San Antonio startup to build ‘secret garden homes’ in backyards

Garden homes image. (SABJ)

SAN ANTONIOEditor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between the San Antonio Business Journal and KSAT.

A San Antonio couple launched a startup to build tiny structures in backyards to function as offices, schoolhouses or anything in between.

Recommended Videos



Erin Callahan, co-founder and CEO Some Elbow Room, describes the spaces as “secret garden homes,” water-tight, stand-alone buildings that come in three sizes from 96 to 300 square feet. The structures, named Elbow Rooms, are customizable for any purpose and are insulated, air conditioned and wired for electricity. Customers can even choose to add bathrooms or kitchenettes.

“We’re just planning on flooding the city with marketing, and just getting our name out there, because we feel so strongly that this is just a great product for everyone who’s just super stressed,” Callahan told the Business Journal. “Everybody wants a place where they can relax or do something that’s important to them.”

The buildings can be installed in one week and range from $9,000 to $30,000 or more, depending on size and amenities. The couple hopes to soon open a showroom of the small structures.

Callahan and her husband Patrick built their first Elbow Room in their backyard in April and have reconfigured the building at least four times since then. Prior to the pandemic, the couple flipped houses and intended to start building new homes in the area but shelved those plans with the uncertainty of the housing market at the time.

See more photos of the Some Elbow Room’s structures at the San Antonio Business Journal.