7 Tiny Backyard Retreats

From a nature writer’s off-the-grid Puget Sound getaway to a Texan’s shipping container guesthouse, these retreats may inspire you to make that backyard retreat you’ve been dreaming of a reality. Slideshow

Architects Kirsten Murray and Tom Kundig built a 500-square-foot, Thoreau-like getaway for an Atlanta-based writer who owned ten acres on San Juan Island in Puget Sound. “The idea was not to clutter anybody’s thinking, especially a writer’s,” says Kundig.

Photo by Tim Bies