Our little cabin is 384 square feet in total, and includes a bedroom/living area with closet, little 'dining' area, small kitchen with pantry, and a bathroom. I'm not calling it a tiny home, because it isn't.  

When I first started the design of our little cabin back in 2013/2014,  I hadn't even heard of the tiny house movement.  If I had, we might have done a few things differently in terms of the layout of the different spaces and incorporating various organization features, based on all the innovative things I've seen on various tiny house blogs and the DIY channel. But the final outcome would have been the same: the construction of what will initially serve as a little vacation cabin and will ultimately become one of several bedrooms in a larger residence, once we get around to building it.  



I talk about the design process of the cabin here and here.  For an summary of the whole construction process (which I was sure would never end), click here.


So...here is an overview of the entire cabin with its various spaces.  I will, over time, share more about the many projects that were encompassed by the larger cabin project, i.e.: furniture make-overs, kitchen sink conversion, bathroom vanity conversion, pillows, wall art...

I had a huge amount of fun selecting the furnishings and decor items for the entire cabin.  The overall guiding vision for the cabin looked to the character of this gorgeous, scenic part of Utah, whether it be elements from the surrounding mountains and mesas, the Romance of the West that saturates every nook and cranny of this part of the U.S. (after all, we drive by Butch Cassidy's birthplace when traveling too/from the cabin), rough and ready mining camps, or the pioneers that rattled their way west and settled and farmed wherever there was water.  




I also did my best to give a nod to nearby national parks, the breathtaking scenery visible from every window, the joys of camping, hiking, exploring, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores, drinking hot chocolate by the campfire... (but the best part is that we don't have to sleep on the ground or use a smelly outhouse, since we have a comfy bed and a nice bathroom-- I am very much over tent camping).




All this went into the selection of furniture, wall art, decor, bed linens, fabric, fixtures... I wanted something fun, quirky, and rustic, but at the same time completely comfortable for both of us. 

Living/Bedroom/Dining Room


All of the furniture here is either an antique or vintage piece that I purchased, or something we already had on hand (the bed and dining chairs).  




Except for the two bedside tables, everything was a 'project' that required some work, from a few layers of  new paint to full deconstruction (the armchairs).  I wanted a balance between unpainted, stained wood and painted furniture.




Too much unpainted, stained furniture would result in an overly 'brown', dark space; too much painted furniture might be too 'cottagy' and feminine. 




The fabrics I chose for the many pillows that I sewed (I went a little crazy with the pillows, it's quite a process to de-pillow the bed every evening before bedtime and then put it all together again the next morning) consisted of mostly simple checks and black ticking-- all reminiscent of cowboy camps and frontier homesteads and adventuring into rugged areas by horseback.  






I also used painter's drop cloth for several pillows as well as the cushions for the deconstructed armchairs  and shower curtain because (1) it's cheap, (2) it's paintable, and (3) it reminds me of the canvas saddlebags that were used on the pack burros my mom used to rent to carry camping gear on our family backpacking trips.  



Elk and stag ornaments, other miscellaneous woodland creatures, and botanical prints and motifs, make an appearance throughout, because, after all, we are surrounded by hundreds of acres of pinon/juniper woodland, pine forests, scrubby mesas... 








It may have been less fun for my husband to implement some of them, but he is ingenious Mr. Fix It who was able to turn a galvanized metal feed tub into a functioning, fully plumbed kitchen sink with a custom-made, salvage wood base. 

The polished chrome faucet adds a bit of vintage charm while making it feel like a real kitchen.


These are my mom's blue and white dishes-- the simple pattern is a perfect touch, and I think of her every time I use them.




Ditto the bathroom...so much fun to design, and so much fun to use!  Again, my husband's excellent skills made it possible for this to come together the way it did.  




The shower curtains are another drop cloth project. I highly recommend using pebble tile for a shower floor-- nothing beats standing on those pebbles in your bare feet.

Building the custom shower pan and working with sheets of corrugated metal was not easy, but my husband pulled it off and we both couldn't be more pleased with the results.








I need to thank my husband for figuring out how make all my ideas, no matter how crazy, a reality.  Thanks to his ingenuity and fabulous DIY skills, we have a wonderful, unique cabin to enjoy and escape to.

I've added another horse to my walls. It's just taken a long time for him to get there since this project has been cooking along in the back of my head for several years while other projects took priority.

I was initially inspired to embark on a project like this by all the architectural-salvage-as-art and vintage signs that you see everywhere, as well as by frequent visits to Lowe's when we were adding crown moulding and baseboards to the house. After spending countless hours standing in the moulding aisle and staring at the wide selection of crown mouldings, window casings, chair railings, etc. it dawned on me that I could create my own architectural-salvage style wall art. I just needed a piece of art or a graphic for the focal point.

About the same time that I was wandering around in Home Depot and Lowe's most weekends, obsessing about crown moulding, I found this wonderful little horse at a local antique mall. After that, everything clicked...




A couple of crown mouldings and chair railings + a piece of plywood + the horse + some paint= highly personalized and unique wall art. At a fraction of what you would pay in a store or online (have you seen this wonderful vintage style by Ethan Allen? When it was still available, it sold for $262. This was also another source of inspiration for me).

So, with all that...here is how I brought to life the child of my latest brainwave.

My husband is pretty observant, and sometimes I forget about that fact.  I was reminded the other day when he walked in with this cute little farmhouse-themed, galvanized metal planter that he picked up a local farm and feed store. "I thought this looked like something you would like, so I brought it home for you", he said.  

What a sweetie!  Clearly he's paying attention to all my OCD decorating and vignette-ing, because he was spot-on with this.

It's a perfect fit for the family room, with it's Country French style, with touches of farmhouse and rustic.




It also turned out to be the impetus for an easy-peasy Valentine's Day project.   I wanted to do something simple and quick for Valentine's Day since I tend to not do much for this particular holiday (still recovering from Christmas).  

Chocolate always features prominently in our Valentine's Day celebrations every year, without fail, so when I saw these pretty little faux tulips a few days ago, a light went off.....  



Tulips 'planted' in my new planters that my husband gave me.  With Valentine-themed chocolate candies as the 'mulch'. 



Since I didn't want to buy a truckload of candy, I filled each planter with dried beans.    I didn't quite have enough beans to fill each one, so I grabbed some brown rice from my pantry to top off each planter. Even with the beans and rice, I used almost 4 bags of candy for this project.





The underlying beans perfectly support the flowers...as well as some pretty Valentine's Day labels created with clip art from The Graphics Fairy (found here).  I hot-glued two copies of each clip art design to skewers.