Product Description

A cabin isn't just a home in the woods, it's an architecturally and aesthetically unique structure that deserves special attention with regard to decoration and organization of rooms and living space. Cabin Kitchens and Baths is the first book to look specifically at the challenges that can come with decorating or remodeling bathrooms and kitchens in log homes and cabins-small spaces, unusually shaped rooms, lighting issues, and more.
Cabin Kitchens and Baths offers tips from professionals in the log home building industry on cabinetry, appliances, architectural details, color, and floor plans that will help make a dream kitchen or bathroom a reality. From floor to ceiling, these rooms are the most complex in a home, and are even more so in a cabin or old log home. Franklin and Esther Schmidt focus on the architectural elements, furnishings, appliances, design and decor, and include inspiring kitchen floor plans and expert sidebars as well as beautiful photography. This book is a must-have for anyone considering a remodel or redecorating project on a cabin or log home.
Esther and Franklin Schmidt are a photography, styling, and writing team who have photographed and written about hundreds of log and timber frame cabins. They have traveled to nearly every state, producing articles and photo features for all the major log and timber frame magazines. Their work is featured in a variety of books on cabin living as well as such national magazines as Architectural Digest, Old House Interiors, Antiques & Fine Art, Country Home, and Country Living. As field editors for Victorian Homes, Washington, D.C. correspondents for Art & Antiques, and antiques columnists for Country Accents, they have focused their work on interior design as it relates to architecture and lifestyle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #705733 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

From the Inside Flap
As the most complex and highly used rooms of any log home, kitchens and bathrooms offer unique challenges to creating stylish, efficient, and beautiful spaces. Cabin Kitchens & Baths is the first sourcebook to offer solutions to the most frequently asked questions faced in designing these spaces. With ideas on cabin design and decor as well as expert sidebars from manufacturing, design, building professionals, and homeowners, you will learn the secrets to designing a kitchen and bathroom that is not only functional but uniquely your own. Cabin Kitchens & Baths is the book to buy before you design and build your dream cabin. In it you will find tips from some of the industry's top professionals in terms of cabinetry, appliances, architectural details, color, and floor plans. Armed with this information-and inspired by the beautiful photography within its pages-you will find the motivation to create and enjoy the spaces that truly make up the heart of the log home.

About the Author
Franklin and Esther Schmidt are a photography, styling, and writing team who have photographed and written about hundreds of homes. Their articles and features have appeared in a variety of magazines including Architectural Digest, Old House Interiors, Antiques & Fine Art, Country Home and Country Living. As field editors for Victorian Homes, Washington, DC, correspondents for Art & Antiques, and antiques columnists for Country Accents, they have focused their work on interior design as it relates to architecture and lifestyle. Franklin and Esther are also the authors and photographers of Cabin Kitchens & Baths. They live in Virginia.

Franklin and Esther Schmidt are a photography, styling, and writing team who have photographed and written about hundreds of homes. Their articles and features have appeared in a variety of magazines including Architectural Digest, Old House Interiors, Antiques & Fine Art, Country Home and Country Living. As field editors for Victorian Homes, Washington, DC, correspondents for Art & Antiques, and antiques columnists for Country Accents, they have focused their work on interior design as it relates to architecture and lifestyle. Franklin and Esther are also the authors and photographers of Cabin Kitchens & Baths. They live in Virginia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Cabin Fever is Contagious
Everyone dreams of a getaway cabin-a place of rest and refuge. Common usage defines cabin as a small, rough building made of wood and which Webster likens to a cottage; this is defined as a small, one-story vacation house. Both definitions have come a long way. In today's design vernacular, cottage and cabin are less about roughing it and more about informal, relaxing spaces where we spend time away from our formal lives. Cabins have also evolved to full time homes where people live year round in their "home away from home."
The word log is often associated with cabin-and for good reason. In fact, log cabins have never been more popular. In this newly thriving business, hundreds of companies are manufacturing new log houses. People are also buying up antique log cabins and restoring them. Some cabins aren't log at all, but simple wood structures, including stick-built and post and beam, with both wood and sheet rock walls. Today's cabin is also no longer just a simple 400 square-foot building with one or two rooms. Usually rustic and informal in design, it can actually encompass thousands of square feet containing luxurious, upscale bathrooms that contemporary homeowners have come to expect, and expansive kitchens that incorporate all the bells and whistles of a sophisticated chef's workspace.
Regardless of their age, architecture or design, the common denominator of the cabin is lifestyle. At the cabin, formality is out. We are free to do whatever we like in off hours and cabin design and decor reflect that spirit. Mostly, natural materials such as wood, stone, tile, natural cottons and other fibers are a preference in construction and decor.
In keeping with this more relaxed and unstructured attitude, anything goes in decorating a cabin; imagination reigns. Do we really need to buy a new porcelain bathroom sink-when we have a great old country bowl that could be used as a sink to fit into an old country style dresser that can easily be remade into a bathroom vanity? The ideas are endless.
In the earliest pioneer cabins, the entire structure was one room including the kitchen, seating and dining area and if there was no upstairs sleeping loft, the room was used for sleeping, as well. Cabin interiors are usually more open than formal houses where rooms are distinctly partitioned. Often in today's cabins, only bedrooms and bathrooms are separated and kitchen areas are open to the rest of the house.
Since the idea of the open living space is retained in today's cabins, cabin-specific kitchen design often means tying its design and decor to the rest of the house. Cabin-specific bathroom design might include functional areas such as laundry and exercise nooks, keeping them out of public sight in the open great room layout. The following chapters investigate each component of a cabin kitchen and cabin bath and their role in the completed design process.
As photographers and writers, we have spent years working with architects, builders, decorators and homeowners, telling their stories in countless magazine articles. Much of our work is focused on log houses and cabins. This book offers you our perspective on cabin design and decor as well as expertise from manufacturing, design and building professionals. Homeowners we have come to know also weigh in, sharing their accumulated experiences, both good and bad. They offer what they have learned early enough in the building process to produce great results, as well as some tips they learned too late to make the changes they wish they had known sooner.
This book offers suggestions on how you can reach the structural and design goals you set for your cabin kitchens and bathrooms. In the end, it is your cabin and should reflect your own unique style, interests and the way you and your family live. There are no strict rules for your comfort; we offer you some ideas and tips-both practical and visual-on the best ways to get the optimum pleasure from your cabin kitchen and bathrooms. The rest is up to you.

Customer Reviews

Finally, a good one
I've been looking for a book like this for ages. There are lots of great looking design books, very few offer real help. I found this book to be excellently organized with in-depth information on every aspect of kitchen and bathroom design. The writing is intelligent, without being overly technical, and good-humored while also giving practical solutions to a variety of design and structural challenges.
The photography, which as another reviewer pointed out, could stand alone as being quite beautiful, is very specific in terms of what is depicted as referencing the subject matter in the respective chapters and sections.
Another reviewer pointed out that the photography is redundant to what appears in the log magazines on the newsstands. I think that is untrue. I'm an avid reader of log magazines, and have been for a good number of years, and do not see any repetition at all. These photographs are certainly new to my eyes and are of the highest quality.
I find it remarkable that with so many books on kitchens and myriad publications on cabins, this is the first time that the two subjects have been combined in one volume. And, what an effective volume it is.
On a personal point of view, as a lover of great interiors and with a nice little library of good design books, this one has great pipe dream potential and one of these days I might even use some of the ideas in re-doing my own kitchen and bathroom.

cabins...and more
Book Review
CABIN KITCHENS AND BATHS by Franklin and Esther Schmidt (Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City, 2004)

This book delivers far more than it promises. First and foremost, it is a chatty but practical and lavishly - illustrated guide designed to lead a cabin or homeowner through the process of designing what most of us would consider the two most difficult and important rooms in our residence. The Schmidts do this by a readable text, made more useful by including opinions from numerous professionals involved in cabin design from soup to nuts. The book...which obviously could be used to design kitchens and baths in any kind of residence...includes helpful check lists to prepare one thoroughly from design to installation.

CABIN KITCHENS AND BATHS is also a wonderful "coffee table" book for post and beam and log residences. My library holdings include numerous volumes of books whose last name is "STYLE"......"Greek Style"," Japanese Style", etc, and I often reread them for the simple pleasure of it. The lavish color photography makes this book infinitely more attractive.

Finally, the Schmidts give us a tantalizing look into myriad design choices for decorating kitchens, baths and the rest of the cabin. Collections, individual pieces, the old and the new populate most of the photographs and add yet another dimension to this book. After the kitchen and bath are finally finished, one can easily find pleasure for many years in the other things that this book so richly illustrates.

Dream Cabins
Everyone dreams of a getaway cabin - a place of rest and refuge. ~pg. 1

If you have your own log cabin dreams, the best ways to get ideas is to look through wonderful log cabin books written by photographers who have written about hundreds of log cabins. The authors of this gorgeous book live in a farmhouse deep in the rural Virginia countryside.

They are frequently on the road and spend time in New York City at their studio space. Franklin and Esther Schmidt have captured some of the most beautiful kitchens and baths I've ever seen. They are romantic, inspiring and very cozy.

This book is filled with ideas for remodeling or new homes. This book explores architectural elements, furnishings, appliances, bathrooms, design and décor. Many of the cabins are surprisingly modern and quite interesting. The curtains and lighting stand out as highlights against the warm wood interiors.

After reading this book you may find yourself adding heart bundt pans, candles and new pots and pans to your wish list or dreaming about lace curtains. Many of the kitchens have a special shelf for cookbooks and all the kitchens look like dream kitchens. Pots and pans hang from the ceilings along with baskets and dried flowers.

There are many creative ideas in the pictures, like a wagon as a coffee table. Baskets are definitely a decorative element in the kitchens.

While most of this book is about kitchens, there is a section about creating soothing spaces filled with candles, fluffy towels and deep baths. Here are all the bathtubs we dream about, complete with big windows, plants and candles everywhere.

If you love claw-foot tubs, there are many examples in various settings. I had never seen a lavender colored tub so that was interesting. There are ideas for stenciling and one bath tub has a waterfall.

The resources will be very helpful for home builders and almost every source has a website for immediate access to ideas and inspiration.

~The Rebecca Review