A modern cabin. An Orcas Island retreat. Low-key vacation homes

This vacation home in Seabeck is a simple cabin with views.

Andrew Pogue

Off the Beaten Path

Low-key vacation homes allow their owners to relish Washington’s far-flung corners

written by Melissa Dalton

A Modern Cabin in Hood Canal

EVERYONE VACATIONS a little differently. While some need the hustle and bustle of a foreign city, others, like John Connor and Julie Cohn, seek the opposite. One of their favorite destinations is their cabin outside Seabeck, a former mill town on Hood Canal, which has a population of just more than 1,000 people and sports a general store, pizzeria and espresso stand. “The fundamental tenets of Western civilization are all there,” Connor said. “Coffee shop, pizza, groceries and beer—it’s got everything.” Connor and Cohn discovered Seabeck and the Hood Canal area more than twenty years ago, when his family started having summer reunions there. After returning every year, the Houston, Texas, residents decided to make the relationship permanent and bought land to build a retreat of their own.

Their 8-acre parcel outside Seabeck is in a forested spot with sweeping views of Hood Canal. “It kind of feels like the edge of the world,” Eric Walter said. Walter owns the Seattlebased firm mw | works architecture + design, and partnered with Brent Heath of E&H Construction to craft a simple cabin getaway for the couple—one that, like Seabeck, delivers everything they need and nothing they don’t.

The design process started with a 20-foot square foundation, which had belonged to the site’s previous home that had been torn down. “We chose to reuse that foundation, so that gave us this constraint right out of the gate. It forced us to think about what was important and what could fall away,” Walter said. “There was a desire to keep it simple, but there was also a necessity to work within this footprint and make it efficient.” The resulting 1,140-square-foot cabin appears as a straightforward box, with open living spaces on the first floor and two bedrooms and shared bathroom on the second. Exterior oxidized tight-knot cedar siding and blackened cement infill panels allow it to blend in with the trees.

Open living spaces and floor-to-ceiling windows keep this Seabeck home simple.

Andrew Pogue

Inside, floor-to-ceiling glass frames canal views downstairs, while upstairs skylights admit natural light into the bathroom and let the couple stargaze from bed. Walter limited the palette to just a few textures, combining alder floors with walls covered in white-painted MDF and pine plywood. “We didn’t want any drywall,” Connor said, citing how the material turns to mush during floods. Thanks to the design-and-build team’s attention to detail, precise reveals around the interior paneling give it a more modern look. “It almost feels like somebody clicked this house together, like Legos,” Connor said. “Having those wood walls really changes the feel of the house. It feels very solid and very warm.”

For the couple, the real attraction to Seabeck and its surroundings is the chance to spend long, relaxed days outside hitting the hiking trails that start at their front door, where they can savor the “wildness” that inspired the home’s design. “Ideally, the house isn’t making a statement greater than the place it sits,” Walter said. “So, our first response, and I think theirs, too, was to try to do something that was pretty modest and receded into the forest, rather than make a mark there.”

An Orcas Island Retreat

The home was deliberately placed to make it hidden from the water.

Sean Airhart

For this vacation home on a waterfront site on Orcas Island, architect Joe Herrin will be the first to tell you he took a counterintuitive approach to its placement. “We nestled it into a low point on the landscape, [whereas] a lot of people would put it on top of the promontory for more panoramic view potential,” Herrin said. Herrin, a principal at Seattle’s Heliotrope Architects, grew up boating in the San Juan Islands, so this tactic made perfect sense. “We didn’t do that. We nestled it down, which made it less visually imposing from the water,” Herrin said.

Giving the house a low profile has the added bonus of protecting it from harsh weather, with which Herrin is also well-acquainted. “It just gets absolutely hammered, like 80- to 100-mph wind gusts,” Herrin said. “You have to design it as though a fireman is standing in front of it with a fire hose and just shooting it right at the house.” To that end, retractable stained cedar exterior doors can handily “button up” the home when the storms start.

Wool carpeting and wood finishes cover the interior.

Haris Kenjar

Despite fortifying it against inclement weather, immersion in nature was at the top of the wish list for the clients, who are Seattleites with two young children. “It’s all about the outdoor experience in the islands,” Herrin said. “The owners had fallen in love with the place for the natural beauty.” Design moves big and small facilitate that appreciation, from the 9-by-27-foot glass apertures on two sides to the exterior grading of the land that ensures the deck doesn’t require a guardrail. “This allows the view to remain unobstructed by a 3-foot-high railing in the foreground,” Herrin said.

Because it’s a vacation house, there’s no need for copious closet space, since most visitors are living out of a suitcase, and things like Christmas decorations can be stored back at home. The footprint was trimmed down to approximately 1,600 square feet, with a quality envelope, including stained cedar ceilings and walls, prioritized over the size.

An unobstructed view of the water is this Orcas Island home’s centerpiece.

Haris Kenjar

Interior designer Andy Beers of Ore Studios worked with the family over a three-year period to create a cozy and unpretentious furniture scheme that was durable enough for young kids and didn’t compete with the architecture. “The site is so beautiful and the way that the house is placed in the site is so beautiful, that nothing we did could overpower that,” Beers said. Natural materials such as wool carpeting and leather upholstery complement the wood finishes, while meaningful pieces, such as the dining table handmade by the owner from a piece of elm found on Bainbridge Island, take pride of place.

From the green roof planted with native landscaping to the end-grain hemlock floors, everything about the home conveys a reverence for its context. “The San Juan Islands are my favorite place in the world, I just love them,” said Herrin, who’s still a boater and frequently spends his weekends at his own cabin a twenty-minute kayak ride away. “When I go boating and I’m going along the shoreline, I don’t want to see things that are less beautiful than the natural surroundings.”

DIY: Flagstone Patio

A flagstone patio, such as this professional installation on Orcas Island, can instantly upgrade your outdoor area.

Sean Airhart

SOMETIMES A STAYCATION is the answer rather than a vacation. In that case, having an outdoor destination at home can make any weekend or after-work evening more relaxing. Here are tips for creating an informal flagstone patio, composed of irregular pavers and plantings in between the rocks.

1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

When siting the patio, plan to allow it to follow the land’s natural grade and encourage proper drainage, so rainwater won’t pool and snow melt won’t flow toward the house’s foundation. Measure the area’s square footage to know how much stone to buy.

2. STOCK UP

Since flagstones have irregular shapes, it can be a bit of a puzzle fitting them together. Buy extra so there’s some flexibility with placement, and make sure they are about 2 inches thick so they don’t crack under pressure.EXCAVATE

3. EXCAVATE

Clear the designated area of grass and soil. Dig down about 6 inches, plus the depth of the purchased stone. The overall depth should accommodate a 4-inch layer of crushed gravel beneath the pavers, as well as a 2-inch layer of sand, and still allow the patio to be level with the surroundings. Tamp the exposed soil.5

4. POUR AND PACK

A gravel base stabilizes the pavers so they don’t move or tip underfoot, and facilitates drainage. Pour the gravel evenly and pack it down with a hand tamper until it reaches a height of 4 inches. Pour a 2-inch layer of sand over the top and level it with a rake.

5. ARRANGE

Place the stones in the preferred pattern, moving each piece back and forth to set it firmly in place. Leave about a 1-inch gap between stones for plants. Choose desired groundcover, such as moss for a shady spot or hardy mint that releases a scent when tramped. Fill gaps with a mix of sand and soil, then plant and water.CHILL

6. CHILL

Add seating and a firepit, then kick back and relax after all that heavy lifting.32 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2019

Patio Pleasers

Liven up your outdoor areas with these weather-friendly picks

Have an ugly wall that could use some decoration? Since paintings and prints won’t work outside, try hanging several Wally Eco Vertical Garden Wall Planters for some lively ornamentation. The planters are made from 100 recycled milk jugs that are BPA free and come in twelve punchy colors.

www.wallygro.com

As a Pacific Northwest resident, browsing catalogs for outdoor furniture can feel like a game of questions: Sure, that’s nice, but how will it stand up to our weather? Billy Losleben takes the guesswork out of the equation with the handmade concrete outdoor dining table. The statement-making design is a sharp and modern take on the classic picnic table. Even better, its concrete and steel construction is “fit for survival” here.

www.concrete-project.com

The Sunday Lounge Side Chair from Portland’s Revolution Design House combines a powder-coated steel frame with an optional outdoor cushion. The frame color and the upholstery are fully customizable, which makes a stylish backdrop for your next Sunday afternoon hang.

www.revolutiondesignhouse.com

Placemats aren’t exactly necessary for outdoor dining, but sometimes the table just needs a little gloss. Enter the durable silicone placemat from Modern-Twist, made of food-grade silicone free of BPA, lead, latex, phthalates and other harsh chemicals, and hand-silk-screened in a variety of eye-catching patterns.

www.modern-twist.com