Houzz Tour: Log Cabin on Puget Sound Has More Room to Spare
A family’s 1940s beachside home on Washington’s Camano Island gets a wheelchair-accessible bathroom and a guest bedroom
Camille LeFevre
December 15, 2016
Houzz Contributor. Arts journalist specializing in design and architecture. Former editor of Architecture Minnesota, editor of Innovative Design Quarterly, contributor to Midwest Home and HomeDish blog, contributor to Architect's Newspaper and author of the monograph Charles R. Stinson: Compositions in Nature. Have also written for Architect, ICON and Architectural Record. On my bucket list: Modernism Week in Palm Springs; happy to have done Modernism Week in Phoenix in 2017!! More at camillelefevre.org
Houzz Contributor. Arts journalist specializing in design and architecture. Former... More
This log cabin on Washington’s Camano Island, with stunning views of Utsalady Bay, was built in the 1940s and has been in the same family ever since. When the current owners (he’s the grandson of the original owner and builder) found themselves growing short on space, they called on architect Dan Nelson to design a two-story addition. The new wing adds a wheelchair-accessible master bathroom and a guest bedroom with an attached deck. Nelson’s sensitive use of materials and his attention to historical detail helped retain the cabin’s original ambience and charm.
Photos by Lucas Henning
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with their first grandchild on the way
Size: About 2,000 square feet (186 square meters); the addition is 550 square feet (51 square meters).
Location: Camano Island, Washington
Designer: Dan Nelson of Designs Northwest Architects
The log cabin faces north and sits next to the beach on Utsalady Bay in Puget Sound. The two-story addition, set back and to the left of the original structure, has a master bathroom on the first floor and a guest bedroom with a deck overlooking the water on the second floor.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with their first grandchild on the way
Size: About 2,000 square feet (186 square meters); the addition is 550 square feet (51 square meters).
Location: Camano Island, Washington
Designer: Dan Nelson of Designs Northwest Architects
The log cabin faces north and sits next to the beach on Utsalady Bay in Puget Sound. The two-story addition, set back and to the left of the original structure, has a master bathroom on the first floor and a guest bedroom with a deck overlooking the water on the second floor.
The living room in the original part of the cabin features a stone wall of granite from a local quarry. The quarry has since closed, but the clients received permission from the owners to retrieve enough granite to use in the addition, resulting in a perfect match.
To the left of the fireplace, an arched doorway cut into the granite wall leads to the master bedroom. The door to the left of the arched door goes to the newly constructed master bathroom. The stairs lead to the original sleeping loft and to the newly constructed guest bedroom beyond.
To the left of the fireplace, an arched doorway cut into the granite wall leads to the master bedroom. The door to the left of the arched door goes to the newly constructed master bathroom. The stairs lead to the original sleeping loft and to the newly constructed guest bedroom beyond.
The existing master bedroom features original pine walls. The green-painted sliding door was added to bring a hint of color to the log-and-stone cabin. The antique quilt on the bed is a family heirloom.
The master bathroom’s custom blue vanity brings color to the cabin’s rustic, earthy aesthetic. The vanity features a 36-inch Brockway cast-iron sink from Kohler. The floor is porcelain tile with a wood-grain pattern that matches the cabin’s “organic nature,” Nelson says. The French doors lead to the patio and views of the bay.
The wheelchair-accessible shower features Sant’Augustino tile, selected for durability, on the walls. The shower has a pebble-patterned tile floor and frameless tempered-glass door.
In the master suite’s toilet room, to the left of the French doors, Nelson installed a porthole that the homeowners found at a nautical salvage shop. The wall of split logs was originally part of the home’s exterior.
The master bath’s French doors lead outside to an exterior brick patio. Nelson added rusted corrugated metal to diversify the exterior materials of the cabin while still fitting with the original building’s aged character. “It adds a bit of modernity but respects the rusticity of the original exterior,” Nelson says.
For the addition’s exterior, Nelson used split logs stained the same color as the original log cabin. Two structural beams on the second level were left unstained “to emphasize their role” and add another aesthetic element, Nelson says.
The newly constructed upstairs guest bedroom includes large French doors that open to a new deck. The wall of split logs was once an exterior wall; the cutout was a former window that now looks into the original sleeping loft. The flooring in the guest bedroom is fir.
The wood-framed, cantilevered deck has a railing of steel and cables. The overhang provides protection from the sun and rain so that the deck can be used most of the year.
The clients are the third generation to live in the cabin and can now host multigenerational gatherings in the family home, just in time for their first grandchild.
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This is lovely, but I'd love to see a picture of what the house looked like prior to the renovations. I love before and after.
The ideal solution would have been to raise the entire patio up to floor level. However, there were water front setback requirements that prevented us from making any alterations in the patio area. That is why the addition is set back from the original part of the house. Providing a step there was all that we could do, because a ramp would require a longer run and extend out into the forbidden zone.
What a beautiful home. They've kept the natural log cabin feel perfectly, while freshening it all up.