PORTLAND — Stepping into Marc and Jeanine’s Modern-Shed Airbnb, you will immediately feel like you’ve found a little nook of heaven.
The cozy shed, which the couple have named the Mallory Tiny Home, after the street they live on, is secluded and private, with stylish decor and a loft bedroom that practically beckons you to turn in and recharge from a busy day of sightseeing.
“People find it really beautiful,” says Jeanine, a spiritual healer who sometimes brings clients to the shed to meditate. “Everyone says there’s just enough space. They’re always impressed with how much space there is or how warm or cool it is. It’s just enough.”
Marc and Jeanine with their Modern-Shed Airbnb in Portland, the Mallory Tiny Home
As the rise of AirBnBs and other vacation rental sites like HomeAway and VRBO can attest, when people take a vacay, more and more they want to stay at a home away from home.
We have several Modern-Shed customers who have capitalized on this trend.
In San Jose, Flora and Jeffrey initially built a Modern-Shed guest room to accommodate Flora’s sister, Fauna, who was staying in the area for college, but when Fauna graduated two years later, the couple started making serious money when they turned their shed into an AirBnB.
“I am just extremely happy with it,” says Flora, whose shed sees mostly business travelers. “I’m booked every day … Totally I was not expecting this many bookings … These guests, they come every day, even during the week, they’re here for a day and gone. It’s convenient for me and them … (Now) I’m a stay-at-home mom and a full-time AirBnB host.”
Other Modern-Shed owners rent or book their sheds for guests more interested in leisure.
Marc and Jeanine’s Modern-Shed AirBnB in fast-growing Portland offers exclusive access to the shed and an herb garden, with guests complimenting the shed’s “cozy” factor and noting that it’s “a gorgeous little oasis in Portland,” “central to a lot of restaurants and stores.”
Modern-Shed rental cabins in Blue Lake Springs
Meanwhile, Holly’s twin Modern-Shed cabins at Blue Lake Springs near the Sierra Nevadas in California complement a traditional cabin and offer large families a quiet respite from the busy, city life.
“They are really cute,” Holly says. “My girls love sleeping in the sheds even though we didn’t plan them to be sleeping quarters … I love how the sheds are really multi-functional. People can use them how they want and can say ‘Hey, this is my space.’”
Many more of our customers simply love having that extra space when family comes over, which is especially important to take into account as the holiday season approaches. Continue reading →
Husband and wife Fred and Susan are no strangers to the multiplying Modern-Shed, having purchased a shed for Fred’s sister, Jane, in Santa Cruz, and then buying one of their own to complement their West Seattle home.
Fred and Susan’s 12′ by 24′ Modern-Shed in West Seattle
Judith’s Modern-Shed on Lopez Island is a perfect space for writing, meditating and doing yoga.
Lopez Island — Judith has had a house on Lopez Island in the beautiful San Juans of Washington state for the past 20 years, but she and her husband, Paul, have always known they’d like a little bit more space to enjoy their lovely surroundings.
“It’s a small house, and we have plans to expand, but I wanted a room away from our house so I could meditate, do yoga and write,” Judith recalls. “We couldn’t afford to do our expansion plan right then so a quickie way to get me some extra space was to get a Modern-Shed.”
Judith had been watching programs on tiny homes, so that’s where she’d gotten the idea to have a small space of her own.Continue reading →
San Francisco Bay Area — When you live in a 110-year-old house, you may soon learn that you need more space, especially if you have a growing family.
That’s what Flora and Jeffrey came to learn in 2015, even though they’d started thinking several years ago about building a shed in their backyard.
“We wanted more livable space,” Flora says. “We looked at prefab options because we wanted something easier … Our house is 110 years old and it’s a very small two-bedroom house. We have plans to renovate it by turning the basement into more living space, but that’s a more long-term plan. When we found out we were pregnant with our son, we knew we needed something faster.” Continue reading →
Greater Seattle area — When David and his family of four moved into their Pacific Northwest home, built in 1912, there was a major problem sitting in the backyard.
“The home had an existing garage that was maybe 50 years old,” David recalls. “There were raccoons living in the walls. There was actually no back wall. It had totally fallen apart and the whole thing probably would’ve just fallen in.”
The family had the garage removed, but as they explored their options to build another unit in the backyard and expand their living space, they ran into some issues.
The Modern-Shed Garage, featuring a frosted glass door from Northwest Door.
“I was originally going to build a garage with a mother-in-law unit, we had it designed and everything, a garage with an apartment above it,” David says. “However it didn’t meet the requirements of the city we live in. It also was going to be very costly.” Continue reading →
Author Erika Kotite spent nearly a year studying the “she shed” phenomenon for her new book, “She Sheds: A Room of Your Own.”
While men have got their man caves, women also need a space of their own, as many of our clients have come to understand. “She Sheds” shows readers how to create cozy getaways with inspiration from across the country.
In addition to building her sister a she shed, Kotite also featured a couple Modern-Sheds in her work.
