Design inspiration for mountain homes and cabins — curated wallpapers, fabrics, and interiors that blend rustic warmth with designer style by Sue Pipal.
Tile is one of my favorite design pleasures and over the years I've had the opportunity to design a lot of mountain bathrooms. Here are some cabin and rustic mountain lodge bathrooms I really enjoyed working on.
The bathroom below doesn't have a lot of tile, but it is a beautiful bathroom. I love the free-standing tub set into the arched niche with its rustic fittings, the custom designed area rug, and the stone wall.
Above and below are tile details from the shower stall.
Does pretty work in mountain cabins? Take a look, below, and you tell me. Several years ago I worked with a client who loved soft pastel colors and floral patterns. We remodeled the master bathroom to her liking.
Recently, I helped a client with a contemporary bathroom. I would love the opportunity to work on more contemporary projects, especially with clients who love high end finishes and detailing like this.
I designed the following bathroom for a modern mountain Arts and Crafts house. The client wanted Native American influences throughout the house and asked for a soft turquoise and red color palette. We used brighter versions of these colors in the furnishings but chose to keep the bathrooms somewhat muted. I love the crackled finish on the aqua field tile we used in the shower. The Indian motif mosaics were custom designed by me and created on the site.
Lastly, here are a couple of photos from a Lahontan lodge style house. The tile is handsome and simple but mountain themed, as the client wished.
Just one more thought on bathrooms, a lot can be achieved affordably. I usually like to put the impact into the deco tile and save money on the field tiles. But below in the same Lahontan lodge, a simple inexpensive but graphic idea, punches up the volume in a deco border.
I've decided to start chipping away at the Tahoe Rim Trail this summer.
For those of you who don't know, the Tahoe Rim Trail is a 165 mile loop that completely surrounds Lake Tahoe. It meanders around the lake, mostly at higher elevations including rim tops and peaks with spectacular scenery looking both toward the lake and away from it into massive Sierra Nevada vistas. The trail encounters smaller lakes, streams, meadows, sunny switchbacks, forested ravines, shale slopes, old lava fields and just about every type of geology, view and high country terrain imaginable.
Although I enjoy backpacking, I have to face the fact that I am probably never going to pull a Cheryl Strayed and hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada. (If you haven't read her book, Wild, you really should. I happened to hear her interviewed on NPR when the book first came out and read it then. I loved it so much I ordered 3 more copies and lent them repeatedly to all my friends.)
Wild, one of my favorite books. I fantasize about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, but probably will never actually do it.
Unlike the PCT, the Tahoe Rim Trail is a goal I can probably achieve. It's much shorter, and of course, closer to home.
Yesterday my friend Sasha and I did what will be my first segment, the 11 mile trail from Barker Pass to Ward Canyon. We dropped a car at Ward and took the other car up the beautiful winding Blackwood Canyon drive to Barker Pass trailhead. It was a gorgeous day and the wildflowers were spectacular. Even though we are in a severe drought, recent rains have kept the dust down on the trails, the meadows greening up, flowers blooming and water in the springs and streams.
Ouch!! Doing the full loop. Elevation gain and loss from Tahoe City to Tahoe City.
Let me just say, that although I hike frequently and "take a walk in the woods" just about every day with my two dogs, 11 miles was a stretch for me, and for the dogs, too. I came home feeling satisfied but exhausted and spent the late afternoon and evening under a down blanket watching serial reruns of The Barefoot Contessa with my exhausted dogs by my side...not moving...not one inch...all three of us.
"I'm not cooking dinner", I informed my husband, who was forced to run into town to purchase the fixings for one of the few meals in his cooking repertoire; Italian sausages, premade mashed potatoes (which he "cooks" by microwaving and then drowning in butter) and premade broccoli with cheese sauce. When I finally got up from under the blanket to mince-step into the kitchen, I could barely stand up straight and every footfall sent shooting pains up from my toes to my hips. I may have been hoping for a Barefoot Contessa meal, but what I got tasted like the best food on the planet! Big hikes make hungry tummies. Thank you Mark for pitching in when needed, as usual!
Anyway, the meadows were so beautiful yesterday with early wildflowers on full parade. This particular segment had us walking for an hour or so through huge high elevation meadows in upper Ward Canyon near the backside of the Alpine Meadows ski resort. They were absolutely stunning. I told Sasha that I felt like Shirley Temple in Heidi in that scene where she's running up a meadow on a Swiss mountain slope, yelling "Grandfather, grandfather".
Mules Ears and larkspur.
More Mule's Ears and some Indian Paint Brush in orange.
A favorite wild flower, native columbine. It used to grow in my garden, but unfortunately, rabbits like columbine/
Portions of yesterday's segment were also spent near two different peaks, Barker Peak and Twin Peaks. We also teetered for a while on the tippy top of mountain crests, which is pure and simply, one of the best feelings you can experience.
The path along the ridge line. That's Lake Tahoe off in the distance.
A view of Barker Peak and Twin Peaks in the distance, both of which we travelled past on our hike. Barker Peak is a favorite day hike of mine and I often take out-of-town friends along, as the view to the lake from here is spectacular.
That reminds me, does anyone remember the old TV show called The Happy Wanderer? My parents loved it and we often watched it when I was growing up. Sometimes when I'm hiking way up high on a mountaintop, the soundtrack from the show runs through my mind. I can't help it, I'm a dork like that! Here's a youtube video with the track, in case there are any other dorks like me out there:
The Rim Trail is beautifully marked and maintained. Trailheads are stocked with detailed maps for each leg of the hike. In case you're interested in the Tahoe Rim Trail web-site or organization, see here.
Next week I'll try a different section, probably Watson Lake to the Tahoe City Nordic Center. I'm starting easy by choosing all the trailheads that start at higher elevations you can drive up to and therefore, hike somewhat downhill from. Maybe I'll build up steam as the summer wears on. Or maybe not.
By the way, Sasha is my real estate agent. She's a top-ranked agent with Coldwell Banker in Tahoe City. I highly recommend her if you're in the market for a house in Tahoe. You can find her at: Office: 530.583.5581 Email: sasha.spiegel@gmail.com.
I just finished adding some furnishings and window coverings to a beautiful house in Martis Camp. The house was designed by my favorite architect, Gary McKelvey, and built by Andreas Rickenbach, a contractor that clients love, love, love! Andreas is, no doubt, one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He is also meticulously professional. But, best of all, Andreas is a master craftsman.
The best way to use Andreas is to buy a truckload of old antique barn beams and to turn him loose on a project. The amazing ceilings, trusses and beam patterns Andreas creates are like huge one-of-a-kind artisan jigsaw puzzles. Each beam is carefully cut and artistically placed to create magnificent shapes and patterns on the walls and ceilings. It's hard to explain, but I don't really need to. I'll just show you...take a look below.
(Just a quickie disclaimer here, these photos were taken on my cell phone before the house had been completed. Please excuse the photo quality and the incomplete condition of the furnishings).
Andreas specializes in the sort of beautiful beam work you see here on the living room ceiling. Also, take a look at the huge rustic window headers.
The far wall of the living room is detailed out in hand hewn logs with chinking.
More beams and headers in the breezeway connecting the garages to the main house. Throughout the house, all ceilings, doors and windows are trimmed out like this.
Don't you just love both the natural edge on these beautiful baseboards and the hand forged iron nail heads?
Hewn antique log bannisters and custom iron-work on the stairwell.
Photo from Cowboys and Indians Magazine
More beautiful beam work in the den. (The chairs are custom through Dragonfly Designs. Also, can you make out the fabulous feather trim we put on the curtains?)
No matter where you cast your eyes in this house they land on stunning hand-crafted workmanship.
More log trim in the master shower.
Andreas created a stunning custom butcher block in the kitchen, below.
Of course, you may have noticed the beautiful stonework throughout the house. Here is a detail of the fireplace, below. It's hard to tell from the photo, but some old logs have been incorporated here, too.
Another custom chair design by Dragonfly Designs.
Photograph from Cowboys and Indians Magazine.
By the way, Gary McKelvey's number is 530 308-6379 and Andreas Rickenbach can be reached at (530) 583-3809.
My business and client projects are always changing and this year I seem to be involved in several construction projects. I think one of the most difficult parts of building a house (aside from paying for it) is the enormous number of decisions one has to make.
I remember bursting into tears once at the paint store in the middle of remodeling my first home. The paint clerk had asked me what color I planned to paint the closet doors in the master. It was just one question too many in what had been months of attempting to visualize every little decision.
Now I use a 3D drawing program to help clients with these decisions. Below are some sketches I've been working on for a client who is building a new Craftsman style house on Lake Tahoe. The house is right on the water and has gorgeous views, a fabulous pier and separate guest house. The lot is long and narrow so the living room in rather small, but charming..
This is a 3D model I created of her living room. There will be a lot of complicated carpentry trim and finishing. I will be able to print out scaled close-up drawings of trim details that the carpenter can use on the job-site. This saves everyone time and money since changes and new ideas are put into the drawings first. We all know what happens on the job when changes are made after something has been built....$! My 3D model eliminates guessing and poor decision making from the process. Over the years I've found that if the drawings look good, the finished product looks good.
I've never worked in the Craftsman style before and it's been a new adventure. The client and I have been having fun finding old original tile and furnishings that will be integrated into the interior.
Another view of the living room. Because of TRPA restrictions, the living room is pretty small. It has been a challenge to get enough furniture into the room to make it comfortable. I'm confident that we've solved the problem because I can see clearly that the 3D model is working. By the way, I can spin the model around and look at the room from all angles. I can also get close-ups of details by zooming in.
Here, I've drawn in the two interior door styles we're considering. Which one do you prefer?
We're also deciding about the interior wall by the stairwell. Should it be painted?
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Or should it be trimmed out in wood? It takes me only a moment to make these changes on my computer screen and we can quickly make a decision and move on to the next question.
Above, here's a bird's eye view of the room.
It's just so much fun to spin this room around and around!
Have you seen the Schaeffer's Mill Dream House yet? I love this version of mountain contemporary. It's creative and sophisticated, but it manages to be cheerful and colorful, too.
