After remodeling the upper floors in the house to rent out, the owners embarked on this basement remodel with plans to move their family of four into it. Downsizing is all about maximizing the use of space and creating a place everyone in the family can enjoy. In this case, incorporating 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, office area, laundry and a relatively large kitchen/dining/living living space into 1050 sf. - much bigger than the tiny houses seen on TV, but about half the size of the space they had been living in.
We created cost savings by locating the kitchen and bathroom under existing plumbing lines, and worked around the existing centralized gas furnace, water tank and stairwell. The home can easily be converted back to a single-family home if desired.
We replaced and enlarged some of the windows to bring in more natural light, and created an open concept living, dining and kitchen area so the the natural light coming in reaches these areas throughout the day.
The home already had some great old beams, which worked perfectly to create a cozy space that worked well with the owner's mid-century, European and Asian aesthetic.
Some of our favorite features are the brick wall in the kitchen (real brick, thinly cut), the affordable Portugese mosaic tile floor in the bathroom, the cedar ceilings and Cumaru* floor, and deep windows that create a kind of shelving space.

*Cumaru is a hardwood similar to teak.