Chelan Container House

The Chelan Container House is a luxurious container home perfectly set outside the small alpine town of Leavenworth, WA. While this scenic tourist area is modeled after an old Bavarian village, the home is stunning and modern.

This two-story house is made of six 40ft shipping containers. On one hand, you could say it’s simple, with two levels of three containers placed side by side and forming a large rectangular form. On the other hand, thanks to strategic cutouts for porches that take advantage of negative space, plus an abundant use of windows, this home is anything but a plain-looking box.

This house features a modern kitchen complete with custom cabinets and high-end stainless appliances, plus open dining and living areas. High ceilings are found throughout the home thanks to the high-cube containers. On the bottom floor, you can see the container ceilings were actually removed to leave the exposed bottom structure of the upper containers. The second-floor containers have their exposed container corrugations visible, with insulation placed above the ceilings.

Notice the floors throughout the home as well. A thin layer of cement was used to give that loft-like appearance in lieu of the container plywood on the ground floor, while tile was used on the second story.

The entire home is light and airy, thanks to a bright color palette and numerous windows. You almost feel like you’re inside a treehouse while on the second floor.

Another unique feature of this container house is the set of huge, 22ft long sliding doors that cover up the large glass doors on the bottom floor of the house. Made from the container sidewalls that were removed, these doors (along with the standard end doors of the containers) allow the first floor of the house to be completely secured.

An in-floor heating system is also used given the cool climate of central Washington state, providing comfort and warmth to the entire house. But on the beautiful days during the warmer months, the expansive 40ft long covered porch is available on the second floor.

In a somewhat uncommon choice, the master bedroom is placed on the second floor, along with the other bedrooms. This leaves the more public areas on the ground floor and private areas above, except for the massive porch.

We love everything about this home. Obviously, the views of the forested mountains are incredible. But it’s the way that what would have otherwise been a boring rectangular box was transformed into something creative and unique while still looking perfectly at home in the tree-filled environment.