2 Bedroom San Jose Detached Backyard Cottage

Many San Jose backyards have the perfect shape and size to fit a larger accessory dwelling unit, and that is exactly what Cottage helped this homeowner take advantage of with design, permitting, and construction of a new 741 sqft ADU.

With building the 2BR ADU in the backyard of this investment property, the homeowner wanted to ensure privacy between the existing single-family home and the new ADU housing unit. As a result, the design placed a double french doors entrance at the rear of the backyard to give the ADU a private yard space and make the detached ADU feel like an entirely separate dwelling. The client plans to install a fence and landscaping to create functional, private space for each unit on this property.

In order to maximize the indoor-outdoor feeling of the living space, Cottage designed an extra single swing glass door entry along with the double French door entry for a total of 3 operable glass door panels. This allows for any combination of the doors to be left open during the day and additional morning light to flow in.

The trio of doors open to a spacious and open full kitchen, dining, and living area that maximized the use of the square footage to the fullest. Adding to the ample natural light, a skylight above the kitchen space brings in additional light and is a feature in many Cottage ADUs that adds height and a spacious feel to the open floor plan area.

By making choices that maximized the space with a 19'x39' footprint, the homeowner was able to fit two bedrooms, each with their own separate closet. The bedrooms were intentionally designed to be position far from each other to create privacy - for families, home office usage, or even for roommates who would be living together. In addition, in-unit laundry and the extra half bathroom create a fully autonomous, functional unit packed with bonus features within the rectangular floor plan.

The ADU resident also has the option of using the smaller bedroom space as a flexible work from home office space or kids play area, with the deep closet being utilized for extra storage as well.

Cottage commonly designs multi-use spaces like these—on one hand, they can be rented and sold as a fully livable unit, while from day-to-day they can be used for different uses ranging from home offices to indoor gyms to art studio spaces. Cottage's ADUs unlock many different flexible space options for homeowners.

As the property owner thought through how to allocate the bathroom and laundry spaces, they ultimately selected to have one bathroom be significantly larger, with a full tub and stackable washer-dryer to create desirable rental unit amenities. Above-sink vanity lights and cabinet storage ensure that the full bathroom space is used effectively.

Contemporary tile floors as well as the turquoise floor-to-ceiling subway tile over the bathtub were great finishing touches for the unit.

Despite being a standard rectangular San Jose backyard to start with, Cottage helped this local homeowner make the best design and construction decisions for their 741 sqft ADU from start to finish, with construction of the full unit completing in early 2021.

Interested in a similar ADU in your backyard or garage conversion? Contact us today using the link below for a Free, No-obligation Consultation & Estimate and to learn more about how you can build your ADU this year!