Tiny House Festival in Brighton shows ways to think small about space
At a moment when prices for regularly sized homes around Denver are through the roof, this weekend in Brighton you can tour 35 concepts for living spaces that cost less to own because they’re scaled smaller — way smaller.
However, don’t expect entries in this year’s Colorado Tiny House Festival at Riverdale Regional Park to look like cottages in Lilliput. Rather, many entries in the two-day event are ways to add onto a home you already own, or to trick up an old van or bus into something where you can take a personal space on the road.
“There’s growing market for backyard workrooms or accessory structures,” said event organizer Art Laubach. “Affordability also affects people who are trying to stay in a home.”
Numbers of the 20 builders, some of them do-it-yourselfers, show concepts about adding a structure onto an older, existing house. Laubach’s own company, Einstyne Tiny Homes, will display a sauna/spa space that you could wheel into your backyard, attach to your dwelling and someday take it along with you when you sell and move on.
All but one entry are concepts on wheels, not for building from the ground up.
“Trailer concepts are cheaper,” Laubach said. “If you’re doing a 400-square-foot foundation, you’ll spend more for the foundation than you will for the trailer itself.”
The market, organizers say, includes young buyers priced out of regular real estate, but also boomer-aged buyers who imagine doing a radical downsize into a simpler way of life, or at least of getting more value out of their current house.
Around 20,000 visitors toured the show in 2021, some looking for standalone homes that could be assembled on a chosen lot. Laubach says building codes in most areas prohibited tiny houses as real property except in RV or mobile home parks. But last month, the legislature passed House Bill 22-1242, endorsing tiny concepts and regulating their manufacture.
“They’re now no longer considered an RV,” Laubach said, adding that consumer protection provisions in the bill require that tiny houses and their installation be inspected and that commercial builders be registered with the state.
That growing acceptance could open Colorado to wider uses for the little structures. In California, one company markets a “Rent the Backyard” concept, reaching for buyers wanting to rent an auxiliary Airbnb on their property.
You’ll also see a Camping Corner showing camp and “glamp” concepts, and a solar power unit that includes its own battery storage. You’ll have a chance to talk with do-it-yourselfers about the economics of projects.
Tickets at the gate run $20 (kids 12 and under free), but buy online before Saturday for $15 at coloradotinyhousefestival.com. The festival runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. From East 120th Avenue take Riverdale Road north a mile to Henderson Road and turn east.