Saving an Existing Log Cabin--Exterior Walls Go Interior in this Clever Remodel

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What do you do when you love your small cabin but your family needs more space?  The Bacon family solved the problem by leaving the original Vermont log cabin intact and building rooms around it.  In the photo below, you can see the original outside walls, which are now indoors. 

The rag rug is from the 1930's.  The dining room table came from Canada and the mismatched chairs are from the 1880's

The Bacons are lovers of camp and cabin antiques.  The island in the new kitchen area is from the 19th century.  The hickory hoop chairs are from the 1930's.  The kitchen has been accessorized with a collection of tin plaid picnic boxes from the 40's and 50's.  

In the great room, older upholstered chairs have been recovered in a classic Lee Jofa floral fabric.  Leslie Bacon collects old hooked rugs and there is a large beautiful example on the floor and a smaller cabin-themed hook rug hanging above the fireplace mantle.

On the front porch, comfortable old rockers supplied with wool plaid blankets provide a cozy place to sit with a hot cup of cocoa and watch the snow fall.  Vintage accessories contribute to the charm of the porch.

Old carved Black Forest boxes are shown to advantage on an old store display rack.

The master linens are all vintage along with the braided area rug, above and below. 

Classic cabin arts from the hand-made quilt, pine cone lamp, hand-woven basket, cabin mirror.  The log walls create a charming backdrop for the Bacon's pretty collectibles.

A charming old hand-made cabin and scissors that were once part of the signage on a tailor's shop.

Although the many collectible pieces are from different eras and sources, they are kept cohesive with a color palate made of muted greens, red, yellow and blues.  In fact, it almost looks as if the same can of green milk paint has attended to the front door, the dining table base, the kitchen island and other vintage items scattered throughout the interior.  This color scheme is also repeated in the fabrics and rugs tying the rooms together.  The log walls and wood floors provide a pretty but subtle backdrop, allowing these colorful items to shine.

The couple enjoying their antique hickory game table amidst their charming collection of antique cabin furniture and accessories.  Bandit the dog supervising.

"Our architect thought I was a little nuts to keep the old cabin, and that it would have been a lot easier to start from scratch", Leslie admits.  "But I love when people use what they have around.  That's why folk art appeals to me. Something someone else might have thrown away, I'll always be happy to keep around me."

From Country Living.  

We always have a number of antique and vintage pieces in our online store.  To view our current offerings, click here.  

Want more cabin design inspiration? 

Explore two of our most-loved posts:   

Can I Paint My Log Walls? 

8 of the Most Charming Cabin Kitchens Ever

See hundreds of wallpaper and fabrics curated especially for cabins, lodges, and mountain homes.  Tahoedreaminteriors.com    

Follow along for fresh cabin ideas and new mountain home inspiration: 

Pinterest

Instagram

Let your mountain home reflect the beauty, comfort, and creativity you love. — Sue Pipal

Cabin Antiques

Some people just have a discriminating eye. They instinctively know quality. They immediately spot the highest level of craftsmanship.  They know balance, beauty and color harmony.  

I am still loving a pinterest page I discovered called "Find Me One".  It's been put together by someone with an eye.  Someone who loves mountain collectibles, especially, (be still my heart) European mountain antiques.  She loves Black Forest, carved bears, Tramp Art style, folk art, transferware and, of course, pieces decorated with antlers and pine cones.  Plain and simple, every possible sort of Old World mountain-oriented collectible has been included.

But...this girl has taste.  The items she's selected for her board are not just any old item with a bear slapped on it.  This is a beautifully curated collection of the best of the best, the rarest, the hardest to find, the most beautifully crafted.  Be sure to check it out.  You won't be disappointed.  And, if you're newly discovering the world of mountain antiques, this page can provide a great education as to what is out there and options for what you might want to set out to collect.  

  To see the Find Me One Pinterest board, click here.  


And, by the way, if you love all things about cabin living, I've been putting together my own share board with lots of links to great articles from around the web with all kinds of things that spark my interest about mountain living, and cabin decorating.  Clicking around to various content on the board is a great way to spend a snowy afternoon.  Hey, I think we have a few of those coming up this week!

My board is called "Living a Beautiful Mountain Life".  Click here.

Want more cabin design inspiration? 

Explore two of our most-loved posts:   

Can I Paint My Log Walls? 

8 of the Most Charming Cabin Kitchens Ever

See hundreds of wallpaper and fabrics curated especially for cabins, lodges, and mountain homes.  Tahoedreaminteriors.com    

Follow along for fresh cabin ideas and new mountain home inspiration: 

Pinterest

Instagram

Let your mountain home reflect the beauty, comfort, and creativity you love. — Sue Pipal

Miles Redd Uses Red Quite Prettily in his Own Cashiers Cabin

Many people love the color red in cabins, lodges and ski chalets.  Do you?

I have to confess that as a child, when asked what my favorite color was, I always answered "red." Red is no longer my favorite color, but I still love it. And in my role as a Tahoe Interior Designer I am often asked for red fabrics and accessories.  Over the years of writing this blog, I have gathered together photos and stories from many beautiful mountain and cabin interiors and I simply can't help but notice that red is often an important color in the best designs.  People seem to love red in cabins and for many good reasons.

Of all the red cabin interiors I've seen, however, I'd have to say that I prefer Miles Redd's design for his own cabin in Cashiers, North Carolina.  (Even more so than my previously favorite red cabin designs, those of Ralph Lauren's Indian Cove Lodge collection, see here.)

Miles Redds' personal cabin in Cashiers, North Carolina--A hint of what is to come...red window trim.

The cabin itself is charming but modest in size.  The rooms are cozy with log siding and chinking.  The fireplaces look well loved and often used.  There is nothing grand, extreme or lavish at all about the place.  And yet, this is the cabin I would most prefer to live in.

One of the coziest and prettiest cabin rooms I can remember seeing.  I just love it.

Miles uses red fabrics and furnishings throughout.  I especially love the old-fashioned floral fabrics accented with red and white tickings.  Florals are less popular these days and I say let's bring them back!  Who can argue with this logic after seeing this room.  Everything is just so very darn pretty.  Antiques, books, pretty lamps, flowers, curtains...this room contains everything I love.

In fact, I'd love this cabin for a personal retreat.  If it were mine, I'd often use it all by myself.  I'd light a fire and dig into a favorite book.  The rooms just look like the perfect place to indulge in personal time.  I hope Miles Redd gets as much pleasure out of this cabin as I know I would.

Another pretty red seating area and fireplace, left.  Red transfer-ware mixes with a gorgeous Black Forest carved bear clock and mirror, right.

A funky antique chair collection placed around a round table dressed with simple checkered tablecloths.  Again, I see some very nice antiques placed throughout this room, including another magnificent carved Black Forest piece as the table's centerpiece.  The Grandfather clock seems perfect for this room, doesn't it?

More pretty red floral fabrics in the bedroom.  What could be cozier than the two upholstered chairs placed by the fireplace?  A room you can really live in.
  

If you'd like to view our collection of red fabrics for cabin interiors, see here.  For red wallpapers, see here.  To view floral fabrics, see here.  

Lynn von Kersting--Could her campy, colorful style translate to cabins?

I've always loved her style.  Originally made popular by the wildly successful Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles, owned by Von Kersting and her husband, chef Richard Irving, Von Kersting specializes in a kooky, whimsical garden-on-the inside, pretty, pretty look.

Could it translate to Tahoe?  You tell me.  In the photos below, imagine log walls, stone fireplaces and lake views.

Inside the Ivy Restaurant, a mix of colorful Americana artwork, floral and checked cushions and toss pillows, flowers (always lots of flowers everywhere) in casual vases, floral dinnerware, Old Hickory seating, and farm pottery and antiques.  A very pretty interior and yet so casual and welcoming. 

Outside seating in the Ivy patio.  Wicker, vintage floral fabrics, strawberries and fresh flowers.  By the way, this is not just styled for a photo shoot.  This is how it always looks.  There are planting beds all around the exterior of the patio that are packed with old rose varieties, fuchsias, geraniums and lots of flowering vines.

On the Ivy patio, an old picket fence is strung with Christmas lights.  There are pretty umbrellas, crisp white fresh linens and flowers everywhere.

The Ivy is located in the design district so you get a mix of design professionals, LA locals and, of course, movie industry folks and movie stars.  It's always great people watching.  Does it seem odd to you that such an anti-glitz restaurant has been so very popular for decades in a town known for over-the-top glamour and style?

In Von Kerstig's store next door to the Ivy, Indigo Seas, you see a similar mix of color, Americana and whimsy.  Love the pond boat collection  and the wicker sun hats in the background.  

Another room in the Ivy.  I just love this charming and cheerful look.  Over the years, it has changed many times, and yet it always looks the same.  The floral fabrics are usually vintage finds.  

Another view of Indigo Seas.  Lynn does a brisk business in selling antique chairs and sofas that she has slip-covered in vintage textiles.  Years ago when I lived in LA, I used to shop in here a lot and I still own a number of pieces from Indigo Seas.  And, of course, The Ivy was always my favorite restaurant.  A great place to meet girlfriends for lunch in the garden patio on a sunny LA day, and a wonderful place for dinner with friends.  At night, the whole place glows in candle-light and twinkly lights.

What do you think about the way Von Kerstig indiscriminately mixes colors and patterns until she achieves this carefree bright and cheerful combination?  Nothing really goes together and yet, it all just goes beautifully.

A Von Kerstig interior that is a little more planned out, yet still manages to retain that exuberant feeling and color excitement. In this case, there is less emphasis on the faded, vintage textiles.  Yet there is a lot of trademark Von Kerstig intensity in the crazy pile of no-two-the-same striped pillows.

Another Indigo Seas photo.  Doesn't this just say "welcome" in the most charming way?  It's like a great big crazy party of color and pattern but it is also relaxing and cozy.  And pretty...did I mention pretty yet?

Again, can you picture these kooky fun colors and textiles at the lake?

Von Kerstig loves her collections--shells, boats, party lanterns, transfer-ware and other colorful pottery, Moroccan carpets. and anything colorful she sees out on her travels and shopping trips.  It's all a big sophisticated flea market.

The dinnerware pattern used at the Ivy displayed with 1940's and 50's tea towels and table cloths.  It's available for purchase, by the way.  In addition to fresh flowers, many vases are stuffed with fresh herbs and bundles of mint.  There are also always bowls of fresh lemons and apples.  

Could you see these flower patterns working at the lake, especially in a summer cabin?  There are a number of people here who love to create pretty flower gardens in our short gardening season where perennials thrive and return year after year.

Although Von Kirstig loves Americana.  She also uses a lot of country English shapes in her furniture.  Also, British Colonial and Raj style furnishings are often used.  

A beautiful living room in Von Kerstig's trademark style.  It gets tamed a little bit in her interiors.  After all, the store is really a place to sell stuff and is often packed to the gills.  In her interiors you see the editing of all that crazy fun.  But it's still there, of course, just to a lesser extent.

Another pretty Von Kerstig room.  Can you count the number of different fabrics in this one small seating area?  

Indigo Seas

A pretty breakfast room.

More Indigo Seas.

The Ivy

Indigo Seas

Well, what did you think?  Could you see this style in a lakefront cabin?  I could.  I also think I'd love to show up to a cabin decorated like this on summer weekends.  Would you?

For more on Kersting as a designer, see here.

A Pinterest Adventure

This afternoon while scanning through my Pinterest boards looking for a sofa table for a client, I randomly stumbled across a connection to this charming board called "Find Me One".  It's a lot of fun and I recommend that you take a look.  It took me on a delightful visual adventure.

From time to time I get clients that love antiques in their mountain homes and we go on the hunt for some special things.  It seems that many of my clients have especially loved old Black Forest pieces and there are quite a number on this board.  In fact, I occasionally even shop in Europe for clients.  So, I know from personal experience that it's not easy to find a collection of this quality.  It takes time and a respectable budget...but it sure is fun!

Click the photo above to travel to pinterest to view this board.

Thanks Linda Davidson for putting together a beautiful grouping of antiques for us to experience with you.