Small doesn't have to mean cramped! These books have building plans and design ideas that pack a lot of living into small spaces. Some titles offer detailed construction plans, while others have beautiful color illustrations to inspire ideas for your own compact, efficient, and economical home.
1. Little House on a Small Planet
"Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities." More than just a collection of photos and floor plans, Litttle House on a Small Planet offers advice and inspiration with a friendly dose of philosophy. The pictures and plans focus on practical ways to rethink your need for space, and suggests rebuilding, remodeling, and redecorating solutions to use space wisely.
2. A Little House of My Own
Author Lester Walker is an architect who specializes in simple, vernacular styles. Here he gives color photos, floor plans, elevation drawings, and technical details for 47 cottages, studios, and shelters under 325 square feet. Also included are tours of famous small houses like Jefferson's Honeymoon Cottage, Henry Thoreau's Cabin, and George Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut.3. Creating The Not So Big House
"Insights and Ideas for the New American Home." Sarah Susanka, a LIFE Magazine Architect of the Year, shows how homes can be designed to feature "adaptable spaces" and how to create the illusion of space.4. The New American Cottage
This slim, attractive book doesn't have detailed building plans, but you'll find inspiration from color photos of thirty small-scale residential projects, most under 2,000 square feet. By James Grayson Trulove.5. The New Cottage Home
Another attractive photo book with diagrams of small, attractive, environmentally conscious, cottagelike houses constructed in the 1990s. By Jim Tolpin.6. Narrow Lot Home Plans
"250 Designs for Houses 17' to 50' Wide 7." For anyone who has big dreams but not a lot of land, a practical and stylish array of compact homes.7. 200 Small House Plans
"Selected Designs under 2,500 Square Feet." Small but not necessarily cramped or uncomfortable designs from Home Planners Inc.8. 500 Small Houses of the Twenties
Presents 500 small-home designs of the 1920s as they appeared in a major architectural publication of 1923. Many are designed by leading domestic architects of the period. By Henry Atterbury Smith.9. New Compact House Designs
"27 Award-Winning Plans 1,250 Square Feet or Less." These plans are the winners from a juried competition of designs under 1,250 square feet and with at least two bedrooms. The designers are North American architects, designers, and architecture students.10. Small Houses of the Twenties
"The Sears, Roebuck 1926 House Catalog." A vintage house plan collection showing interiors and fixtures in great detail. Sears Roebuck and Co.