Remodeling your home is a wonderful way to breathe new life into a building you already love. The cabin style is particularly cozy, with warm wood tones and the feeling of rural isolation even if you’re in the middle of a city. When remodeling your interior, there are a few essential elements that create the rustic cabin style. Natural wood, exposed beams, and open family design are all part of the charm.
Before you start hanging gingham curtains in your mind, let’s talk about the architectural elements that make the cabin style truly feel like home. Architectural elements are things you can change during the remodel that will give that cozy rustic personality to your home interior.
1. Wood and Stone Tile Flooring
The flooring has a huge impact on the impression a room gives. This is because it stretches from one end of the room to the other, becoming part of each element throughout the room. Cabins are coziest with natural wood-toned flooring that is warm on bare feet in the winter and springy underfoot. For those spaces in your home where it’s impractical to have wood, like bathrooms, kitchens, and fireplaces, opt for natural stone tile instead. This will give your cabin home the feeling as though it was built by hand from local materials.
2. Stone or Brick Fireplace
Every cabin needs a fireplace. If your home already has a fireplace, make this the centerpiece of the living space. Natural stone and brick are the most welcoming in a cabin style setting. The ideal fireplace is an area where the entire family can gather around to enjoy a snowy afternoon playing games and roasting marshmallows.
3. Open Floor Plans
One of the essential elements of a hand-built cabin is that cabin-style never has too many walls. Instead, open family space with stairways and open lofts are the style. If you’ve been wanting to open up your home, a cabin-style remodel is the perfect opportunity. Add a few rustic wooden columns to spruce up your support beams and lay that new wood floor from end to end.
4. Rustic Ceiling Beams
It’s amazing how much ceiling beams impact your impression of a room. But those dark magestic lines drawn over your ceiling in wood beams are the essence of cabin style. Rustic ceiling beams bring out the architectural shape and structure of your home, which is perfect for the cozy cabin setting. Rustic beams can transform even a bland drywall room into a more rural-feeling and homey environment.
5. Built-In Cabinetry
Nothing says practical rural design like built-in cabinetry. Mixed with large free-standing cupboards, these make up the storage element of your cabin design. During home renovations, it’s always a good idea to look for ways to add built-in storage. This can be prominent in carved natural wood or hidden behind bookcases and stairwells. But at the very least, you should build your cabin-style home a generous pantry.
6. Natural Wooden Doors and Frames
Beautifully coordinated cabin homes replace the simple painted interior doors for light natural wood doors. Natural woods like pine smell wonderful and are very lightweight when used for solid interior doors. You can also enhance the cabin style of your doorways with wooden doorframes and artistic molding that reflects the wooden beams overhead.
7. Lantern and Recessed Lighting
Lighting your cabin-style home is equally stylish. Your two best options are lighting styled after lantern designs and hidden recessed lighting. Lantern-style lighting brings out the rustic ambiance of the environment. Recessed lighting provides clear, warm illumination without taking away from the ambiance with visible modern-style lights.
8. Wooden Stairs, Porch, and Railings
Finally, don’t forget the warm wooden railings. Cabin-style homes, as we mentioned, often have open stairways and lofts. They are also often built with beautiful decks for the outdoorsy soul who loves to bask in the sun and admire the local wildlife. The more natural wood in your design, the better. Cabin-style homes look best when all the railing is a matching color and design in wood, you can look for a faux wood product to install something that protects against rot, but gives you the “look” you are trying to achieve. Warm deckboards, lofts, and wooden stairs build that ambiance until you feel like you’re in the middle of the forest or on the side of a mountain despite your suburban settings.
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Here at Worthington Millworks, we understand the beauty of the rustic cabin style. That is why we’ve put together a unique rustic line of architectural finishes that are sure to make your remodel a hit. Reach out or explore our online store to find out more about rustic renovations and the little touches that make them so cozy.