This Musician’s Tiny House is the Most Amazing Home You'll Ever See

Electric violinist Asha Mevlana built her Arkansas home as a place to live, practice and perform for neighbours

Mitchell Parker 24 October 2020

Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative trends, breaking news, industry analysis and humor.

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Asha Mevlana likes to make noise. She’s an electric violinist who tours with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra rock band every year, and who has performed with Roger Daltrey of The Who, Alanis Morissette and other top musicians. Her on-the-road lifestyle caused her to keep all her belongings in storage units in Los Angeles, Boston and New York. “It was all over the place,” she says. “I never felt I had a home.”

Mevlana’s situation changed recently when she decided to build a tiny house on land her brother and his family owns in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Inspired by Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Mevlana wanted a clutter-free place where she could decompress after a long tour, build a community and, yes, make plenty of noise, which she does in a practice trailer designed to look like a real Marshall half-stack amp.

Houzz Tour: Rock Musician’s Tiny House Wakes Up the Neighborhood

House at a Glance
Who lives here: Asha Mevlana, an electric violinist for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and her Havanese dog, Bali
Location: Arkansas, United States
Size: Main house: 37 square metres (400 square feet); 1 bedroom; 1 bath; trailer practice space: 15 square metres (160 square feet)
Designer: Brian Crabb of Viva Collectiv

Watch now: Go inside Asha Mevlana’s tiny house

Garage "Amplified" Tiny House Music Studio exterior

The 11-foot-high, 10-foot-wide amp works, too, and consists of four outdoor marine speakers. Mevlana connects her electric violin wirelessly to the speakers and plays concerts for her neighbours with other musicians on the porch. “I haven’t put it up to full volume yet,” she says. “It gets really loud.”

If she wants, she can take the music trailer on tour with her, though she hasn’t done so yet.

Exterior: vertical Abaco tropical hardwood and black corrugated aluminium; deck: composite wood

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Just inside the front door, the living room basks in sunshine thanks to a garage-style door with windows. (The door is open in this photo, and you can see the tracks on the left.) The high ceiling with windows near the roof gives the home even more roominess.

See these small, splendid living rooms from across the world

Houzz Tour: This Rock Musician's Tiny Home Gets Loud

While most tiny houses are built on trailers, Mevlana’s sits on a concrete foundation and is 10 feet wide rather than the more typical 8-foot-wide designs. That extra 2 feet gave Mevlana room for standard-size appliances and extra storage in the 13-by-9-foot U-shaped kitchen.

Mevlana worked with builder Zack Giffin for the show Tiny House Nation on the FYI channel, along with designer Brian Crabb of Viva Collectiv, builder Stefan Vickery of Vickery Construction and general contractor Zara Niederman of 3Volve Housing. Niederman is Mevlana’s brother and Vickery is her brother-in-law.

Giffin designed a bicycle-wheel-and-crank contraption on the left wall that raises and lowers a pot rack.

Countertops: black granite

A new coffee table recently replaced a custom table with an integrated video editing station that Mevlana didn’t use very often. The rug, art and pillows are also new additions.

Watch now: See more of this tiny house

Bathroom "Amplified" Tiny House bathroom

“It was really important that the bathroom felt big,” Mevlana says of the 7-by-6-foot space. “I didn’t want to be on the toilet and have my knees hitting the cabinets.”

Sea green tile, an Abaco wood drainage platform and black river rocks give the bathroom a spacious, spa-like feel. “It’s bigger than my bathroom was in New York,” Mevlana says.

The house is hooked up to the municipal water, sewer and electricity lines.

This view from the kitchen shows a breakfast bar on the right. The hallway in back leads to the bathroom and stairs climbing to the loft bedroom.

Learn how to squeeze in a breakfast bar in your tiny kitchen

Contemporary Bedroom "Amplified" Tiny House

The loft bedroom features a window at eye level.

Garage "Amplified" Tiny House Music Studio Interior

Recycled denim insulation provides soundproofing in the music trailer so Mevlana can jam out without disturbing neighbours.

Here’s all you need to know about soundproofing your home

A new outdoor furniture set gives Mevlana a place to relax after practice.

Houzz Tour: A Rock Musician's Tiny Home Wakes Up the Neighborhood

Photo by Bob Carey

Mevlana is pictured here on the right platform above the crowd as she performs with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. “What you don’t see is me shaking and trying to keep my balance,” she says.

Mevlana performs with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Photo by Florian Stangel

Watch now: See Asha Mevlana rock out at her tiny house

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