Build It and They Will Come
It used to be the bookstore, between GARDENING and COOKING. Here was found the analog version of googling “log home floorplans” – LOG HOME LIVING, LOG CABIN HOMES, COUNTRY’S BEST LOG HOMES, TIMBER FRAME HOMES and at least a dozen different titles of log home floorplans compilations. This was a monthly ritual for would-be clients, foraging for log home floorplans, as well as a quick glance over at the ARCHITECTURE isle to see if anyone had released a new guide to building custom log homes or a new photo portfolio on refined rustic decorating, but floorplans were king. Every client had stacks of these magazines, tear outs and back-of-cocktail-napkin sketches in a box. Fast forward a decade or two and a typical starting place for clients is at home, on the couch in pajamas, latte’ in one hand, ipad in the other, searching phrases like “luxury log home floorplans”, “timber frame homes” and “White Cedar log homes” (the astute ones…). The venue has changed, but the game is the same. Log home floorplans are saved, shared and edited and re-edited with digital red lines and virtual sticky notes. No more three ring binders; it’s in the cloud now.
The reason for this essay on old-school/new-school design portfolios is probably not what you may think. It is not to extol the many benefits of this digital age we live in or fondly relive the glory days of when design was more “real, true and honest”. It is to illustrate the weakness that existed and still exists in the process of building a custom log home, mountain style home or timber frame home – the hyper focus on floor plans. Not to take anything away from these; flow, relationship, structural layout are all present here, and just add some elevations and a house starts taking some serious shape. So what’s the big deal? In my view, this is where many in the industry go…and stop. Any designer of all things wood can design something with decent flow and look; to many, as long as there is log or timber, it’s good; this is the vast majority of the log home industry. A better designer will take this decent flow and make it look better, but it is still a thing at this point. A really good one will take this better looking thing and make the spaces feel better. An exceptional designer will take and create a visually stunning piece of architecture, where the spaces/relationships/elements feel just right and go one further step of making the people feel a certain way in those spaces – a rarity…but our goal.
The following photos illustrate the first design principals, the coming holidays the last one – “Build it and they will come. They will come for reasons they can’t even fathom…” They will come for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for Easter. They will come for weekends…for Thursdays. They may never leave…
THAT is our goal…
Check out more Town + Country Cedar Homes Ideabooks on Houzz.
