Beautiful cabins and cabin-inspired interiors for winter dreaming
Cabins have existed for thousands of years, as fast-to-build houses that use largely natural, local materials and blend into sylvan surroundings. Originating around 3500 BC in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, the traditional log cabin was reportedly brought to North America by the Swedes and Finns in the middle of the 17th century. From then, cabins became known as iconic silhouettes of the American frontier, sturdily built against the dangers of extreme weather and wildlife. By the mid-18th century, Scotland wanted a slice of the action too, and cabins known as ‘bothies’ were scattered across the country as workers' accommodation on farms and estates. By the 1930s – when their original use had waned – hillwalkers started to use the remote spots for safe and warm(ish) overnight accommodation – a practice known as ‘bothying.’
Today, log cabins – in any form from luxury chalets to rustic bothies – are one of the most sought-after types of holiday rentals, with searches for such holiday lets on Airbnb increasing by 25% from 2020 to 2022. Their woody exterior and cute proportions encourage a certain type of comforting, cosy style of interiors. Ralph Lauren was a great proponent of American cabin interiors, with rolling log walls as the perfect woody background for mounted antlers, tartan blankets, studded leather furniture and wood-burning stoves.

At the more luxe end of the cabin spectrum is the ‘Alpine hideaway’ aesthetic, replete with ski racks outside and fondue pots and fireplaces within. Scandinavian wooden shacks are a distant memory in these luxurious holiday homes and hotels, where glass walls overlooking mountains and high-tech interiors still strive to capture the rustic, rural feel. “I love contradiction,” says Ralph Lauren in his interiors tome Ralph Lauren A Way of Living: Home, Design, Inspiration from 2023. “The mix of old and new, raggedy and sleek, a penthouse that feels like a log cabin or a log cabin that feels like a penthouse.” And we agree: our archive has lots of organic, beautiful log cabins in North America, as well as plenty of urban houses and apartments that have taken inspiration from log cabin design.






















