much of that indoor/outdoor access as possible.

To shop furniture + decor we’d put in a container build. . .

Click here to shop all my favorite things,

Designed by: Studio H:T. Source: Wink Go

Yellow Submarine vibes for anyone else on the container pictured above? I love the punchy red and orange colors and the circular port windows!

The Beatles would’ve dug this one for sure.

This is giving me an enchanted barn meets Chinese lantern kind of vibe.

It’s so dreamy!

It’s what I envision The Boxcar Children would eventually build for themselves if they decided to settle somewhere more permanently.

I’ve been watching World’s Most Extraordinary Homes on Netflix for a few years now (yes, I’ve been watching the same episodes over and over — ahem ahem, more seasons please, Netflix!) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of these beautifully modern, concrete clad + cantilevered, picture-windowed, indoor/outdoor masterpieces end up on there one day.

Retail + Restaurants are catching on to the shipping container trend too, and if you’re looking for design styles and setups that maximize outdoor living space, scope out these two containers for some inspiration.

I love the outdoor walkways + catwalks, the giant rollback garage-style doors and giant sliding windows. I’d copy all of those elements in a house!

What do you think?!

If you could pick one out of this lineup which would you pick? Are you more of a single container tiny build, or a composite deluxe build dreamer? Drop me a comment below and share your favorite.