We had someone ask what a good size would be for a log cabin. They were feeling their idea of a cozy log cabin would be too small. I’m never sure what a “small log cabin” means. When we started building our log cabin, we looked through log home magazines to get ideas. Our blueprints had our log cabin as 24 ft x 36 ft. Because of the land restriction, that was as big as we could build. But by all we read in magazines for log homes, that was a tiny home. Even with the loft expanding the footage by half again, it was small by their standards. We were beginning to get worried that, compared to the monster homes in the magazines, our small log cabin was going to be totally inadequate for our needs.
Foundation to our “small” log cabin
We began to feel that 2 people, 2 dogs, and a cat would never fit in such a tiny space. Magazines showed their version of small log cabins needing extra space. Their small cabins were huge compared to ours. But we started taking note of their suggestions. Ideas like taking advantage of any space under the stairs. Using some of the space in the loft where the pitched roof meets the floor (known as a “knee wall”). Building extra shelves in between interior walls. We even built a window seat in the loft with storage under the cushion.
We did take advantage of many of the space-saving tips only to learn that our “small” log cabin wasn’t that small after all and, once we finished building it and started using it, we found it was fine for our needs.
We had a full basement that we planned to finish for a rec room but so far, it is still unfinished and a wonderful trove of tools, scraps of wood, and other goodies that allow me to tinker with do-it-yourself projects. And as you can probably tell from our log cabin photos the space we have for our cabin is just right for us! We now laugh at the log home magazines version of “small log cabins” and have since realized that most of those articles are for folks with a much larger concept of a log cabin that we have. So don’t worry if you start reading those log home magazines and find their version of small does not meet your dream log cabin… I bet yours will be just fine!
