This Double Shipping Container Home Is A Stargazer’s Dream

published Mar 30, 2018
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Sitting on twelve acres of pristine Western prairie, this upcycled tiny house is really two salvaged shipping containers — combining one Montana architect’s wanderlust, sustainable vision, and homesickness into a modern Western retreat that he calls a “stargazer’s dream.”

Architect and artist Ty Kelly told Zillow that he created the 720 square foot, open-layout one bedroom, one bathroom home from two shipping containers in 2014 as a vacation rental and a way to “get back to his roots” in Livingston, Montana, after many years living and working in Washington State.

If you’re the type of person who needs wide open spaces, but loves the modern conveniences and innovations of contemporary design, then this diminutive dwelling is your dreams come true in the shape of a place out west, to borrow from the Dixie Chicks.

Featuring a clean, sophisticated look combined with warm, reclaimed wood (including Redwood flooring and butcher block counters) and practical upgrades to make the shipping containers more comfortable for day-to-day living (including electric in-wall heaters and spray-foam insulation), the finished design is the perfect sustainable-minimalist backdrop to complement the real draw: an entire wall of the home made of floor-to-ceiling glass windows, through which to take in the unreal Western vistas.

“There was nothing around, the property was made for a view,” Kelly told Curbed, in a recent interview about the entire design process for the home. “I always liked the idea that an object had landed on the landscape, so I wanted to create an all-glass wall that faced the mountains.”

In addition to the interior views, the container home was created with built-in amenities that take full advantage of big-sky living, day and night: an open-air outdoor shower; a cubby in one exterior wall for storing logs for bonfires.

After three years as a successful five-star-reviewed getaway on popular booking sites, including a feature on HGTV’s Extreme Homes, Kelly recently sold the property for $125,000 to “a woman about 10 miles down the road” (who plans to use the “tiny home” to host her kids and grandkids when they visit) — though Curbed reported he received offers from coast to coast.