Tag Archives: airbnb

The Shrek’s Swamp Is a Rustic Mud-Covered Holiday Hut By Airbnb For The Shrek Fans

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We just scooped up something super cool and exciting for Shrek lovers, and if you’re one of them, you may want to look into Airbnb’s newest addition – Shrek’s Swamp. The Shrek’s Swamp is designed by the rental website Airbnb. It is a small grass and mud-covered hut nestled underneath a tree in the Scottish Highlands. It is described as a “stumpy, secluded haven fit for a solitude-seeking ogre”.

Designer: Airbnb

The rustic and cozy home is supposedly hosted by Shrek’s best friend Donkey, who is apparently swamp-sitting while Shrek is away for Halloween. The interesting part is that the Airbnb description is written by Donkey. In the description, Donkey says “I love everything about the swamp: the boulder out front, the modest interiors, the seclusion (ideal for singing karaoke late into the night), you get the picture”.

“This mud-laden, moss-covered, murky-watered oasis is a perfectly snug spot to escape from village life and embrace the beauty of nature,” Airbnb said.

The unique home can accommodate three guests and features a cozy open-plan design. The home is amped with a wooden bed that subtly leans against a wall. Other furniture in the home include a matching table and two wooden chairs which are placed in front of a fire. The fire is supported by two massive tree trunks. The home includes multiple decorations as an ode to the Shrek movie, such as a green “earwax candle”, which references a scene from the movie where Shreks tugs out a stick of earwax from his ear and lights it on fire. Another decoration is a bedside lamp that resembles a stuffed pufferfish.

An outhouse which is seen in many of the Shrek films is placed 20 meters away from the swamp. It can be used the visitors. The rustic hut is also surrounded by multiple signs such as “Stay out,” Beware Ogre”, and “Danger”!. Although they are intended for decoration. Currently, the home isn’t available, but it will be available to book from 13th October for a two-night stay for 27 and 29 October. The home will also be accompanied by a concierge who will ensure meals for the guests.

The post The Shrek’s Swamp Is a Rustic Mud-Covered Holiday Hut By Airbnb For The Shrek Fans first appeared on Yanko Design.

MUJI transforms a 100-year-old Japanese home into its first MUJI Base Airbnb guest house

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Iconic Japanese brand MUJI is infamous for its minimal and subtle products in household, stationery, apparel, and also little knick-knacks! I have a soft spot for MUJI myself, and I love treating myself to their products once in a while. And, now MUJI has finally dipped its toes in the world of architecture and interior design! The brand recently unveiled a pretty and peaceful home in Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo. Called, the MUJI Base Kamogawa, the century-old house was given a radical makeover, transforming it into a serene dwelling with MUJI’s signature minimalist touch. It is open for bookings on Airbnb.

Designer: MUJI

The 100-year-old home beautifully merges traditional Japanese architecture with MUJI’s signature minimalism creating a contemporary home that supports a free-flowing lifestyle. The home has adopted a bit of Western influence while maintaining the true essence of Japanese ‘Satoyama’ living, which signifies being one with nature. The interior of the home is designed with simplicity in mind, providing guests with a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of city life. The interior is lined with neutral tones and features MUJI comforts. This project was also created to preserve and promote the local culture of Kamogawa, and the home provides an opportunity to collaborate and partner up with local businesses. It allows guests to immerse and involve themselves with the local community’s lifestyle and spirit.

“Nowadays, lifestyles and workstyles have changed drastically. Though can choose to live and work anywhere you want, having a place where you want to go back again and again always gives you peace of mind. If you had those places everywhere in Japan, you would fill your heart with happiness. MUJI BASE can be the one for you,” said MUJI. And truly, the home attempts to serve as a tranquil and calming retreat for MUJI lovers who truly want to immerse themselves in the essence of the brand.

The MUJI Base Kamogawa can accommodate up to five people and is completely adorned with MUJI products. The home is available to book for $152 a night, and guests can select between pre-packaged MUJI meals or decently-priced home delivery of produce from the local farmers!

The post MUJI transforms a 100-year-old Japanese home into its first MUJI Base Airbnb guest house first appeared on Yanko Design.

Air Bee & Bee lets you live in a cabin safely surrounded with bees

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Bees are pretty interesting creatures (except of course if you’re allergic to them) especially if you think about their role in our ecosystem. A lot of plants, including wild ones, rely on these insects for pollination and they are a large contributor to our biodiversity. While they will not be extinct anytime soon, a lot of cities are inadvertently driving them out of their spaces. If you want to spend a day or weekend surrounded by the creatures, you can now go to Southern Italy and book a property especially created for that.

Designer: Davide Tagliabue

Cutely called Air Bee & Bee (and listed on Air BnB), the house, or more specifically, the self-standing room, is located on an olive farm in a village called Grottole. The room fits two people, and the house itself has an exterior that looks like a honeycomb. But aside from just having a bee theme, there are actually nine apiaries or beehive boxes surrounding you. There’s even one of those boxes hanging from the ceiling near your bed. So if you’re a bit scared of bees, then this is definitely not somewhere you should go to.

You won’t get stung by bees though as these apiaries are netted. The beehive only houses the room where you can sleep in or hang out in. To go to the bathroom, you have to go to a separate cottage nearby, where you have an outhouse and a private bathroom. The house has no electricity, but you’ll get solar-powered LED lights, a cooler bag so you can store your food, and you’ll have the sound of the bees to keep you company.

To give you the complete bee experience, the owner, who is also the beekeeper, will give you lessons about the importance of bees. You will also be served breakfast that includes homemade biscuits, ricotta strawberries, and of course, honey made from the local bees. The accommodation was actually built through a crowdfunding campaign and the help of 25 volunteers. The goal, aside from having a cool Air BnB listing, is to spread more awareness about bees.

If you’re going to Italy and want to experience this beehive, you can book it at $145 per night. All proceeds will go to local bee conservation projects. Just expect a “100% rural” stay at the house and of course, spend some time with all those bees.

The post Air Bee & Bee lets you live in a cabin safely surrounded with bees first appeared on Yanko Design.

This tiny home built from an old shipping container brings modern design to an elusive forest environment!

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Ela is a shipping container turned tiny home located in a forested clearing somewhere in the small, picturesque town of Walnut Creek, Ohio.

As suspected, winter is coming and so is the wanderlust. As we consider holiday travel plans, we’ll inevitably end up scrolling through all of the log cabins and tiny homes on Airbnb to find our ideal snowbird’s nest. Today, disused shipping containers, recycled paper, and AI technology are transforming picturesque winter escapes into tiny homes located everywhere from the coast to the forest. In the small town of Walnut Creek, Ohio, a tiny home called Ela built from an old shipping container sits amongst the trees to offer one such escape.

Ela, a tiny home currently available for booking on Airbnb, is one of two shipping containers turned cabins designed by Bethany Hershberger that sits in the forested clearing of Walnut Creek, Ohio. Arriving at the tiny home, guests descend a long timber staircase that brings them to the forest floor where Ela is located. Situated on a slight incline, Ela emerges from the trees on an exposed wooden foundation that carries the shipping container and outdoor leisure area. Accessible via a folding loft step ladder, the outdoor living area features a lounging area with plenty of chairs, a natural gas fire pit, an outdoor shower, and a tub. From the shower to the deck chairs, Ela finds warmth in natural wooden accents and textured glass elements to create a private, yet intimate leisure area.

Just next door, the interior of Ela features cozy, dark interior design elements that range from unstained, smooth wooden drawers to ash gray stone tilework. Accommodating up to two adults, Ela could be considered more of a romantic getaway than a tiny home. Positioned on one end of the cabin, the bed faces the shipping container’s opposite end that opens up to the surrounding forest through a fully glazed window that spans from the cabin’s floor to its ceiling.

Designer: Dwellbox x Bethany Hershberger

This tiny cabin built from local trees incorporates a blend of Scandinavian and Japanese design elements!

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The Nook is a tiny cabin located in the woods of North Carolina’s Appalachia designed with Scandinavian, Japanese, and Appalachian handcrafted elements to weave local craftwork together with a personal history.

As summer draws to a close, winter is coming and so are the snowy getaways. While there’s something to be said about the slow summer days spent at a family cabin by the lake, cozying up beside a fireplace inside a log cabin somewhere in the woods where there’s snow and a hot cup of tea is still unmatched. In the Appalachian forest of Swannanoa, North Carolina, Mike Belleme, an established documentary photographer, felt inspired to devise his own wintry tiny cabin called The Nook.

Brimming with artisanal goods and artwork of local craftsmen and artists, The Nook was designed to bring the handcrafted touch of the old world into the modern era. Described as a “collection of stories,” Belleme designed The Nook to link his personal history to the surrounding forest and architecture of the cabin.

The tiny cabin is constructed from a collection of locally felled trees that Belleme memorized during a five-year stint spent in the Appalachian woods, during which he learned primitive building skills like creating a path of hand-split logs that leads to The Nook’s front entrance.

The timber that gives rise to The Nook varies between white oak, red oak, black walnut, and black locust all to mirror the trees that surround the tiny cabin. The different gradients of woodwork distinguish the rooms of the cabin. Contained within a mere 400-square-meters, The Nook’s living areas are combined into one and present as a single open volume, with the different rooms demarcated by shifting shades of timber. Where the living room expresses dynamic energy with lofty ceilings and cherry wood paneling, the kitchen keeps a more subdued profile achieved with an intimate breakfast nook wainscot in black walnut.

Striking a balance between different interior design cues and movements, Belleme describes The Nook’s design as a marriage between Japanese, Scandinavian, and Appalachian aesthetics. Just above the stripped-back kitchen, Belleme included a Japanese-inspired tea loft in tribute to his parents’ own living period in Japan, who moved on to launch one of America’s first Miso companies.

Every element of the home embodies a sense of minimalism, craftwork, and earthiness, weaving together Belleme’s personal history that brought him from the tea rooms of Japan to the felled trees of North Carolina. Describing the tiny cabin in his own words, Belleme notes on The Nook’s Airbnb listing, “This house is a collection of stories. Stories of cultural and personal history, ecology, and craft. To celebrate this area’s incredible legacy of craft, we’ve collaborated with some of the most talented makers in the region.”

Designers: Mike Belleme

Darker wooden planks line the floors of The Nook while brighter timber coats the ceilings. 

The Nook’s rear deck was also built by hand. 

The Nook maintains an open interior space by incorporating elements like ladders that bring you from the ground-level living area to upstairs bedrooms. 

An outdoor semi-enclosed bath provides the perfect spot to unwind beneath the tree’s canopies. 

An oakwood tiny home built from locally sourced timber was designed as a love letter to Tasmania!

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The Pod, described as a “love letter to Tasmania,” is a 430sq-ft tiny home located in Tasmania, Australia comprised of two pods merged together with an overhead row of skylights.

Airbnb and tiny homes have garnered a whole lot of attention in recent years. During the pandemic, when air travel restrictions and health warnings were issued by airlines and hotels, we looked to road trips and Airbnbs to fill our wanderlust. Others took the extra time to finally build a tiny home and guarantee their hot vax summer with a destination they could escape to every weekend. Alice Hansen, a travel writer based in Australia, built her tiny home, The Pod (available on Airbnb), for others to escape to and fall in love with Tasmania.

The Pod, described by TV host Peter Madison as a “love letter to Tasmania,” is a tiny home comprised of two living ‘pods’ merged together by a narrow row of skylights. Covering only 430sq-ft, the exterior of The Pod is wrapped in Tasmanian oak wood which is replaced with expansive, floor-to-ceiling windows around the back of the tiny home.

Positioned on a hillside, the tiny home’s back pod rises on steel beams to merge with the front pod, giving the illusion that you’re “floating” above the ground, as described by Hansen. Skylights also line the ceiling of The Pod, complimenting the floating feel with enough natural sunlight to brighten the entire home and visually splitting the two pods into separate living spaces.

Inspired by a war aircraft, the structural soundness of The Pod is durable and lightweight by design with hardwood fitting out most of the exterior and interior. Upon entering the tiny home, a centerpiece fireplace greets guests, leading their eyes to the floor-to-ceiling glazed windows that offer unfettered views of Tasmania’s iconic pine trees and dunes, Frederick Henry Bay, and the Southern Ocean. Throughout the home, Hansen was sure to incorporate homages to the local area with most of the furniture and homemade goods in The Pod coming from the community’s craftspeople and artisans.

Hansen found beauty in simplicity with The Pod, describing it as inspired by her “danish heritage,” and “the simplicity of Scandinavian design.” To stay true to Scandinavian design’s elemental roots, much of the interior walls within The Pod are unstained natural wood panels.

While the exterior and the majority of the interior are wrapped in light, natural Tasmanian oakwood, the bedroom is soothed in black timber walls, giving it a touch of blackout comfort for a restful night. On starry nights, guests of Hansen’s Airbnb can escape to the deck for a warm soak in the Huon pine outdoor tub made with timber sourced from the depths of Lake Pieman.


The kitchen is small and stocked with all the essentials, from an electric stove to working space for cooking. Just beside the kitchen, a modest dining table doubles as a workbench, and overhead skylights lead guests to the living area. There, guests can enjoy a cozy reading nook and find plenty of concealed storage compartments to keep the living spaces organized and decluttered.

Designer: Alice Hansen x Never Too Small

The living room’s couch was handcrafted by a local artisan and styled in a similar fashion to the back pod with a wooden base atop steel fittings. 

The kitchen and bedroom feature darker timber wall panels to give both rooms a cozier air. 

The dark timber walls in the bedroom function similarly to blackout curtains for a restful sleep.

The only door inside the tiny home, a sliding frosted glass panel, leads to the bathroom.

Laundry facilities are found in the bathroom along with a toilet, sink, and shower.

Outside, guests can enjoy the Huon pine outdoor tub made with timber sourced from the depths of Lake Pieman.

Come dusk, the lights inside The Pod emanate a golden glow to amplify the cozy and elegant feel.

The post An oakwood tiny home built from locally sourced timber was designed as a love letter to Tasmania! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This eco-friendly prefab cabin in the Italian alpines needs to be on AirBnB!

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Who wouldn’t want to pack up and move to a beautiful tiny home that sits atop a hill in Aosta Valley, Italy? The House in Chamois is made of our sustainable architecture dreams – a modern, prefabricated home by Torino-based firm Leap Factory. As with all “Leap Houses,” the home’s entire design and construction process was managed by the Leap Factory team and was constructed with a modular system built of natural, recyclable materials to allow for maximum flexibility. All of the components provided by Leap Factory for the House in Chamois were also designed and produced in Italy.

The House in Chamois was created for Barbara and Giorgio, a duo with a deep appreciation for the outdoors. Used as a base for exploring the alpine landscape, the two-story home echoes the traditional vernacular with its gabled shape but is undeniably contemporary as defined by its streamlined form, minimalist design and full-height glazing. Its position above a main road turns the house into a new landmark for the village and has become a local attraction for visiting hikers.

As a ‘Living Ecological Alpine Pod’ (LEAP), the House in Chamois was designed to be environmentally friendly. The use of prefabrication helps minimize construction waste, and the installation process was done with minimal site impact. The structure is also “hyper secure” and engineered to resist earthquakes, hurricanes and other extreme climate activities.

The modular nature of the home also makes it modifiable. As with all Leap Houses, the House in Chamois was also designed with integrated furniture and finishes. “With its minimal shapes and spaces full of light, the house shows incredible attention to details, lines and materials,” the architects explained. “The layout of the rooms, furnishings and technical systems are fully integrated to give life to spaces where one can fully express their personality and live in harmony with their surroundings.”

Designer: Leap Factory

This 40sqm sustainable tiny home built using repurposed materials features a 30-degree solar-paneled roof!

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Built with an angled roof, the galvanized clad tiny home accommodates travelers near and far who want to get closer to rural Australia.

The tourism industry has seen some major changes in sustainability in recent years. Hospitality companies like Airbnb and homeowners alike work together to progress tourism into an industry that doesn’t disrupt pre-existing landscapes and cultures but embraces them. Gawthorne’s Hut in New South Wales, a tiny home in Australia available on Airbnb, is one example of sustainable hospitality. Designed by architect Cameron Anderson, the two-person, off-grid tiny home was built to engage with the history and context of the farmland on which it’s located.

Gawthorne’s Hut is stationed on an expansive plot of Wilgowrah’s farmland, right beside a small, quaint pond. The tiny home was born out of Wilgowrah’s desire to introduce the possibilities of alternative income sources for farmworkers. Designed in a similar form to other farmland structures like hay sheds and outbuildings, Gawthorne’s Hut’s 30-degree roof hosts an array of north-facing solar panels to provide the farmhouse with internal and external power.

Since the project aimed to create a sustainable, off-grid tiny home, Anderson needed to get the solar panels’ orientations facing a direction where the greatest output could be stored for use. The solar panel roof angles at 30-degree and faces the north to acquire the most solar output. With the solar panels facing the farm’s north side, double glazed timber windows and doors direct the views to the farm’s south end and offer natural ventilation on hot days as well as insulation for the colder nights.

Architect Cameron Anderson took to the farm’s preexisting and surrounding material to curate the array of building material for Gawthorne’s Hut. In addition to the solar panels, the home keeps a 6.6-kilowatt off-grid solar system containing 12 kilowatts of battery storage behind a large opening panel that remains hidden from view when closed. Rainwater storage systems also collect 40,000 liters worth of rainwater, 20,000 of which are allotted for firefighting.

Leaning on sustainable energy practices like the use of solar panels, passive solar shading, and even the thermal mass that comes from the floor’s polished concrete slabs, each work together to position Gawthorne’s Hut as an eco-friendly tourist destination with views of Australia you can’t get anywhere else.

Inside, rich and textured timber panels stretch over the walls and ceilings, giving Gawthorne’s Hut a cozy, nesting atmosphere. Gawthorne’s Hut’s micro floor plan of 40m2 feels larger than its measurements thanks to an open floor plan that extends throughout the home, with the one exception being the WC. Throughout the tiny home’s interior, repurposed bricks and rich timber panels line the walls, ceiling, and furnishings. The king-sized bed’s head post, for example, was handcrafted from recycled brick leftover from the lot’s previous building.

Stationed beside a small pond, the tiny home is as quaint as it gets. Repurposed brick from previous farm structures divide the different spaces inside Gawthorne’s Hut – the bed’s headboard doubles as a wall for the basin. Simple, unique, and cozy – this tiny home grows beyond its tiny design.

Designer: Wilgowrah, Cameron Anderson, & Callander Constructions

The design of Gawthorne’s Hut is meant to be intuitive, so the kitchen was kept small and filled with only the essentials.

A wood-burning fireplace welcomes guests into the tiny home and immediately fills the home with a cozy ambiance.

The toilet room is the only section inside of Gawthorne’s Hut that incorporates a door and dividing wall.

Polished concrete slabs line the floor and walls of the shower and bath areas.

The solar-paneled roof provides the home with enough energy to power up the minimal appliances needed to enjoy a stay in NSW’s back country.

Hidden away inside the home’s exterior side-opening panel, a solar system and battery pack insure the home with stored power.

The king-sized bed is located closer to the tiny home’s vertex to enhance an already intimate sleeping experience.

This isolated cabin-on-a-rock makes for the perfect getaway from civilization

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If ever there was a time to just pack your bags and live in isolation, this would probably be it. Imagine escaping society’s problems, traffic, unrest, the weather, the news, annoying neighbors, and just taking a break on something as idyllic as this Ocean Cabin. Designed by Sri Lanka-based Thilina Liyanage, the Ocean Cabin is a neat, A-frame cabin precariously built on a giant boulder facing the ocean.

The A-frame design gives the cabin a sharp, jagged appeal that matches the rocky beach below… but the interiors are exceptionally warm and inviting, with an all-wood design, and a bar-counter to greet you as soon as you enter! You’ll have to climb multiple flights of stairs before you make it in; although, on a sunny day, that should give you a spectacular view of the coast ahead of you as well as of the lush greenery behind you. The cabin sits on stilts, giving you the advantage of altitude during high tides, while the complete glass-facade on the front of the cabin ensures you always have a panoramic ocean-facing view during the day. When the sun sets, the slanted skylight on the back ensures you sleep under a blanket of stars. Airbnb, give this designer a medal!

Designer: Thilina Liyanage