Love the tiny home appeal, but don’t want to sacrifice on style? MODAL Living may have your perfect fit.
Their designers have a very specific M.O.: small, low-impact living spaces with sleek, high-end interior vision. Principal designer Dallin Jolley calls their products the “anti-tiny home tiny house.”
Locally made and installed, Modal builds “small but smart” ADU units which provide a cost-effective way for homeowners to add living space to their property. To minimize the annoyance of a full construction site, and maximize on efficiency and reduced waste, MODAL builds their trademark 432 sq. foot one-bedroom units at an off-site facility, then ships and installs them right in your backyard.
To save you even more hassle, Modal arranges for all building permits and utility connections and includes built-in furniture. The average units cost around $120,000 and once installed, the owner can rent or use them how they wish.
The founders of Modal came together to reimagine how we live. “We’ve partnered together in real estate development to see how inefficiently used space is,” says Colin Jube, manager of Modal’s administrative side. “Your traditional 5,000 square foot home, really doesn’t make sense anymore.”
A drive for efficiency combined with the tiny home movement and minimal living brings the Modal units to life. But these are anything but your typical “tiny house.” With Modal, their main goals are quality, efficiency and reduced waste. Because of their assembly line, pre-fab nature, the units produce significantly less waste, whether it be a waste of time, money or materials.
“Our product is a permanent improvement on real estate, with higher efficiency and a better, cleaner way to build. We want it to feel like a luxurious, high-end living space,” says Jube.
And with high-quality materials, Modal delivers. “Traditionally, people think pre-fabricated equals low quality, that it will be cheap. That is not what we are about at all, what we are doing is engineered and built to the highest standard, but just built efficiently and with as minimal waste as possible.”
Jolley, who is the mind behind the design and construction of Modal’s units, designed the units with elements inspired by both Scandinavian and Japanese design, for a sleek, high-style and high-efficiency interior.
The units also feature full glazing on the front of the structure, letting in natural light that maximizes the height of the 9-foot ceilings, as well as opening up the tiny spaces.
As far as decorating, Jolley reccommends a “less is more,” minimalist’s approach:
“When designing a small space, it’s more than just picking tasteful items from catalogs,” he says. “You have to be very intentional, in order to accentuate the space.”
He references their unit at City Creek, which was staged in partnership with cityHOMEcollective. The design team hand-crafted side tables and other elements to place throughout the unit, to tie the design throughout. They only placed a handful of knick-knacks, which blended in flawlessly.
For those craving a bit of pep, wall treatments prove to be one of the best ways of bringing personality to the unit: tiled backsplashes, behind-the-headboard papering and shower surrounds all contributed to a sense of style in the space.
“High-quality and luxurious design aren’t things people always think of when they consider a tiny home,” says Jolley. “That’s what I feel makes our products stand out: We don’t think we should compromise on style, because we are already compromising on the square footage.”
All interior walls and cabinetry are constructed with Baltic birch ply, and exterior surfaces are cedar finished, adding that Scandinavian touch alongside the minimal design. One of the biggest goals was to implement high-quality materials, so each unit has full-size, high-end appliances, quartz countertops and real tile.
Salt Lake City homeowners who are interested in expanding their living space with a tiny unit can take a look and a quiz on Modal’s website to see if their property meets the zoning requirements for installation.
For more information visit livemodal.com.
Want more tiny home, big style inspiration? Check out this other downsize in SLC.
