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Shipping Container home
HI EVERYONE! It's been a long time since I've been on here. I've been very busy since that last time; I've gone back to college as well as had a few sewing projects to complete, and I haven't had much time to come up with any new homes. I'm now free for the summer, and I have a house that I can share! YAY!
A friend of mine fell in love with this one house that she'd seen for sale online and asked if I could come up with something similar but updated. Basically, what I would do to it if she had been able to buy it. That I did using this program, here. My friend didn't actually buy it, so I didn't think it would be right for me to post it here, but since I had changed quite a bit of it, I figured that it wouldn't be too bad of me to do so.
She liked what I came up with, and then she saw something online about shipping container homes, and thought of using shipping containers as the base for this house, and that changed the house quite a bit, and now I feel safe in sharing.
I haven't gotten very far with it just yet, but I have the basic floor plan for the house... mostly figured out. Well, as figured out as I can until I actually start putting things into it.
Here's what I'd started with. I'd found a website that sells shipping containers in many sizes, either 20' (approx. 6.1 meters) or 40' (approx. 12.2 meters) long and either 8'6" (approx. 2.6 meters) or 9'6" (approx. 2.9 meters) tall. All are 8', or about 2.4 meters, wide. I used those dimensions to get this rough outline. I went with a mixture of 20' and 40', and all of them are 9'6" tall.
After some work I was able to come up with this floor plan, which is pretty close to what the other house was, although not quite. Here's an aerial view of that floor plan. As you can see, it's only in the initial stages, so there's quite a lot of work to go to get this version closer looking to the other one.
As you can tell, I am still not sure how to get my pictures to actually post here from MediaFire.
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Re: Shipping Container home
I've been working on this all day. Since I'm working off of the design based off of a real-life house, I copied and pasted a lot of the furnishings from that to this one which made getting this one decorated pretty simply. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, such as the roofing, and the outdoor furniture, etc.
Here's a screenshot of the floor plan so far. Pretty self-explanatory I guess.
The Great Room as seen from the the corner near the front door. Since I don't have the roof in yet, the sky is taking its place kind of like the Great Hall of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter franchise. Normally, area near the front door has the couch and chairs but I have the dining table here. The couch and chairs I actually have situated around the fireplace, which I will be adding a chimney to once I get to the roofing. Surrounding the fireplace are two sliding screen doors, which are also on the front of the house just out of view over the left shoulder. The door in back is to the Sewing Room, which I will share shortly. The furniture on that back wall looks strange, but they do serve a purpose. I hadn't made space for the cats' litter boxes, and I found furniture that can conceal it, plus a storage cabinet for storing all the supplies necessary for the litter boxes. It's likely that my friend and her roommates might not be in this room all that much so she's designated it as the formal area for when guests come by.
Here's the Sewing Room as seen from just inside the door. There's the desk with the sewing machine on it, with a hand drawn design framed above it. Two filing cabinets come next, which hold sewing patterns and such, and the cork board above for pinning ideas for later. Next comes an ironing board all folded away neatly, leaning up against a bookshelf with glass doors. The big brown block in the middle is the cutting table made from two square bookshelves and a custom cut board. And last, but certainly not least, is a row of storage for holding fabric, notions, and other whatnot a sewer would want. The wainscoting I added to contrast with the busy wallpaper that was chosen for this room.
The Kitchen, while standing in the Great Room. The island that I used seems to have rendered strangely as the cabinet part is supposed to be the same wood as the other lower cabinets. You can see the coffee bar on the far left, and to the left of the refrigerator is the pet feeding station which is the reason for that picture there. To the right of the fridge is the oven, painted in a nice blue, with a vent hood made to match the cabinets. Under the window to the far right is the dishwasher and sink. It may not look like there's much storage, but the island is nothing but storage on the other side. There's supposed to be a tile backsplash starting from the right of the refrigerator and around to the end of the wall, but I haven't added it in as I don't want to have it be too far up the walls. I'll have to add them in a similar manner as in En Suite Bedroom 1 (shown below).
The door that's visible is to the Master Bedroom. That same door as seen from the Kitchen is the one in the back of this picture. The doors on the right, both pocket doors, are for the Walk-In Closet (which I don't have a picture of... and as I'm typing this I just realized that I hadn't put a light in there...) and the Master Bath. The lamps are supposed to be silver with beige lampshades but they didn't seem to want to reflect that. Also, out of view to the left, is a sliding screen door to the outdoors.
The Master Bath, with the door to the Master Bedroom out of view to the left. That's a steam shower with jetted tub there in the left corner. The dark blue on the walls are actually subway tiles. And there's another counter that didn't render very well.and you can see the window reflected in the shower glass.
Bedrooms 1 and 2 are the same size, as well as their en suite bathrooms and closets; I have pictures of the bathrooms (below) but not the closets. I've decorated both quite differently though. Bedroom 1 has a twin bed, one nightstand, a single lamp, a tall dresser, and cat tower. The hanging lamp is the closest model I could find to the one that my friend wants in that room, which actually has metal blossoms, branches and leaves intertwined on it. The door to its en suite is out of shot to the right. Bedroom 2 has a full size bed, two nightstands, wall sconces, a wide dresser, and of course no cat tower. The door to its en suite bathroom is out of shot to the left.
As just stated, the En Suite Bathrooms to these two bedrooms are the same size, but decorated very much differently, per the different occupants' tastes. En Suite Bathroom 1, the one attached to Bedroom 1, is designed after the American Tudor Revival look from the 1920s. I've included and Art Deco style wallpaper on the top half of the walls, and beige subway tiles on the bottom half and in the shower area. The floor would be done in a mosaic style similar to what had been done in that era using different colored hexagonal tiles, in this case beige, green, and red. En Suite Bathroom 2 has all four walls covered in white subway tiles, the floor has square white tiles with a black starburst pattern on them. The edge of the tub is just visible on the bottom left, and in order to get everything to fit in the room I've put the tub at an angle. And the single pop of color in the room is the small vanity.
Now on to the rooms on the other side of the hallway.
The first area here that we come to is the Family Room as seen from the hallway. The door to Bedroom 2 is just out of shot to the left. The first thing visible on the left is a window with the view of the "catio", with a cat door below. Then there's the entertainment center, with a fireplace (chimney to be added with the roofing). On the other side of the entertainment center is the the side door, for when either my friend or one of her roommates to use. on that back wall is a square end table with a large storage capacity, an blue and bronze lamp, and a recliner. There's also a small bookcase next to the recliner. The sectional is black leather with a matching ottoman/coffee table, surrounded by a pair of matching end tables and silver lamps. The wall behind it has teal wallpaper with a geometric pattern. I can't forget to mention the rug with the multicolored triangle pattern.
The next room is the Office, which could also be considered the Library, and the door is out of shot behind the viewer. On the right is a custom builtin double desk area. Visible are two armchairs with matching ottomans; these are for those who just want to sit and read, or talk to whoever might be on the computer(s). They also have matching end tables with builtin lamps next to them. One set is in blue velvet, and the other set is in green velvet. Two bookcases, similar to the one in the Sewing Room, are near the back.
Not much to see here, except for the nice wallpaper really, is the Half-Bath as seen from next to the toilet, which is out of sight bottom right. Just like the En Suite Bathrooms, this one has a pocket door.
The Laundry/Mud Room , as seen from next to the door to the Half-Bath. Here you've got a storage cabinet for cleaning supplies such as a broom, mop, vacuum cleaner, etc. as well as a bench locker for coming in through that door from the Garage. Next to that door are the washing machine and dryer, with a couple of shelves above for putting detergent and fabric softener. There's also a sink just in case of needing to rinse something off, with a foldaway drying rack above it, and lost of storage space for anything and everything else.
The last room of the house, the Garage, with the door into the Laundry/Mud Room out of shot on the left. There's not much in here, just a couple of cars (one of which has rendered very poorly), and some shelves for storage. The two garage doors are visible behind the cars. I didn't paint the walls in here and just left them the default off-white.
I've included aerial shots of both the front and back of the house so far. The outside walls are supposed to be a navy blue, although it doesn't quite look it. Also visible is the fact that I haven't added the walkways around the house, the front porch, the back patio, the driveway, or any outside lights.
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Re: Shipping Container home
Hi, just a little feedback. I'll be honest upfront that the place isn't to my taste, so I won't comment on the scheme as a whole. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
One issue I see with the design that would really put me off though is that of natural daylight and emergency egress.
Bedroom 1 and the Office have absolutely no natural daylight. The Family Room also has little to none, but I'm assuming a little light comes through the door in the far corner? It's not clear what is going on at the end of the corridor, so I can't judge if that is a source of natural daylight. Ironically, the garage has four windows. Something seems the wrong way around here.
I'd also be uncomfortable with the lack of alternative emergency egress in Bedroom 1. Not so much the Office, as you really ought to be awake when working
By the way... Shipping containers are more often than not, more trouble than they are worth. By the time you factor in all the effort trying to turn them into something they were never designed to be, it would be faster and cheaper to use a more conventional method.
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Re: Shipping Container home
Hi, sjb007.
Thank you for the feedback. The place isn't all together to my taste either as I've been designing it for a friend who seems to have a more American-Mid-Century-Modern kind of taste whereas I prefer an American-Tudor-Revival, Old-Japanese-Farmhouse kind of thing.
To be completely honest, I had this long reply all ready to go last night, thought I had posted it before shutting my computer down not realizing that I hadn't. While working on that reply post, I was also working on the house and trying to come up with a bit of a workaround based on your feedback while also adding the roof and chimneys. I'm still not finished with the house as I haven't added outside lighting, walkways, patio space, and the driveway.
I'm not sure how well I did, but my friend thinks it looks good from the outside. I wanted to put in skylight shafts (?) to let light in from the roof but couldn't figure out how to in the program, so I went with what you'll see below.
Aerial 1 shows most of the front of the house. As you can see I've got the roof on, and there's a... I'm not sure of the right terminology for it... a "bump out" in the roof over the Office with a row of fixed windows to let some natural light in. Here's what the Office looks like from inside next to the door. I moved the builtin desks to the other side, making it more of a corner piece with more shelving above. I unfortunately had to take out one of the armchair sets as well as the lamp tables, to make room for the exterior door into the Garage. I've also added a door out of the Garage onto the Front Porch. Here's a picture inside the Garage, minus the vehicles, showing the new doors as well as the fact that I took out two of the windows. Long story: the house that my friend found for sale actually didn't have a garage, and it was something that I had added in the my original design. I personally am for natural light as well, and I added so many windows to the garage like I've done normally with my other designs. I've included the listing of the house that was for sale, as a point of reference for all that I came up with.
Aerial 2 shows one side of the house and the back. As you can see I put in some picture windows around the fireplace in the Family Room, as I took out that huge entertainment center and replaced it with a smaller fireplace. Here's what the Family Room looks like from the Hallway. Also, that area at the end of the corridor is a cat door near the floor out into the "Catio" - a screened in area for any cats to go out and enjoy the outdoors but within a limited space - and the little picture window so that someone could look out into the "Catio" to enjoy watching the cats enjoying themselves.
There's also another "bump out" that's over Bedroom 1 as well as an exterior door added to it. I was able to add that door by shortening the room's closet. Since the room is for a single person, he/she doesn't need as much closet space. Here's what Bedroom 1 looks like from the door. Not much light was coming in through those windows so high up but it was the closest I could come up with.
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Re: Shipping Container home
Okay, just a quick update on the Family Room.
There was just something about what I'd done that wasn't sitting well with me. It didn't seem to have much... personality?... to it, so I made some quick changes, here.
As you can see, I wasn't happy with the mantle over the fireplace, so I replaced it with a live edge one that spans to also cover the built-in bookshelves. I've also increased the size of the picture windows around the fireplace as they had just seemed too small. the other picture windows I dropped, mainly because the one looking into the "Catio" had the top of it visible, and secondly because the other one was sitting way higher. They're both now evenly placed. In moving the one by the door, I had to adjust the placement of the pictures on that way so that they weren't creating a diagonal line on that wall. I also added the framed set of pictures under the television of my friend and her roommates. And lastly, the couch had rendered strangely previously as it's supposed to be a black leather sectional so I fixed that.
Also, here's an outside view of the changes, from standing under the tree looking at the chimney.
I might either change the bricks on this fireplace/chimney to match the one in the Great Room, or change the stones on the Great Room fireplace/chimney to match this one.
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Re: Shipping Container home
Those are called clerestory windows. The bump itself is a bit like a mansard loft, but only partly. A half-mansard loft?
The changes are better I think, although there doesn't seem to be lot of cast down light in your images. I suspect a better renderer would give a more realistic amount of light. I used Blender with realistic light levels to figure out light cast by skylights and light wells in my design.
Here's an example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-MKPhsJOrvCN...1sHSTIw5/view?usp=sharing That was not actually designed in SH3D, but the point is that all the lighting you see is just from a very bright external sky texture. There are no other lights in the room, it is all coming in through the windows and bouncing around just like the real world.
As for the cat house... People are strange, and people with pets more so
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Re: Shipping Container home
Thank you, sjb700, for the information. I'd never heard of those terms before.
I had a thought about those very areas. What if I'd made the walls in those sections match the ceilings in those rooms?
Here's what I mean, in both the Office and Bedroom 1. Does that seem to create a bit of an illusion that there's a little more light?
As for the program that I use for rendering the pictures, it's just what's part of the program. I only have the free version, and I don't have access to any other rendering program. Also, I have a Mac that's a few years old that has only the basic memory that came with it, so I don't really have room in it to add many things; as a matter of fact, all of the houses and their pictures I can't keep on my computer, except for what I'm working on at that time.
Here, let me share the file for the house if anybody wants to make better renderings or even make any changes that they feel work better (which I am very sure of after looking at what everybody else has posted).
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Re: Shipping Container home
Yes, painting the light well white does help a bit, and will be better at bouncing light down if this becomes more than a paper exercise. (You haven't said if this is a serious prospect of being built, or just for fun and daydreaming.)
Blender is completely free, but the downside is that it is very powerful and a lot to learn and understand. Not so good for iterating over your designs lots and lots like SH3D is.
As to your laptop. I bought mine (Dell XPS 15) in April 2017, although I did kit it out quite well (Quad Core, NVIDIA 1050, 32 Gb RAM, 1 Tb SSD). The image I posted was rendered using Blender on that machine. I don't know how that compares to your kit, but you might not be as restricted by the hardware as you think. I don't remember timings, but maybe 10 or 20 minutes for a frame like that with the CPU. (I don't use the GPU for "reasons" )
@bdfd The OP did mention skylight shafts, but mentioned being unable to figure out how to create them in SH3D. I did it on my model, but that is of simple pitched (i.e. /\ ) construction, so there is a way to insert windows into very tall walls, then export, and re-import while rotating to make the walls into the roof.
My physical house has both roof lights and what bdfd called skylights. I've only heard those called sun or solar tunnels.
Roof lights are great for getting huge amounts of light into an area, but you have to consider the issues with opening (ventilation) shading (sleeping) and access (cleaning and maintenance). Most competent brands offer powered (even solar powered) shutters, blinds, and opening mechanisms to solve most of these.
Sun tunnels are what I would call the last resort measure. Yes they get a surprising amount of light into a dark space, and they can pass through quite deep loft spaces while doing it. Here are the negatives: There's no view out, so it makes a room feel a bit like a cell. No alternative for egress in an emergency. I think the external dome is rather ugly, although some brands have a flat roof collector. They are questionable from the thermal insulation POV.
