Designed by Dale Mulfinger
with Sarah Gastler
New Digs, Old Sole
An active family of six sought a cabin to welcome extended family and friends to a lakeshore retreat. They found one on Wisconsin’s Balsam Lake, just an hour and half from their Twin Cities home. The setting was perfect, but the cabin was ridden with mold and deemed unsalvageable. While deciding to build anew, they didn’t want a catalog design. The goal was to evoke the feeling of an heirloom cabin, passed down through generations.
The cabin design steps down the south facing slope with a middle level of social space, two bedrooms and a screen porch. Additional bedrooms are on levels above and below, as well as a bunkroom above the garage. The gabled roofed exterior is clad in olive green low maintenance siding to blend with the hillside vegetation. There is little drywall inside, to minimize suggestions of the project as a new build. Instead, a mixture of wood and painted paneling give the cabin a timeless character. Deep colors, patterned materials, textured finishes and vintage furniture offer a feeling of familial context. Although built new, the owners desired a cabin that encouraged stories, something with history and a soul.
Construction by Andy Chartrand
Interior Design by Heather Peterson
Photography by Josh Grubbs
Loading...