With 40 square feet, the coop (nestled inside a toolshed) has more than enough space for Dalley's chickens, Ruby, Hiko and Ash.

Although the designer wanted to coop to look great, the proper location was just as important. The chickens needed a space where they could roam but stay safe, since neighborhood dogs often show up unannounced, so Dalley built a 100-square-foot chicken run outside the coop. The chickens enter the henhouse through the tiny door shown here.

"Any design problem I tackle begins with the same simple questions," says Dalley. "Who is the user? What is the function? How can the solution tell a story about its context?"

The coop gets a modern twist with diagonal cedar planks, aligned at the same angles as the cross bracing inside the shed. The cedar is unsealed and will weather and gray with time. A hanging tumbleweed that Dalley and her husband found on the property adds a bit of rustic decor and filters some of the light from the overhead bulb.

High nesting perches, where chickens love to sleep, go down the back wall on a diagonal. The bottom perch is close enough to the nesting box that the chickens can hop in easily.

Galvanized metal water and food containers hang from cables on a ceiling beam. Since the chickens love to scratch around and kick up the pine shavings on the floor, Dalley raised their food containers to keep the space tidy.

The double-wall water container uses vacuum pressure to keep the water level consistent. During the frigid Nevada winters, Dalley puts an electrical heat base on the container so the water won't freeze.

Although there's only one nesting box, Dalley made it pretty large — 2 feet long and 1 foot deep — so there's more than enough room for the chickens.

Dalley wanted to be able to collect the eggs without actually going inside the henhouse, so she put a hatch door on the nesting box, which she can open from outside. A bright orange hue matches some of the tools stored in her shed.

The branches for the perches were salvaged from a tree-trimming project in Dalley's yard.

The toolshed and henhouse sit 15 feet from the main house, in Dalley's large backyard. The chicken coop initially was conceived as a way to reduce the amount of time they'd have to spend mowing their large lawn.

"We also loved the idea of having a pretty self-sufficient pet, one that nonetheless rewards with beautiful eggs," says Dalley. "We knew we could give a few chickens a nice place to cluck and peck."

More: Backyard Living: The Scoop on Chicken Coops