Friday Cabins #20: Islands of the Great Northwest
These contemporary cabins on the remote islands of Washington State and Vancouver, BC give new meaning to Island Life
Hello and welcome to another Friday and another Friday Cabins, brought to you by Cabins Etc., the most-trusted newsletter for all things cabin vibes. But this isn’t just any Friday…its’s a long-weekend Friday (for most, hopefully you) and given the ongoing terrible events of the past week, a little extra rest is just what we may need.
Today we travel to the northwestern tip of the contiguous United States, to a land of sea and sky with prehistoric feeling islands nestled between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC. Long the land of the Coast Salish people, this stunning corner of North America thrives on a unique ecosystem created by the mixture of fresh and salt water where orcas roam free, bald eagles will steal your lunch, and lush islands sprout seemingly out of nowhere.
Our featured cabins dot the landscape of the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands, located, respectively, in the greater Puget Sound and Salish Sea. It’s rugged terrain and very cool cabins for you today.
Dig in, enjoy your weekend, and as my parents like to say, be kind to yourself.
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🏖️ A Summer House In Harmony With Land and Sea on Orcas Island
Along the shoreline of Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington, the North Beach House is a low-maintenance, modern seaside cabin designed by Heliotrope Architects. The house makes several sustainable gestures to remain durable over the course of the seasons and to blend in with its natural surroundings.
The house hovers by several inches so as not to disturb the ground beneath, while on the roof, planted vegetation collects rainwater for use in a seasonal garden. Solar and PV panels help to heat potable water and provide extra power, for net-zero electricity use throughout the year.
🧀 An Off-Grid Retreat on Valdes Island, Outside Vancouver, BC
At about 9 square miles in size, Valdes Island is a remote landmass in the gulf between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia. It's home to the Valdes Island Shack by Vancouver-based Hinterland Design, a tiny cabin with a lot of character.
Shaped like a wedge of cheese, the cabin is a studio-sized outpost, featuring a clean, white interior with a loft bed, kitchenette, and modest living area heated by a wood stove and powered by solar panels and a rainwater filtration system. Outside, an outdoor bathtub sits on an elevated platform, for some real forest bathing. And boy is it dreamy.
⛰️ Overlooking Orcas Island, This Mountaintop Cabin Floats in the Trees
Located on Orcas Island, one half of this contemporary cabin buries into a basalt outcropping while the other soars high above the ground with a cantilevered deck. Dubbed the Buck Mountain Cabin by Heliotrope Architects, the cabin was designed to work with its surroundings, adapted to fit within a grove of trees, and sit amongst rocky, mountainous terrain.
Both the interior and exterior are simple in expression, with a distinguished material palette that makes for a utilitarian look. Large pocket doors open to create a wide passageway from one end of the house to the other, ending at the elevated deck that overlooks soaring views of the surrounding San Juan archipelago.
TY TY, time to log off. Talk soon.
-ee