This 420-sqft Tiny Home Packs in 2 Beds, a Full Kitchen & Riverfront Living

If you liked the layout of The Haven at Water 65, its neighbor, The Hunter, offers a very similar floor plan with a completely different personality.

Located along the river in Waynesville, North Carolina, The Hunter is an approximately 420-square-foot tiny home with a private main-floor bedroom, large sleeping loft, full kitchen, spacious bathroom, laundry, and covered outdoor living space. While The Haven has a lighter interior, The Hunter leans into a warmer rustic-modern aesthetic, with dark brown cabinetry, wood accents, hardwood floors, and natural-looking countertops.

The home is part of Water 65, a three-unit, adults-only tiny home retreat close enough to walk into downtown Waynesville. Guests have their own private home and outdoor space while sharing amenities like the property's fire pit and hot tub.

For a vacation rental, there's plenty of room to spread out—but the floor plan also gives us a lot of ideas for what a roughly 400-square-foot home could look like for full-time living.

🏡 Main Features

• 📏 Approximately 420 sq ft
• 🛏️ Private main-floor bedroom with queen bed
• 🛌 Large sleeping loft with king-size bed
• 🍳 Full kitchen with residential-size appliances
• 🗄️ Plenty of kitchen cabinetry + additional storage
• 🧺 Washer/dryer combo unit
• ☕ Dedicated coffee station
• 🛋️ Living room with full-size sofa & fireplace
• 🚿 Spacious bathroom with tiled shower
• 🌿 Covered wraparound porch with outdoor dining
• 🔥 Shared hot tub & fire pit
• 🌊 Riverside setting near downtown Waynesville

🌿 Covered Porch & Outdoor Living

Before heading inside, The Hunter has a large covered porch and wraparound deck that significantly expands the usable living area.

There's room for a full outdoor dining table, and the covered portion includes a ceiling fan for warmer days. A private grill makes the porch even more functional for meals outside.

Double doors lead directly from the porch into the living room, which helps blur the boundary between the two spaces. In a 420-square-foot home, being able to open those doors and spread onto the deck can make a noticeable difference when entertaining.

🛋️ Living Room

Inside, the living room is simple but comfortably sized.

A full-size couch provides plenty of seating, while a large TV is mounted above the fireplace. The darker wood and brown accents throughout this particular home give it a cozier, more rustic feeling than The Haven despite sharing a similar overall layout.

There's even a guitar in the living room for musically inclined guests—or, in our case, a nice piece of decor.

The hardwood floors continue throughout much of the interior, and the open ceiling above the living room provides a glimpse into the loft while adding more vertical space downstairs. Water 65 describes The Hunter as featuring hardwood flooring and higher-end finishes throughout.

🍳 Kitchen

The kitchen might be our favorite part of The Hunter.

For a home this size, there's an impressive amount of countertop and cabinet space, making it feel much closer to the kitchen you'd expect in a conventional apartment.

The long linear layout includes a full-size refrigerator, four-burner gas range and oven, microwave, toaster, and compact dishwasher. There's plenty of room to prepare meals without cutting too far into the adjacent living area.

One detail that particularly stood out during our tour was the natural-looking countertop edge. Rather than the perfectly straight profile you see on most countertops, this one has a more organic appearance that fits nicely with the home's rustic-modern interior.

And unlike some vacation rentals with little more than a microwave and mini fridge, Water 65 equips the home with cookware, dishes, a coffee maker, blender, and other essentials for preparing meals during your stay.

☕ Coffee Bar, Laundry & Storage

Continuing beyond the main kitchen, you'll find a dedicated coffee station along with a washer/dryer combo unit.

We always appreciate seeing laundry included in small homes because it's one of those practical features that can determine whether a floor plan feels suitable for a weekend stay or realistic for everyday life. Water 65 confirms that laundry appliances are included in The Hunter.

There's also additional storage incorporated throughout the main level, including a small closet near the kitchen.

🛏️ Private Main-Floor Bedroom

The Hunter doesn't require you to climb into the loft every night.

Its private main-floor bedroom includes a queen-size bed, TV, small nightstand, and some dedicated hanging and storage space.

It's a compact bedroom, but separating it from the living room gives the home a much more traditional feel. For full-time living, we'd probably add a little more built-in clothing storage if possible, but having an enclosed bedroom at all is a major advantage in a home this size.

The room also includes lighted mirrors that are useful when getting ready without taking up additional floor space.

🚿 Bathroom

The bathroom is surprisingly spacious and carries some of the same design elements found in the kitchen.

A large vanity provides counter and storage space, while the countertop coordinates with the kitchen for a more cohesive interior.

Across from it is a roomy tiled shower with glass doors, another feature Water 65 highlights as part of The Hunter's upgraded interior finishes.

It's one of those bathrooms that doesn't immediately feel like it belongs inside a tiny home. Rather than shrinking everything down to save a few inches, there's enough room to comfortably get ready and move around.

🛌 Large Bedroom Loft

Upstairs, The Hunter differs slightly from The Haven in how the loft is furnished.

Instead of two smaller beds, this home features a king-size bed, along with a large TV and a couple of beanbags for relaxing.

The loft isn't tall enough for most adults to stand upright, but it has considerably more headroom than the sleeping lofts we typically see in tiny houses on wheels. During our tour, we estimated close to five feet of clearance around the tallest portion.

That makes the loft feel less claustrophobic and gives it more flexibility. Beyond a second bedroom, you could imagine turning this space into a lounge, office, hobby room, or large storage area if the home were being used full-time.

🌊 The Water 65 Property

The Hunter is one of three tiny homes at Water 65, an adults-only compound bordered by an eight-foot decorative privacy fence on three sides and the river on the fourth. Guests share a fire pit and hot tub while retaining their own private accommodations. 

The setting is an interesting compromise between a secluded mountain getaway and an in-town vacation rental.

Another detail that makes Water 65 especially interesting is that the three tiny homes were self-built by the property owners, Morgan and his wife Heather. Rather than purchasing finished models, they designed & built the tiny homes from the ground-up, each with a similar footprint but its own distinct interior style.

You're not completely isolated—the owners are upfront that the surrounding area includes some residential and industrial activity—but that tradeoff means you're close enough to enjoy downtown Waynesville without a long drive. Maggie Valley is roughly three miles away, while Asheville is approximately 25 miles from the property.

That makes The Hunter a convenient home base for exploring western North Carolina while still having the river, porch, fire pit, and hot tub to come back to.

✨ Final Thoughts

The 420-square-foot Hunter is a great example of how much more livable a tiny home can become once you get into the roughly 400-square-foot range.

Its floor plan is almost identical to The Haven next door, but the darker cabinetry, natural textures, and rustic-modern finishes give the interior its own personality.

More importantly, it covers nearly all of the practical features we'd want for longer-term living: a private main-floor bedroom, full kitchen, laundry, large bathroom, comfortable living room, storage, and outdoor living space.

The loft is essentially a bonus. As a vacation rental, the king-size bed allows The Hunter to accommodate up to four guests across two sleeping areas. For a couple living here full-time, we'd probably turn that entire upper level into an office, lounge, or storage space instead.

We'd also consider adding a little more dedicated closet storage to the main bedroom, but otherwise there isn't much we'd need to change.

Between the functional kitchen, private bedroom, laundry, generous bathroom, and large covered porch, The Hunter feels less like a novelty tiny house and more like a genuinely compact home—just with a cozy riverside setting in the North Carolina mountains.

Would you choose the rustic-modern interior of The Hunter, or the lighter design of The Haven next door?