Tiny House Tuesday: Salvage Beauty
February 24, 2009
WHO: Jeffrey Gantert and Brad Bloom
WHERE: Portland, Oregon
WHAT: Two teensie, salvage-savvy cottages
SIZE: 364 square feet each
Scraps to supplies, simply.
From olive oil cans to castoff Dairy Queen bench seats, salvage-smarts abound in spades between Jeffrey Gantert and Brad Bloom, the savvy pair behind the two tiny, one-bedroom Portland Garden Cottages.
Self-taught builders Gantert and Bloom left no stone unturned — or, rather, no Dumpster unopened — to kit out their cottages, which make use secondhand materials such as local bakery flour sacks as kitchen wallpaper and terra cotta roof tiles as wall sconces, among other things. Even the siding is recycled: thousands of tomato sauce cans from a Portland pizzeria were transformed into sheets of leather-lookalike siding, with a little help from the weather and a few coats of linseed oil.
The cottages are fully furnished rentals, going for $1k/month, and feature storage lofts, reading nooks (that transform into guest beds) and loads of built-in storage. Living Small in style, and with respect for repurposing? I’ll take it.
Living Small 
I love it! Also love your house and site, can’t remember if I’ve commented here before. Good job living small! :)
Thanks so much, Marianne. Glad you like the Smalls.
Amazing…beautifull! I finde myself wanting to move in. A touch of home town confort in a small space. I love it.
As do I! Thanks for stopping by.
Jeff, Are you Ken Schuetz’s friend?
I wrote to you via snail mail about a possible memorial service in OR. We would really like to attend but need to make travel arrangements ASAP. Is there a date set?
We would appreciate knowing soon as several other summer plans hinge on this. Thanks a lot. Karen
The more and more I read about tiny living, the more I am loving it those cottages are really stunning, I have just moved into a smaller place recently as my fiancée left left me and it just a one bedroom, bath, lounge and tiny kitchen, its been a huge adjustment but I am getting there and its not feeling so bad, small is sometimes good, its easier to maintain and one doesn’t feel completely lost in a huge house.
These are beautiful little places. It’s true; Small means no getting lost!