As log home wholesales, we see a lot of designs come and go through our partner orders. We make a lot of bespoke log homes, glulam log cabins and even camping pods. Whenever there is a bespoke log home order, we at Eurodita often make enough room in the log home to open up the living room area.
Whether it is a large log house like our Tavernier, or one of small glulam log cabins, like our Eamon, the living room area is the first thing you encounter when entering. By reports of our partners and living room area design choices their clients make, a lot of it revolves around this area. The living room needs to be open, welcoming, light and not seem to small.
Throughout our 27 years of experience, we noticed some interior design tendencies and choices that help with living rooms in log homes. In this post, we will share some of our advice on how to open up the living room space and what items to choose for your fresh log home to aid in this endeavour.
Glulam log houses and windows
These are your primary tool in opening up the living room area. Large windows, or just well placed ones will let in a lot of light and will show the nature’s beauty of the outside. We are proud to say that majority of windows and doors we install are double-glazed, so even if your client decided on large, wall-to-ground windows, heat loss will be minimal.
When putting together glulam beams house plans, it is important to put a lot of though into the window placement. This will decide how much sunlight you will be letting inside your living room and the entire log house. Keep in mind where during glulam house construction the sun’s journey will take place and plan the windows accordingly.
Glulam log homes and colour
Once you have enough sunlight pouring from the outside during all the times of the day, it is time to consider general colour. Our contemporary log home kits already have a naturally beautiful colour due to our use of the Northern pine. It is a beautiful, light-coloured tree that maintains a sense of freshness inside the cabin.
Additionally, with our cabins, such light wood allows for many colour options. The private label homes we produced have been turned into many colours. However, keeping onto topic of expanding the log home living room, there are a few general rules to follow. One is to keep to light colours. All dark shades shrink the space they are in. This is an especially important rule to follow with small cabin kits and camping pods. You may use darker shades of colour for small details or to accentuate an aspect of your bespoke log cabin, but the majority of your living room should be light in colour. We did an extensive overview of colour use in log homes in our previous post.
Bespoke log cabins and mirrors
If your client opted for truly tiny home kit, there might not be much that can be done in terms of making the space look bigger. However, there is one item that will always expand the room no matter how small it is: a mirror.
A well-placed mirror will help the tiniest space appear bigger, so even small camping pods could benefit from it. Hang a mirror next to the entrance for full functionality. Or place it on the opposite wall to the main door to trick the eye that there is more space than in reality. There are so many ways a mirror could really serve your client in expanding the space, all that is left is the limits of imagination.
Modular log homes and storage
The final advice we can give to you and your clients is to always think about functional storage. Your living room can have cushioned seats under the window, but those seats should open up to become a storage space. Inside log cabins, the living room acts as an entrance hallway and a kitchen too.
Have a single big wardrobe, segmented for outdoor and indoor clothes, but keep them all in a single place. If your log house has a fireplace, keep all its tools hung on the wall next to it, so it would not occupy a lot of space. This rule should be true for everything in a log home: if it can be hung or shelved, it should be. Save space and you living room will open up.
This advice might seem like common sense when read out like this, but even common sense sometimes needs a reminder every once in a while. If you as a log cabins supplier are unsure about the advice you should give your clients, remember to direct them to an interior designer. If you do not yet have a reliable and experienced glulam house construction partner, contact us to discuss all opportunities. Good luck!