Woman Builds Her Own Tiny House At 23 For Around €27,000 Without Borrowing Any Money, Then Fits 14 People Inside For Her Birthday And “Haven’t Looked Back”

Emma was 23 years old when she decided she wanted a home of her own, and she did not want a mortgage hanging over her head. So she built one with her own hands, with help from friends and family, for around 200,000 Danish kroner, which she puts at about €27,000.

A smiling woman stands outside a small wooden tiny house, next to a modern black cabin with solar panels

She told host Bryce on Living Big In A Tiny House that she did not borrow a single cent. “I built the house when I was 23 and I haven’t looked back,” she says.

Her Tiny House Sits Under An Oak Tree On A Danish School Campus

The house stands on the grounds of a Danish folk high school, an old school system that began in the 1800s. Students live on campus for half a year or a full year, and they eat, take classes and grow food together.

The school was given some land four years ago, and Emma started coming as a volunteer. They wanted a school garden to feed the students, but there was not much money behind the project. Over time her responsibilities grew until it became a job teaching and designing the gardens.

She first lived in a different tiny house on the property for a year. “I spent that year observing myself in a tiny house,” she says. After twelve months she felt the need to create her own space.

Moving Day Left “All Of My Investments Just Hanging Up There In The Air”

The house is not on wheels, but it can be moved. She built it to fit on a truck, about 3 by 7 meters and no taller than 4 meters.

It has been moved once, on a rainy November day with a muddy road. The truck had to be unloaded out on the road, and the house had to be lifted up and over an oak tree. “It was just like all of my investments just hanging up there in the air,” she says.

It was nerve-wracking, she admits, and the whole village came out to watch.

Secondhand Windows, Doors And A Roof Of Leftover Tiles

Emma built from recycled and renewable materials, a rule she set for herself. She followed the permaculture idea of choosing resources that hold up or improve with use, and avoiding those that are costly to make new.

That meant all her doors, windows and the roof came secondhand, because making new ones takes so much energy. The main build is wood, with a breathable wall that lets moisture move in and out instead of a sealed vapor barrier.

The roof tiles came from a man online who had a batch left over from his own build, and they fit her roof size perfectly. A friend taught her how to lay them. She plans to take them off when she moves the house, since a small roof is not hard to strip.

She also added a sun room from leftover materials and things she found. After coming in from the field with muddy shoes in the rain, she says, it is not nice to walk straight into the living room. Now it is a cozy buffer zone between outdoors and indoors.

Inside, 14 Guests Squeezed In For Her Birthday

Step inside and Bryce was surprised at how spacious it feels. Emma chose a tall ceiling so she could sit up straight in her bed loft, and that also made the whole house feel bigger. “It doesn’t feel tiny,” Bryce told her.

The walls are finished in clay, and the wooden ceiling reminds her of a night sky. “I love to just look up and find little faces,” she says.

Her dining area by the windows can seat a crowd. The table folds, and she keeps foldable chairs to bring in. “I’ve been actually 14 people in here for my birthday at some point,” she says, with the tables down the middle and guests along the sides. It was cozy, she laughs, but manageable.

The wooden bench doubles as storage and pulls out as a bed. Her armchair was a gift from a friend who moved out of her home, and Emma loves sitting there knitting.

A Kitchen Designed With Her Mom’s Boyfriend, And A Bathroom Bigger Than Anyone Expected

Her mom’s boyfriend is a kitchen woodworker. He helped design the little kitchen using secondhand pieces and leftovers from kitchens he had built. Her mom sewed the curtains.

She skipped a built-in stove and uses a small electric one she can take out and put away. “I can’t really walk away from my kitchen to relax in my living room without seeing my stove and oven,” she says, so a hutch hides her small oven.

The ladder to the loft is an old metal one her colleagues no longer wanted. She oiled it and added hooks. She climbs it only twice a day, she says, so it does not need to be “a walk on clouds.”

The bathroom is a surprise. “A lot of people have also joked like the percentage of bathroom that I have in my house is way out of the ordinary,” she says. It holds a tub she also uses for washing clothes, her wardrobe, and a 30-liter water heater that is just enough to fill the tub.

A Composting Toilet And A Grease Trap Feed The Old Oak

Emma wanted the house to work like an ecosystem with no waste. She uses a composting toilet, and the gray water from her sinks and bath runs through a grease trap she made.

The grease floats to the top while clean water sinks to the bottom, flows through small rocks, and feeds the big oak tree. She composts the leftover grease.

No Debt, No Rent, And Plenty Of Freedom

Emma has lived in the house for three years and is currently studying regenerative agriculture in Norway part-time. When she finishes, she plans to return full-time and keep building the permaculture garden.

She says building at 23 “felt very adult at a very young age.” The payoff, she explains, is that she does not pay monthly rent, or only a low amount if she rents land elsewhere. “I didn’t have to borrow any money to build it and that also enables me to just be free,” she says.

The total came to around 200,000 Danish kroner, about €27,000. She credits recycled and locally sourced wood for keeping it low, though she notes that sustainable insulation like wood fiber costs much more than the traditional kind.

Ideas Worth Borrowing, Even If You Never Build A Tiny House

You do not need to build from scratch to learn from Emma. Her approach works for any home project on a budget.

Shop secondhand first for windows, doors and furniture. Emma says these are the items that cost the most energy and money new.
Check online listings for leftover materials. Her roof tiles came from a stranger finishing his own build.
Choose loose furniture over built-ins so you can rearrange as your needs change.
Keep only what you love looking at, since you see it every day.
Ask family to help. Emma sees her mom’s curtains and her friends’ contributions daily, and says those reminders mean a lot.

Emma says her dream is to buy her own land one day and start a project there. For now, she is happy in a house she chose down to every detail. “I feel so much peace when I’m here,” she says. “I sleep well.”

Willow and Hearth