France's Baluchon recently completed a colorful tiny house on wheels that features the contemporary styling and space-saving design. With a usable length of just 6 m (19.6 ft), the firm has managed to squeeze in a relatively spacious kitchen and room to sleep up to four people. The Essen'Ciel is a lot of house crammed into a small space.
The Essen'Ciel's design mixes together elements of Baluchon's previous models. Look closely and you'll be reminded of the Escapade's distinctive three windows, while the roof resembles the Calypso's.
As we've mentioned before, French firms have relatively little space and weight to work with compared to the USA due to towing laws, and trying to work around this constraint makes for some noteworthy interior layouts from that part of the world.
The Essen'Ciel's ground floor is divided in two by a staircase that leads to the sole sleeping loft. Interestingly, the first two steps can be retracted when not in use to save space. This seems a little fussy, but if room is seriously lacking, we'd pick a fussy staircase over having to climb a ladder every time. Elsewhere in the tiny house, there's a small colorful lounge that includes a sofa bed and some unusual angular shelving
A bathroom with shower is hidden behind a door and the rest of the ground floor is taken up by what looks like a pretty spacious kitchen – spacious for a French tiny house, that is – though it's nowhere near the size of the kitchens offered in the supersized American models, of course.
It's also not as packed with high-end amenities as we're used to seeing stateside, and includes a modest two-burner stove and a small fridge. As it's reached by a small hallway created by the staircase and a large closet, it should feel quite separated from the rest of the home, though.
The Essen'Ciel is based on a double-axle trailer and gets electricity from a RV-style hookup. The exterior is clad in cedar and Baluchon installed sheep's wool insulation in the floor, cotton, linen and hemp in the walls, and wood fiber in the ceiling.
We've no word on the price for this model but Baluchon's tiny houses typically start at €60,000 (roughly US$65,000).
Source: Baluchon (in French)