Tiny living is about much more than downsizing, it’s a social movement, a statement, and a lifestyle in its own right, centered around core values such as individual freedom, respect for nature, sustainability, and the return to a simpler life. The tiny house featured in this story was once a simple prototype, but it still embodies the best of tiny living.
No matter how much a tiny house construction business grows over time, its founder will always remember the first tiny home he built and that started it all. Many of the established tiny house companies in various parts of the world started with just a man and his dream, and many people ended up making homes on wheels for other after building one for themselves, simply because they couldn’t find a ready-made house to their liking.
People who built tiny homes can come from very different backgrounds, yet seem to share certain values and passions across cultures and national borders. A deep love for nature and the outdoors, a commitment to sustainability and the wise use of natural resources, a calling for minimalist living, and the desire to help others live their dream as well, are some of the things that these strong, visionary men have in common.
Jean-Maxime is one of them. He is the force behind Tiny and Projet Bois (“Project Wood”), an artisan construction and carpentry workshop in France that was established more than a decade ago, in 2014. Jean-Maxime was passionate about woodwork since the age of 12, but before he turned 30, he took a big decision that changed the trajectory of his life. He felt it was time for a professional reconversion, and he switched gears from environmental engineering to carpentry.
Photo: Tiny and Projet Bois
Soon after this big step, the young carpenter opened Tiny and Projet Bois in Isere, a beautiful location in the French Alps, and started building custom homes on wheels right away. To this day, his work includes extensive woodwork as well, from staircases to exterior decks and pergolas, and this lifelong passion for wood shows up in the mobile homes he builds as well. Every Tiny &Projet Bois home looks and feels like a wooden paradise where timber comes alive.
Jean-Maxime’s style and capabilities have naturally expanded over time, but he is still very proud of the first house on wheels that he has ever built. This is the prototype, a tiny house that he built almost as an experiment, because he used that project specifically to determine the best materials, to make all the weight assessments and other measurements, and to basically figure things out. This tiny house would become the foundation for all future custom projects.
A tiny house that is born as a prototype has the kind of sentimental value that makes it priceless, even though technically it might be imperfect. What sets this one apart is the rustic gypsy caravan silhouette coupled with a full-wood interior that evokes traditional cabins and farms. It almost feels like a time capsule – a nostalgic home from a bygone era, yet also timeless.
In a time when modern architecture, modern materials, and an industrial approach are taking over, tiny homes like these are a reminder that things can be different and that tiny living is just as much about natural materials and sustainability as it is about affordability and downsizing. There’s a place for container-like tiny homes with steel frames, metal exteriors and chipboard interiors, but there’s also a place for traditional tiny homes on wheels built entirely of wood.
Photo: Tiny and Projet Bois
The gypsy caravan silhouette gives this prototype tiny house a specific interior look as well, with rounded ceilings and decorative beams. There’s no difference in tone or texture between the wall panels, the ceiling, and the flooring throughout, which gives this home a very unique, cohesive look. The furniture blends in with the walls, and you feel almost enveloped inside a cozy, warm timber cocoon.
One end of the home is dedicated to the lounge area. It has classic windows on two sides – a welcomed break from the oversized picture frames that are almost ubiquitous these days – and mismatched, improvised shelves that add a naïve charm. A large corner sofa takes center stage – it’s welcoming enough for a large group of guests and, most importantly, it can convert into a spacious bed.
The home’s “official” bedroom is the larger loft above the bathroom and kitchen area (there’s also a smaller loft above the lounge, fitted with built-in drawers and only intended for storage). The loft bedroom is big enough to fit a two-person bed, it has windows for cross-ventilation and natural light, and it features a solid cabinet that doubles as a safety wall on the outside.
Access to this loft bedroom is very interesting. It’s not a classic staircase, but not a basic movable ladder either. It looks like a hybrid staircase, but it’s entirely custom-crafted and a bit quirky. The whole structured is built around an actual tree branch extending from the floor to the loft’s edge, and the tiny treads built around it are meant to create a so-called goose-step or duck-step design.
Photo: Tiny and Projet Bois
The point of this quirky design is to save a great deal of floor space, as the compact treads are places asymmetrically in an alternate order. Indeed, you can tell that this unusual staircase takes up very little space compared to a conventional design, yet it’s still better in terms of safety and comfort than a simple movable ladder. Plus, the rustic charm of that rugged tree branch complements the overall traditional style perfectly.
The kitchen is also a combination of rustic carpentry and modern space efficiency. The cabinetry doesn’t look perfectly aligned, which gives this kitchen the bohemian, a bit chaotic look of many French tiny homes, but it’s meant to offer more storage and greater versatility than its size would suggest. Next to the classic lower cabinets under the countertop, Jean-Maxime added a bespoke cabinet on wheels with multiple drawers and shelves, as well as a modular table.
The modular table serves both as a dining table and a console with built-in storage for the lounge. Classic upper cupboards were ditched in favor of simple open shelves and a tiny rack, which makes room for the classic windows that keep this kitchen bright and airy. Appliances are limited to essentials only: a sink, a stove, and a fridge that is small enough to fit under the countertop, between the cupboards.
This is what minimalism combined with sustainability looks like – real timber comes with the advantage of natural warmth in colder seasons, and modern appliances are integrated into a natural space, instead of taking over. Nothing is perfect, yet there’s more room to breathe. A proper balance between modern glazing and wood paneling keeps this cozy home both luminous and intimate, while timber naturally takes on a decorative role in addition to pure functionality.
Photo: Tiny and Projet Bois
A tiny deck with a pergola-style roof was the perfect final touch that turned this “experimental” house on wheels into a real home. It doesn’t take a lot for domestic bliss, and it can start with craftsmanship and raw timber alone. This simple, but uniquely charming tiny house was the beginning of what became a successful tiny house construction workshop, and the first out of a long series of custom-built mobile homes that tell a story.
