Text by Katie Wood / Photography by Stephanie Welbourne
After downsizing over the years, Brenda Speller’s tiny Katrina cottage has just enough space for simple seaside living.
Made popular by the need for emergency housing after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the quaint, prefabricated Katrina cottages are typically small, single story cottages constructed from factory-made panels. Because they are prefabricated, these extremely durable cottages can be built quickly and economically, often within a few days. When people visit Brenda Speller’s tiny Katrina cottage, their lasting impression tends to be a sentiment of “this is all you really need in life.” Though her one-bedroom cottage provides less than 600 square feet of living space, it offers a simplistic solution to beach living.
Brenda decided to move to the beach after retiring from 20 years of service in the military. The undeveloped wooded property she owned in Seacrest, Florida, housed two small buildings, a washroom and a one-room guest bungalow, and allowed just enough space to add a prefabricated Katrina cottage. Brenda gutted the cottage to create a simple home that maximized every inch. And with the help of interior decorator Tonya G. Kilpatrick she was able to employ a few design tricks to make the space feel larger. When working with a small space, Tonya suggests finding furniture pieces that can be utilized in more than one way, like the side tables pictured here that can also be used as stools for extra seating in the kitchen or living area.
When she remodeled the kitchen Brenda knew she needed to get rid of the big overhead cabinets and large furnishings. She scaled down all of her appliances, opting for an under the counter refrigerator and a small stovetop oven. She installed wall racks for shelving and found a space appropriate, 20-inch-square butcher-block island from Ikea. “We got small furniture so the house wouldn’t look so small,” Brenda shares, noting she specifically selected other things like a light granite countertop, white paint for the walls, and bamboo flooring, all to create a more open look. “I’ve never worked with a kitchen so teeny,” Tonya admits, but says it was one of her favorite projects. “Creating a real modern looking kitchen in that small space and being able to give that area a ‘wow factor’ was so much fun!”
Although working with a small budget, Tonya pulled together a luxe look in Brenda’s bedroom by crafting a headboard from plywood, batting, and material. “We put it all together without spending as much money as we had to,” Brenda says. “If we saw something we liked, we figured out how to do it.”
Brenda added water and electricity to the on-site bungalow to give her guests a place to rest. The one-room space hosts a bed and a living area, as well as a half bathroom. With the help of her interior decorator, she furnished the space for less than $300.
The duo worked with a local contractor to add a screened-in back porch. Furnished with a swing bed from madeon30a.com, recycled furnishings, and bold, vibrant pops of color, the porch is not only a favorite place to relax, it’s also the largest part of the house. “I spend a lot of time out here,” Brenda says, noting the porch is a great place to sleep on cool nights. A neutral color palette with an added pop of orange and natural greenery gives this porch a fun, funky twist that is both cozy and contemporary.
When she’s not on the back porch, Brenda and her dog Scruffy are outside enjoying the sunshine. Though it’s only a short walk to the beach, her own yard is a little slice of paradise, complete with lush, natural areas and carved out spaces for entertaining. Brenda and Tonya built an area for an outdoor fire pit and an entertainment space beneath a wooden pergola draped in a dreamy string of twinkle lights.
Outside, Brenda and Tonya created a wooden boardwalk along the house to “bring back that old beach feeling,” Tonya says. “I just feel like this is the way you’re supposed to live at the beach, not a lot of stuff, just a beautiful place to take in the fresh air from the Gulf.”