Wednesday 31 October 2018

Why a Rustic Lodge Add-On Is Just What Your Home Needs

Adding-On to Your Existing Home, Rustic-Lodge Style

If you have an existing home and you’re thinking about expanding its living space or adding another structure on your property to serve as an in-law suite, home office, or other types of space, then building a rustic lodge could be just the answer you’re looking for.

While you might think that the sheer beauty of a log cabin is reason enough to have one on your property, there are in fact several reasons why a rustic lodge just makes sense. Here are seven benefits of making your add-on a log cabin, when it’s time to start building.

  1. Log Cabins Are Energy Efficient
    Log cabins are designed for energy efficiency, much more than the standard home is. The R-value of the logs used in constructing a rustic cabin keeps the home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. The structure also accomplishes this naturally, so your heating and cooling demand will be less than if you build a more traditional type of structure.
  2. A Log Cabin Offers Flexible Space
    A log cabin offers a nearly endless selection of opportunities. It can be an in-law suite, a cozy escape for reading or meditating, a homey home office, a place to exercise or practice yoga, a place to live for an adult child, or anything else you can imagine.
  3. You Can Express Your Creativity
    Log cabins come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. You can build a simplistic cabin or one that is more elaborate. The sky is the limit and your vision is ultimately the guideline. Get creative and build the log cabin you always wanted.
  4. A Rustic Lodge Sets Your Home Apart
    Whereas most other homes in your area might feature tin sheds in their backyards, your rustic lodge will set your home apart. Unlike these other homes, you’re making the most of your space by incorporating additional living space instead of storage space.
  5. Potential Problems Are Easier to Spot
    With a log cabin, any potential problems like water issues or pests are easier to identify and fix because the surface of the wood is the exterior and interior of the home. Things like siding, insulation, and drywall can hide these problems until they become major headaches and expensive repairs.
  6. Log Cabins Are “Greener” Homes
    A log cabin is the original “green” home. It is more energy efficient than most other homes being built today because it is and always has been designed to keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. So, if you’re looking for an add-on that won’t cost you a bunch of money to keep comfortable, then a rustic lodge is your best choice.
  7. Log Cabins Retain Their Value
    Log cabins are designed to last for decades, if not centuries! Thus, adding a rustic log cabin to your property is a sound investment because this type of structure maintains its value and beauty over time with proper upkeep.

A cabin is affordable to build, and it can be an asset that gets passed through your family for generations. When it comes to choosing an add-on for your home, few structures offer the long-term investment potential of a well-built log cabin.

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Tuesday 30 October 2018

5 Easy DIY Projects to Upgrade Your Cabin

Do-It-Yourself Projects to Make Your Cabin Even Better

Living in a log cabin is one thing, but when you’re able to create a genuine rustic feel to your home, that’s when you take your cabin to the next level. More than any other type of home, a log cabin is connected to nature. So, it makes sense that you want to keep the natural look and feel of your cabin’s structure everywhere on your property, both inside and out.

If you’re looking for a few DIY projects that can add a touch of rustic charm to your cabin, then here are five projects to get you started.

Build a Fire Pit

A fire pit is the perfect accessory to any log cabin. It’s ideal for sharing stories with the family, cooking hot dogs and s’mores, and for spending chilly autumn evenings outside. But, the best part about a fire pit is that it is easy to build and it serves as the ultimate disposal solution for fallen twigs and branches on your property.

Build a Firewood Seasoning Shed

In addition to fallen limbs and branches, you’ll also need logs for your fire pit. So, you can set aside a piece of your property specifically for splitting wood. Next to your splitting station, you can build a simple seasoning shed to keep your wood dry and protected all winter long.

This will make it easier and cleaner for you to fetch wood for your fire pit or indoor fireplace. You can make the shed as simple or complex as you like, but here’s how to build a basic firewood seasoning shed.

Strip the Finish From the Logs and Re-Finish Them

If your log cabin’s exterior is starting to lose its luster, then it might be time for a complete restoration. The first thing you’ll need to do it strip the old finish from the logs. The best way to accomplish this is to use a vacuum media abrasive blaster and ground-up corn cobs. This is an effective and affordable abrasive media that won’t damage the surface of the logs. Another option is to use CO2 blasting.

Even though these processes don’t damage the wood, they can cause the grain to become raised slightly. This will require you to sand and smooth the wood before applying the new coat of sealant. Look carefully for any signs of damage or wood rot and repair them as necessary.

Lastly, apply your choice of wood sealer according to the manufacturer’s instructions to complete the exterior’s restoration.

Go Solar

A log home is one that is built with nature in mind, so it makes sense for it to be even more “green.” Adding solar to your log cabin will make it energy independent and ensure that you always have the power you need regardless of the weather (if your panels are positioned where they can receive full sunlight throughout the day).

You can even install a solar thermal heater to heat your water instead of relying on gas or electric. Your cabin will be much more energy efficient, and you’ll enjoy the savings even more.

Install Hardwood Flooring

If you purchased an older log cabin and it came with cheap laminate, tile, or carpet flooring, then consider installing hardwood flooring instead. This will give the home a beautiful and rustic floor that looks like it belongs. As a side benefit, it will also increase the resale value of your home.

When you’re looking to upgrade your log cabin, remember that the more rustic it looks, the better. At the Log Furniture Place, we hand-craft our furniture from the finest rustic materials, so you can sure everything me make will fit beautifully within your cabin’s design. Visit our online store today to see what we have to offer.

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Sunday 28 October 2018

Understanding Live Edge Furniture, Why it’s Awesome and So Darn Trendy

Using Salvaged, Reclaimed, or Rough-Cut Wood Furniture in Your Home

You see it in all the fancy furniture showrooms these days – so much so, that it seems to have taken the decorating world by storm. That gorgeous slab of warm wood on a base, polished to a lustrous sheen, asking for spare decoration or a series of wonderful dishes to be laid out upon it. But the twist is: one or more of its edges has been left rough or completely unfinished, looking very much like the live tree it came from some time ago.

Of course, bringing elements of the natural world into the interior of the home (or conference room at your local startup) is nothing new. Rustic, or lodge-style interior decorating often uses rough-hewn timber-framed furniture, raw unfinished stone, and log furniture to bring a bit of the outside indoors. The style gives the homeowner, their family, and guests a real opportunity to settle into the comfort of a bygone era.

Live edge furniture does this by incorporating something unfinished into an otherwise-finished piece of furniture. And while the wood used to create live edge furniture may not have ever been selected for a conventional application in cabinetry or as a part of a piece of furniture, it is this less than perfect nature that makes it all the more beautiful.

The “History” of Live Edge Furniture

Live edge furniture has likely been a part of interior decorating for some of us for a very long time. Making fine, fully finished pieces of furniture was typically beyond the skills of most people making their own furniture for much of the history of our species having interiors to decorate.

Japanese furniture making tradition has also incorporated unfinished or live-edge pieces throughout its history. In fact, it was a Japanese woodworker, George Nakashima, who introduced the use of live edge wood to American furniture making in the nineteen forties with his award-winning furniture designs for a couple of American furniture companies. In these collaborations, he utilized wood specifically selected for the beauty of its natural imperfections, and left it in an unfinished state to highlight these qualities.

The Few Drawbacks of the Live Edge

Live edge furniture is not for every person and not for every home. Unfinished edges can make a piece of furniture less usable, and even dangerous in some contexts. For instance, the splinters available from a piece of unfinished, live edge wood can be a hazard for children. Additionally, live edge furniture can collect dust that can be difficult to remove.

The Natural Rustic Beauty of Live Edge Furniture

Live edge furniture, whether it is crafted from slabbed trees, reclaimed wood from salvaged architecture, or from unfinished timber, has a natural rustic beauty that is sure to compliment any home or interior decorating style. Live edge furniture is especially appealing in rustic decorated interiors, adding an additional component of the natural world in all its raw splendor to the other elements of the lodge look.

It’s surprising what leaving a single edge of a tabletop can do to bring an entire room to life, in addition to—or in spite of—the other decoration throughoutin the room. In the end, a live edge coffee table, dining room table, bar top, or other pieces of furniture can be a great additions to your home, whether or not you’re decorating in the rustic style.

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Friday 26 October 2018

Build the Log Cabin Dream Home You’ve Always Wanted

Ready to Finally Build That Log Cabin Home of Your Dreams?

There’s something special about a log cabin. One look at the structure, and all you can think about is how comfortable and cozy it must be in there, especially in winter with the hearth lit and the snow falling outside.

But for far too many people, their dreams of living in a log home are just that – dreams. If you are one of the brave folks, and you want to make your dream a reality, then we say good for you! Read on for a list of our tips when you’re ready to start building the log cabin dream home you’ve always wanted.

Know Your Budget

A log cabin’s cost varies based on its size and the quality of materials used. You also need a piece of property if you don’t already have one, and this can also add to the cost. So, before you start planning your log home, you need to know how much money you’re going to be working with.

Review all your debts and income sources, and create a budget. Know the budget inside and out, and look for ways to free up more money. Pay off any debt you can and get rid of luxury items that cost you more than the value they’re providing you with.

Custom Design or Stock Plan?

When considering your home’s layout, you will have to make the decision between a custom design and a stock plan that may be available from your builder. As enticing as a custom build might be to you, there are several reasons why a stock plan may be a better option, especially for a first-time log cabin owner.

For starters, a stock plan is going to save you a lot of money. Then there’s the fact that the builder has built their stock plans numerous times over, so any construction issues will have already been engineered out of the plan. Thus, your builder will be able to build your log cabin quicker, more efficiently, and for less money than a custom job.

Go With an Open Floor Plan

Choosing an open floor plan will not only make your home feel larger, but it will also save you money and eliminate wasted space. An open floor plan features no hallways, so construction and material costs will be lower, and your cabin will have the type of floor plan most buyers want, which will benefit you if you ever decide to sell.

Keep the Cabin’s Width Below 30 Feet

In a log cabin build, a 30-foot width is the highest you’ll want to go if you want to keep your costs down. The reason is because structures that are higher or wider than 30-feet require larger and longer support beams, and naturally, the longer the logs, the more expensive they’re going to cost.

Ceiling Height Considerations

If part of your log cabin dream image consists of cathedral ceilings, then keep the cathedral ceiling in the great room, but keep the ceilings in the rest of the home around the eight-foot mark. This will allow you to enjoy the grand feel of the open space in your great room, while keeping the rest of the home easy and more affordable to heat and cool.

Build Your Dream Cabin in Stages

The most important thing when it comes to building a dream log cabin is to accept that you don’t need to build the entire thing in one project. Instead, you can build your dream home in phases.

Doing this will not only help you stretch out your building expenses, but it will also enable you to add to your home to suit your future needs. An example of phase-building includes building the base cabin in phase one, adding a wrap-around porch in phase two, a garage in phase three, and maybe an in-law’s suite in phase four.

Outfit Your Log Cabin With Authentic Log Furniture

With your log cabin built, your next step will be to outfit the interior with furniture that’s appropriate for your living space. From rustic wood bed frames to a charming wood kitchen to tables and chairs and more, there are dozens of different ways to bring the beauty of the outdoors into your dream cabin.

At Log Furniture Place, we use locally sourced materials to handcraft all our products and we back everything with a solid warranty to ensure you are 100% satisfied when you receive your purchase. We work tirelessly for our customers and offer some of the most competitive prices around, which is why we're the top log furniture store online. Contact us today if you have any questions regarding our process and/or customization options.

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Maintaining Your Log Cabin in Winter

Winter Is the Best Time of Year to Enjoy Log Cabin Living

Old man winter is heading our way faster than you might like, so there’s no better time than now to get your log cabin ready for the cold and wet weather. There’s nothing like the rustic beauty of a log cabin, but a log cabin’s exterior has two natural enemies that it must deal with all year round: sun and water.

Because of this, fall is when you want to check for any problems summer’s sunshine might have caused and repair them before the wetness of winter rolls in. With that in mind, here are some things you’re going to want to do when prepping and maintaining your log cabin for winter.

Inspect the Finish on the Wood

The UV rays produced by summer’s harsh sunshine can break down your cabin’s finish, making it susceptible to absorbing moisture and rotting, so the first thing you should do is take a walk around your home to look for signs of degradation.

The wood should still have most of the color you applied if you used a colored stain. If you used clear stain, then the wood should still retain its natural beauty and luster. But, if you find areas where the color has dulled, or the wood has turned black or dirty looking, then these areas have lost their finish.

Look closely at the wood that is closest to the ground, as this wood is most at risk of becoming damaged by moisture.

Test the Finish if You’re Unsure

If you’re a new log cabin owner or you’re just unsure if your finish is still holding up, then you can test the finish by spraying water from a hose onto the section of the home you’re concerned about. If the water beads and runs down the logs in rivulets, then the finish is still working. But, if the water turns patches of the wood darker, then these areas have lost their finish.

Test the Wood in the Unfinished Spots

If you have patches of wood that turn dark with the water test, then you need to see how bad the moisture problem is. Take a nail or screwdriver and press the tip into the wood. If the tool sinks into the wood, then you will have to scrape out the damaged wood and fill the hole in using an epoxy wood filler. Let the epoxy dry and then apply a fresh coat of sealant over the areas that need it.

Inspect the Seals

The sun’s UV rays can also cause the seals on your home’s exterior to become dry and brittle, thus increasing the risk for air gaps and insect infestations. While you’re checking the finish, pay attention to the seals between the logs, around the windows and doors, and your chimney flashing. If you see areas where the seal is cracked, stretched, or missing, then remove the bad section and apply fresh caulk.

When checking the flashing around your chimney, make sure there are no wasp or bird nests inside your chimney, and check that the rain caps on your roof are in place. If necessary, call in a chimney sweeping service to get your chimney primed for use.

Inspect the Gutters and Eaves

Clean your gutters and downspouts often during fall to ensure they remain open and unclogged, so they can be ready to handle winter’s wet weather. When cleaning your gutters, check the eaves for signs of discoloration. If you notice patches of discoloration on your eaves, then this is a sign that water has been allowed to stand too long.

Clean Vents and Exhausts

Any exhaust or vent that exits your home, such as the dryer duct or kitchen or bath exhaust, should be inspected to ensure nothing is clogging them. It’s not uncommon for birds to build nests in these locations over the summer.

Lastly, install a new air filter in your home’s furnace. With these tasks done, you’ll be able to enjoy the warmth and coziness that you can only get from a log cabin in the winter.

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Tuesday 23 October 2018

Transform Your Living Space With Rustic Furniture

Using Rustic Furniture to Create a New Look for Your Home

The rustic look is simple: it’s rugged, natural, and also comfortable and timeless. If you are looking to transform your home in order to evoke a simple yet beautiful feeling from your home decor, the rustic decorating style may be ideal for you.

Bringing rustic furniture and decorative elements into your living areas is a great way to give your home a more natural, organic feel. In this post, we will look at some of the ways you can transform your living spaces with rustic furniture and other elements of the rustic or lodge style.

Choosing Rustic Furniture for Your Home

The rustic style is first and foremost about the sophistication of a more rugged nature that is beautiful because of its incorporation of natural materials. Many different types of natural materials are used to create the rustic look, and to make rustic furniture. Rustic furniture, whether it’s new or well used, always feels comfortable and inviting.

Rustic furniture relies on several basic materials that typically are left in close to their natural state. Wooden pieces of furniture, for example, are often made of peeled logs or rough-hewn boards, and are sometimes hand-carved, or lathed and worked with hand tools.

Natural Materials, Rustic Furniture

Rustic furniture can be stained, oiled, or painted, but the rustic style of decorating values warmer tones and more natural-looking or organic materials. Treatments that highlight or show off the natural grain and knots of the wood used to construct the furniture are usually easier to incorporate into rustic decor.

The furniture used in rustic decor is also often chosen to help create a sense of log cabin, mountain lodge, or deep forest cottage atmosphere. When it is paired with other rustic architectural elements such as open beams, rustic wood flooring, or an unfinished stone fireplace, and rustic decorative elements like taxidermied trophies, woolen throws, and brass fixtures, it creates a sense of comfort – a sense of home.

Bedroom, Kitchen, and Bath in the Rustic Style

When redecorating your home in the rustic style, using rustic furniture to create that lodge feel, remember not to limit yourself to just the main living areas of the house. The bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom can all benefit from the addition of rustic elements, including rustic furniture.

In the kitchen, decorate with antique milk glass or mason jars full of various natural foodstuffs, or put your antique cast iron on display. You don’t have to convert your kitchen to antique appliances, but if you are looking to replace your appliances, then be sure to look for new ones that feel like they’re vintage. Consider removing the doors from your cabinets, or replacing your cabinet and drawer hardware with something antique in appearance.

In the bedroom, a timber or log furniture bed frame is a great way to bring in the rustic style. Set off your choice of bed with natural textile sheets and blankets, and a handmade quilt. Finish the room with an antique or reclaimed wood nightstand and an antique lamp. In the bath, brass fixtures and natural accents can go a long way toward carrying the rustic decorating theme into an often-used and often-neglected corner of your home.

Easily Transform Your Home With Rustic Furniture

Using rustic furniture and design elements in your home to create a feeling of coziness will make you, your family, and your guests feel a sense of warm welcoming in your home. This is thanks in large part to the naturally welcoming qualities of the organic materials used in the creation of rustic furniture.

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Sunday 21 October 2018

Is the Rustic Look Right for My Home? Um, Yes—And Here’s Why

Why You Need to Quit Worrying and Embrace Comfort and Style

You may be thinking about redecorating your home soon, or you may be about to decorate a new home for the very first time. If you’re anything like many Americans, you may be thinking about finally trying to unify the hodge-podge of decorating styles you have going currently into one well-composed style.

If you’ve always liked the look of rustic style decoration and furniture, now’s your chance to bring the log cabin look into your home. Maybe you stayed at a lodge last summer and fell in love with the furniture, fixtures, and decorative elements. Whatever the reason, you no longer need to be afraid to take the plunge into rustic-style decor.

This post is here to help you set aside your worries, define your own take on rustic style, and quiet your inner style naysayer as you venture into log cabin décor for your home. 

What Is the Rustic Look, Anyway?

Well, the rustic look is pretty much whatever you think it is. Like beauty, rustic-ness is in the eye of the beholder. What might be rustic to some may not be at all rustic to others. Because of this, no one gets to tell you that your decorating style is rustic or isn’t; you get to decide. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about some of the decorative elements that typically get labeled “rustic.”

Dark woods, especially hand carved or turned wood; or log or bent wood furniture is a key element of the rustic style. Natural textiles are often used in rustic style – things like Pendleton or other vintage horse blankets, or hand-knitted throws or homespun loomed fabrics. Antique, or vintage-looking fixtures and decorations, or things you might find in abundance at the local antique mall, are also often used to accentuate the rustic look.

Quieting Your Inner Style Naysayer

But again, as was said above, no one gets to tell you what is or isn’t rustic enough; no one except you, that is. And, if you’re questioning whether or not the look might be right for your home, it may help a bit to check in with what is giving you pause.

Is there a nagging voice deep inside you that won’t let you have the charm and comfort of rustic style? Maybe it’s a voice urging you to buy all white furniture and put it on white wall-to-wall carpeting, and then cover it all in clear plastic so it never gets dirty. Only you can find and quiet your inner style critic. For many people, embracing the rustic style is about embracing their desire for the comfort and coziness they deserve.

How to Have the Best of Both Worlds

Lastly, even if you think going full-lodge and embracing the rustic style might not work for your home—maybe because of the architecture, the decorative elements you already have in play and can’t imagine parting with, or because of some other reason—you don’t necessarily have to jettison your entire home’s worth of decoration and furniture and go full rustic.

One of the great things about the rustic style is that it blends very well with many other decorating schemes. And, you can always pick a room that you think it might work well in, and give the rustic style of decor a try on a smaller, more manageable scale. But be careful, because that one room could end up being the only one in the house that you ever spend any real relaxing time in!

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Thursday 18 October 2018

Finding the Right Lodge Style Decor for Your Home

Rustic Decorating for Your Own Home

Decorating your home in timeless lodge style is either a trend right now, or soon will be again. The décor style is just that popular, and the lodge-style never really goes out of fashion. Elegant and simple at the same time, it evokes a gentler, cozier time and gives you and your guests a feeling of warmth and relaxation that may not be matched by other decorating styles.

Luckily enough, decorating in the lodge style doesn’t have rigid rules, either. You’re allowed to bring your own tastes into play as you work to define your own take on lodge style. Of course, you’ll need to know where to get lodge style decor for your home and what to look for when it comes to new and used decorative items, furniture, and fixtures, but we’ll cover all of that in this post.

Defining Your Own Take on Lodge Style

Before you start shopping, it pays to spend some time looking into what’s out there for inspiration and to get some ideas about the look you’re shooting for. Essentially, you’ll want to keep a focus on what will work in the specific spaces where you’ll be decorating. Pinterest is a great place to go and search for decorating ideas.

A quick search for “lodge decorating style” will turn up thousands of images for you to sift through, offering ideas and narrowing down what you’re looking for and hoping to accomplish in your space. You may find that you favor a more East Coast Adirondack lodge style, or you may go for a more Western alpine lodge look. Regardless of the style you choose, knowing what you’re looking for will make finding it that much easier.

Where to Get the Goods: Lodge Style Décor Shopping Made Easy

Decorating in lodge style may require a bit of legwork on your part, depending on what you are hoping to do. There are many vintage and antique items that can contribute to your lodge style decor, as well as many contemporary items that you can purchase new. Additionally, lodge style can include objects you harvest directly from nature (or purchase from someone who does).

Country stores, farm stores, antique malls, estate sales, second-hand stores, resale hardware stores, and contemporary boutiques can all be great resources for finding items that are lodge style, or at least compliment it in some way. What you’re primarily looking for is rustic or homey items that seem like they’d be completely at home in an old-time lodge in the mountains.

And don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect vintage piece of furniture – online furniture retailers can be a great, quick way to find rustic decor, lodge furniture, and other elements of the look you’re trying to create in your home.

Creating a Sense of Home With Warm, Cozy Decorative Elements

Whether you choose to go with antique horse blankets, contemporary wood furniture, nautical instruments as art objects, bent-wood furniture and frames, antique brass and nickel light fixtures, or whatever you think lodge style means—you’re sure to find it. Lodge style is about comfort and bringing a feeling of warmth into the home. Good luck and happy decorating!

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Wednesday 17 October 2018

East Coast or West Coast—What’s Your Favorite Style of Lodge?

Decorating in the Lodge Style

Decorating interiors in a rustic or lodge style began in the mountains of Europe. Out of necessity and because the roads were not very good (that is, when there were roads), most lodge keepers would fashion their own furniture and decorations out of what they had on hand or from the supplies they could get nearby.

Rustic, rough timbers; bent wood furniture; leather; animal skins; river rock or slate – these were the primary materials used to furnish and decorate the historic European mountain lodges. And when Europeans came to North America, of course, they brought this style with them.

The History of the American Lodge Style

At first, the style was used in frontier cabins, but as the frontier moved westward, so did lodge style furnishings and decoration. Fast-forward to the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and we first see lodge style decorating in the lodges being built in the wilderness areas of the east coast. Then later, the style spread throughout the upper Midwest, the American Southwest, as well as the mountains and along the rivers and beaches of the west coast.

The Finer Points of East Coast Lodge Style

Because lodge style furnishing and decorating rely heavily on available nearby materials, there are big differences between the style of the East Coast lodge and the style of lodges in other areas. In the east, the majority of the historic lodges were built throughout the nineteenth century. Some echo the Old World charm of European lodges, while others are more distinctly American Colonial in style.

The construction, decor, and furnishings of these lodges relies on the local shale and granite stones available from either quarry or from nearby streams and rivers; the pelts of local deer, fox, bear, and other large animals; and bent willow and hardwoods from the local deciduous forests. These materials dictated the style used to decorate East Coast lodges, a great example of which can be seen in the Adirondack-style lodge.

The Rustic Tradition of West Coast Lodge Style

Out in the West, no matter if we’re talking about lodges high in the Rocky Mountains, High Sierras, or Pacific Northwest Cascades, the style of West Coast lodges also depends on available local materials. In some areas, this may mean volcanic rock, while in others, it may mean granite. Across the west, the availability of softer woods – fir, pine, hemlock, and spruce – also meant diversity in decorating.

Further, as many lodges in the west were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, loomed textiles (like the incredibly popular Pendleton wool blanket), allowed for more diversity in the appointments of rustic style. A great example of West Coast style exists in the Timberline Lodge, a WPA-built lodge located at the treeline on Mount Hood in Oregon.

A Word About the Southwest and the Great Lakes

The lodges of the Great Lakes states and the American Southwest also have their own distinctive styles, though the lodges of the Southwest are more closely related to the lodges of the West Coast, and the Great Lakes lodges owe more to their Eastern cousins than the lodges out West.

So Which Lodge Atmosphere Is Your Favorite?

Do you prefer the East Coast, Adirondack style of lodge with its bent wood decorations, rustic wood interiors and flagstone touches? Or do you prefer the West Coast, national park style of lodge with its fir timber construction, volcanic rock touches, and loomed wool throw blankets? Both styles are rustic in origin and favor whatever local materials are readily available, and the good news is that they play well together, too. So maybe you don’t have to choose, after all!

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