Thoughtful details

Or, consistent language.

This past week we finally finished the cabin build on our property. As that single project has taken up all of my free time these past several months, today’s newsletter is the next installment of what will likely be a 47 part series of cabin posts where I mine those months for all they’re worth. Buckle up.

Something I (truthfully, Molly’s idea) wanted to highlight from this project is the intentional consistency of design elements. The little things that subconsciously add up to a larger feeling.

I’m definitely not a great designer and I’m not even sure I’d qualify as a good one when measured against folks who truly know what they’re talking about. So I don’t feel comfortable strongly advocating for the choices I made as the “right” ones from an aesthetic perspective. That’s not my point here.

What I am making a case for is the effort. It was intentional. Thoughtful. And you can’t go wrong exercising that muscle and taking that tack.

Plus, successfully mixing design elements can be tricky, so if you don’t yet know the rules well enough to break them, consistency is a pretty good target to aim for. A consistent language makes a project feel cohesive. And again, intentional.

That said, let’s get into some examples and talk about it.

Exterior:

The plain galvanized metal roof is the same finish as the other two buildings on the property.

And that picnic table—I think one of the reasons it pairs well with the cabin is that they share almost the exact same proportions.

Hidden storage:

The cabin has exposed studs on the interior, which meant anytime I built something along a wall it created voids back there. So, behind the headboard, daybed, kitchen backsplash, and wood stove heat shield, I recessed shelving about an inch down.

Rounded corners:

To soften the angular and boxy space we tried to include a lot of radiused corners. In most cases they’re all the same radius (I traced the lid of some wood filler), but in some places larger or smaller radiuses made more sense.

Shelf brackets:

Shelves share the same shelf bracket profile. These were half-lapped onto the studs.

Gaps in the slats:

Slats for the bed, headboard, shelves, day bed, and kitchen were all gapped to keep things in line with the picnic table, the gaps in our hand-milled flooring, the gaps on our roof boards, our siding, and the overall rustic nature of the build.

Lots of dowel:

5/8” dowel was used for curtain rods, coat hooks, and to plug holes to hide hardware.

In fact, all holes were plugged, which sometimes required a larger plug, or the use of wood filler, as was the case for the flooring screws.

For extra credit, the dowel pegs over the hearth (for drying damp clothes) are set at the same angle as the roof above them.

Hat tip to Rob Gorski for his push to include those pegs.

Finale:

I’m sure there are other small details I’m forgetting, and certainly larger design choices that I may talk about at some point.

Somewhat related, I really enjoyed Jerry Seinfeld’s Duke commencement address.

There are a lot of funny bits that make it worth watching (and I really appreciate his plea to hold dearly your sense of humor), but his comment about his number one rule to life struck a chord relevant to previous topics I’ve written about, and to the past few months of cabin work.

“Make an effort. Just pure, stupid, no real idea what I’m doing here, effort. Effort always yields a positive value. Even if the outcome of the effort is absolute failure of the desired result. This is a rule of life. Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things.”