When the bright lights, constant noise and fast-pace of the city starts to feel too much, retreating to a luxe tiny home is the ultimate remedy. Lucky for us in Australia, we’ve a number of hidden and remote tiny homes easily accessible from major cities, that make for the perfect escape.
But owning one of your own? Well, that’s a little trickier. Unless you’ve got a good chunk of cash to splash or have the skills to build an eco-cabin from scratch, you’re faced with a number of barriers that sit between you and your dream off-grid escape. But with the rise of the tiny home movement comes a bunch of new players in the space who’re making the trend far more affordable and accessible, one, in particular, being Den.
Den has a simple mission: to bring the outdoors in. The co-founding couple behind the US brand does this by creating cabin designs that help people immerse themselves in nature, while never compromising on comfort.
A little while back, Den released plans for its Instagram-famous A-frame cabin for $99 USD to help people around the world replicate the build, but now it’s gone a step further by launching full DIY A-frame cabin kits.
“Using simple tools you can have your very own cabin built within a long weekend,” Den says on its website. “Our innovative kit features carefully planned engineering to enable a fast build with interlocking parts, guiding the builder at each step with an intuitive design.”
The Den Kit Cabin comes in three different exterior aesthetics: Forest, Alpine or Coast (charcoal timber, pale timber, or steel finish). Inside, the cabins maintain an airy look and feel with plywood cladding and a floor-to-ceiling window at one end.
The A-frame cabin is built to withstand all seasons and has thermally insulated walls and floors to protect against extreme cold and unseasonably warm climates. Should you wish to take the cabin off-grid, solar panels and batteries can also be added.
Easily built by two people over two to three days, the cabin comes intuitively packed for simple installation. The kit includes all screws and bolts, and calls for simple tools like a power drill, ladder, and staple gun. Regular folk can do it, but of course, imploring the help of a builder would never be a bad idea for those less experienced.
When complete, the 10 square metre cabin boasts a stunning appearance in any environment, has 3.3m-high ceilings, and sleeps two adults. If not intended to be used as a weekend retreat, the cabin can also serve as a studio, office, or arts space.
You may be wondering about the, uh, facilities. While the cabin itself does not include a bathroom, you can purchase plans to construct a washroom for $99 USD, however, speaking to Dwell, Den has expressed an intention to create a DIY washroom that buyers can add on.
Den is accepting orders on its DIY A-frame cabin kit now with a $2,000 USD refundable deposit for shipping in January 2021. In full, the cabin kit will cost $21,000 USD or around $28,836.50 AUD.
While the company has announced shipping to the US so far, Dwell says Den is looking to expand its shipping to international locations soon. Fingers crossed it ships to Australia soon.