PRAIRIE PRIMITIVE

The client's desire, eliminate the eight foot ceilings of a ranch bungalow, the stimulus, a massive pair of barn doors from Provence France, that Janet located in the bowels of a salvage warehouse.The clients had already worked with Janet almost a decade earlier on their mountain property. This big old log cabin perched on the Toby Benches of Panorama Mountain, in the Windmere Valley, a rustic cabin in disrepair. The builder, Richard Unger, a good friend of Janet's, needed to find solutions for the structure to refortify and create spaces that were utilitarian and intuitive. The design elements that emerged were derived from Janet's own cottage property in the Windemere Valley. As the clients admired details from her cottage, they became woven into the design scope of both their cabin and their current property at Bearspaw. 

These details are a signature of ice, bold timber designs carrying load, mottled metal hangers, rusted beams and railings, almost imposing statements, tied to structural loads, authentic in their purpose.   

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Photos: Justin Williams/Phil Crozier