The Star-Gazer Micro-Camper Is a Cheap but Gorgeous DYI Build With Multi-Functionality

Since kids, we're conditioned to dream bigger and shoot for the stars, which eventually materializes in wanting – and getting – more material things. A bigger house and more stuff to fill it with, a new car, and maybe (hopefully) other toys we can enjoy and brag about to friends and family, you know how this goes.

Downsizing is the opposite of everything we've grown up to expect in life. The trend is not new, but the troubled past years have brought it to the forefront of most conversations, turning it into a viral sensation because it promises less stress, more financial freedom, and a higher degree of mobility. Today, downsizing is synonymous with tiny living, whether in a tiny house or any other type of mobile home.

The Star-Gazer is also downsizing, albeit only partially. It's also the simplest, cheapest, and most convenient form of downsizing because it's not meant as a permanent or long-term thing but rather as a halfway solution that still delivers relief from the daily routine and whatever stress it entails. The Star-Gazer is a DIY (do it yourself) build that – why yes! – you could build yourself with multi-functionality. It's a space on wheels that can be whatever you want it to be, put it in much simpler words.

Designed and built by Brooke Whipple, whom you might know as the Girl in the Woods from her social media or as the popular television personality, author, outdoorswoman, adventurer, or award-winning baker, the Star-Gazer is a micro-camper. It offers basic comfort creatures and can serve as a blank canvas for the builder: a mobile guest bedroom, a retreat in the middle of nature, an office in the woods, or even a mobile greenhouse or a chicken coop. It gets its name from the polycarbonate panels that serve as the roof, which allow you to lie in bed and enjoy the (slightly distorted) view of the sky.

Whipple is one of those people skilled with their hands, which explains why her builds almost always go viral. She also has a soft spot for vardo-style towables, whether tiny houses or sheds like this one, and a passion for including budget or reclaimed materials into her projects, in a bid to keep the costs down. The Star-Gazer, for example, is under $1,000 even though it was entirely built from scratch.

The idea with the Star-Gazer was to create something you could take out in the woods, and it would serve as "base" for a few hours at a time or overnight. It's under 200 lbs (90.7 kg) and sits on heavy-duty 26-inch cart wheels on a ¾ inch threaded road axle, and has a towbar with a hitch coupler. Whipple towed it with her ATV for testing, but she says it's not designed for pulling with a vehicle. Instead, it should be loaded onto a utility trailer for easier transport, but the hitch can be used to get it into position by hand.

Inspired by Deek Diedricksen's book Micro-Shelters, the Star-Gazer measures 8 by 4 by 6 feet/2.4 by 1.2 by 1.8 meters (length, width, height) and is designed with a 2-person maximum capacity. The interior features a wooden bench with a foam mattress and underneath storage cubbies, a pine table that is both kitchenette and office space, and plenty of rustic touches that add a bit more functionality to the space and lots of personality: floating shelves, art pieces, and hanging plants.

There's a one-burner gas cooker to brew a cup of coffee or tea or maybe make a hard-boiled egg, some tableware, office supplies, and a composting toilet tucked away under the bench. You get pillows and blankets and a few decorative pieces, but the finishes are ultimately your choice. This is how Whipple chose to decorate hers, like a sort of gypsy van designed exclusively for relaxation and communing with nature while maybe doing some light work as well.

The idea with the Star-Gazer, beyond offering other skilled carpenters the chance to build their own multi-functional shed, is to show that you don't necessarily need to go huge with a project of this kind. The appeal of downsizing and DIY work is that almost anything can work if you keep an eye on the functionality and comfort of the space and use common sense.

Star-Gazer is also an excellent example of downsizing, and not just because it proposes a scaled-down approach to living, whether temporarily or in the long term. It's a budget solution to a very present and very modern problem, bringing the benefits of a much more expensive alternative: the need for a private, personalizable space where to disconnect. The only prerequisite is temperate weather because, for all its merits, Star-Gazer won't do in colder climates.