Design Elements: Unique planters

Denim jeans re-purposed as eye-catching planters in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood.

Outdoor screening of TINY in downtown San Francisco

Last night I enjoyed an outdoor screening of the entertaining short film TINY - A Story About Living Small in a downtown San Francisco alley. The film, which recently premiered at SXSW 2013, was sponsored by the community nonprofit SPUR and is part of the upcoming SF Green Film Fest (which includes a number of intriguing films). Squeezed into a narrow alley amongst tall downtown buildings with an almost-full-moon in the background and a SolMan portable solar generator powering everything, we watched the story of a couple building and living in a tiny home.

I was selfishly hoping the movie would be a how-to about building a tiny home, but that probably wouldn't appeal to the general public. Instead, it's an interesting look at the ups and downs of building and living in a tiny home as well as brief interviews with a variety of people involved in tiny homes. It's actually a great introduction to tiny homes for anyone either unfamiliar or just starting to consider them. The screening even concluded with a Sundance-style panel discussion where the filmmakers along with Jay Shafer answered audience questions.

Filmmakers and tiny home builders Christopher Smith & Merete Mueller with SolMan solar generator to the left