An A-Frame Cabin in Minnesota (With Gorgeous Lake Views!)

I love the minimalist cabin vibe of this house and have sought out these images many times both in an attempt to learn how to infuse more of this feeling into my own house and also just because I find it enjoyable. I have also read the posts on the designer’s blog and social media where she explained many more of the details of which were thrifted pieces, actual materials, etc. which is also helpful. One of the things I have come to love about this blog is that it gives me a window into the way people live all over the world, and I find that so helpful both personally and professionally. Thank you!!

What an amazing place! I feel such a sense of peace just looking at the pics. Regarding possible rental opportunities, please let me know.

Gorgeous

Absolutely 💯 gorgeous 😍

Absolutely Beautiful and Amazing.
I am interested in renting your Cabin this summer.
Please contact me via email.
Blessings

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your home with us. I, too, have been looking in the Grand Maria and Two Harbors area for a cabin or a resort for sale. I LOVE your cabin. Thank you for the hope and inspiration.

Wow! They found a true gem! Love all the cedar walls – they are perfectly fitting for this house’s setting. How beautiful it would be to watch snow fall snuggled up on the couch.

People asking for info on the cost, how they saved the money etc – there are a LOT of blogs like that. Go to them.

Do you not see the entitlement in trying to prescribe what this blog should be about?

Maybe they have difficulties working in a regular job because they have kids or elderly family members to care for so renting provides a source of income for them to do that. Or maybe none of these are their situation and they just simply wanted a home that they could escape to and supplementing their income made sense and provided a nice break for another human on this earth.

This is a home design post. Work in policy change if you’d like to make some of the differences being discussed here

Maybe they just really liked this house and wanted a space to go to on the weekends or something. It’s none of our business. They simply shared their home and design style and providing feedback on that is the purpose of this.

With that – this sounds like a dream!! I love the smell cedar and never even considered the scent as a benefit of using that as a building material. Hope my fiancé likes it because we’re now getting a cedar something in our (future) home!

Bravo 💛

This is my dream. To live in a cabin in the woods by the water. One day!

Oh, this cabin! I have followed The Faux Martha for years and love her content, and I also lived in Grand Marais for a decade. Even then, buying a house in Grand Marais was becoming out of reach for people who actually live there, and long-term rentals were nearly impossible to find (I moved about 6 years ago and lack of housing was part of the reason). The problem has only become worse over the last few years with rising home prices and the proliferation of AirBnBs.

That said, this cabin, when it was originally for sale, would have required a lot of money to renovate and actually live in year round anyways. But I wish this article would have noted that many (most?) of the materials for the renovation were provided free through sponsorships. Not only is it interesting to know that background, but since an influencer of sorts renovated the house, it’s almost like identifying sponsored posts on Instagram. Just feels more transparent and somehow more fair, even though I’ll never be in a position to do a sponsored home renovation myself :D The article also could have highlighted the local builder @taigadesignbuild who did the amazing renovation. He does beautiful work, and OMG their house would be the most unbelievable home tour (and sidenote, his wife @brienne_moody creates incredible knitting patterns).

Joanna, here’s another upvote for featuring money on the blog more prominently. Given the success of Money Diaries and other forums, along with the comments on some of these posts, there’s clearly an audience appetite for the topic among readers of all ages. I would love to read an interview-style feature similar to A Week of Outfits or the skincare/makeup series but about people’s financial background, spending, saving, investing, goals and aspirations.

If you’re going to talk about the legacy of the house, maybe also talk about the legacy of the land. The North Shore of MN is the traditional territory of the Chippewa peoples. I realize Land Back movements are not as strong in the United States as in Canada, but this display of wealth without the acknowledgment of the land is painful to look at.

Oh, Joanna, your reply to a commenter piqued my curiosity- you mentioned that you actually paid the author of this post, (and not the other way around). I was dumbfounded because I thought anyone featured on cupofjo (especially with the insane amount of traffic this site generates) would JUMP at the chance to be featured! I’m curious now as to the behind the scenes technicalities of being featured here!

And to be honest, when I saw 200 comments on this post I thought, uh oh, something’s up, and thus I entered. I personally don’t mind seeing beautiful things out of my reach, especially anything to do with decor as that’s my soft spot, but I remember about a year ago commenting that I would also love to see a home tour from a nurse/stay at home mum/postal worker etc. I’m just a teacher in Greece but that doesn’t mean I don’t like a groovy house or appreciate art etc. (H&M and John Lewis once featured my photos on their website and I thought I had made it, hahaha) but in all seriousness, I’d love to see that balance here.

I can’t afford this cabin. I can’t afford a lot of stuff profiled and linked on this blog. As the sticker price of the posts & profiles slowly inched upward over the past few years (I’ve read COJ since the first year), I would get frustrated, offended, and jealous. I’m already waiting for the $50 jeans to go on sale; why do I want to click a link to a pair that turns out to cost $150 on sale??

However, I had to step back (“Remove the emotion and look at the data” ~Jon Acuff) and realize this blog is not written for me personally. So I’ve chosen to see this space as an escape to enjoy this and other ideas/places/landscapes/outfits; to see what others have been able to make happen or how they’ve survived what has happened; to collect bits and pieces of stories and journeys because how interesting is it to get to be invited to peek into homes and closets and journals!

I decided to choose to not become offended at every other adjective used to describe or left out of the description of the job/home/dress/shoes/trip, etc. Reading someone else’s story can spark new ideas, perhaps awaken a dormant dream with a new twist, or simply give a mental breath of fresh air. Just read the posts and look at the pictures. Celebrate someone’s joy, commiserate with their sorrow, click away from the post that promotes values with which you disagree. Don’t waste your time being offended that five different options weren’t included for every possible economic bracket reading the post. Life is too short to spend it constantly pointing out where you are and aren’t included, what you do and don’t agree with. I know. I lived that way for a long time. Let it go.

For every $48 lipstick link I roll my eyes at while clicking through photos of a vacation I’ll never take to places with lifestyles that might outrage me in outfits I’ll never even bother to try on because I don’t want to love the $200 power jumpsuit lest I be tempted plunge into credit card debt over it, I’ve taken refuge in the comment sections of posts on grief and friendship too many times to count and felt less so much less lonely. Everything isn’t going to be for everyone all the time. It’s just not.

As for this specific post, kudos to that homeowner for having the taste and sense to leave that beautiful cedar alone haha!

You can always count on CoJ for some lively discussions! This topic is really interesting, but I think it basically comes down to basic economics of a city. Vacation destinations (like northern MN) will likely always struggle to have enough affordable housing because the
demand from tourism drives up housing prices. People want to be there. But that’s arguably better than nobody wanting to be there, right?

Looking at these pictures of this lovely cabin in a gorgeous setting was like a breath of fresh air with my family on day 12 of isolation!

Do we know where this “Way Up North” flag is from? I love it so much!

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this phenomenon in the COJ comments section, where some people express frustration at the wealth that is on display and others express frustration at reading these comments. I wonder if there is a bigger-picture shift that can be taken to address this.

When this kind of thing comes up I’m always curious where I stand on the spectrum of COJ demographics (am I the only single one? the only one trying to get my career off the ground? the only one making low 5 figures?). Out of curiosity I would love to see an anonymous survey of the COJ community.

I’d also like to suggest not using words such as “affordable”, “splurge”, or “investment piece” on promotional posts or item round-ups.

And lastly, maybe there is a way to add more posts that resonate with people on the low end of the income spectrum (rather than avoiding the high-income ones). It might help if people feel more seen

To me, the difference between an “old & cozy” cabin and a modern cabin is just that we have adjusted culturally to the idea of a 1960s or 1900s cabin. Both are disrupting the landscape. Both are likely to bring in people who used to not live there. Both are and have been more attainable for white folks than for anyone else. Both are encouraging private land ownership instead of public land or other models of land stewardship.

I think cabins are beautiful. I like staying in a cabin for a weekend when I can. I own one home, in an urban location that’s also stolen land. I work professionally on (stolen) public lands, and it’s given me a detailed view on how we create rural spaces in America, and frankly, a lot of non-wild rural places are just as “constructed” as this home, and that seems to be a common criticism in the comments, that this home is very curated/constructed/almost artificial.

The cabin is beautiful. People always jump to thinking everything is unattainable for the average jo
Not true .I live along the shore;,my life’s dream as a lifelong Minnesotan. There are tons of properties and vacant land for reasonable prices. Just goggle it! 6 years ago we bought a 2 bed house in Silver Bay with a lake view for 48,000. We live on 5 acres in a 1200 square home in the woods with a beautiful lake view of Superior. have about 200,000 invested. Bought land and cabin frame for 52,000 20 yrs ago. Jobs are going begging in the 16-20 dollar an hour range with benefits! You have to want it and make it happen.

Already commented about the post itself, but I just want to thank CoJ for a space where we can have healthy debate! I’ve truly enjoyed reading comments that have a variety of opinions here.

I suppose I am at odds with most of the commenters here. I appreciate this post for the escapism it provides. — I certainly can’t afford a vacation home, but it is nice to think about being at a cabin on a lake in the middle of summer when it is, in fact, January in New England and I am sitting at my desk trying to forget my other anxieties. Plus, I <3 that wingback chair.

MN commenter here. We are a huge fan of Faux Martha and the community she has built over here. Thank you COJ for featuring the beautiful cabin she designed. She is a talented designer and works hard to create thoughtful and beautiful spaces for people to enjoy.

just want to speak up for the people who thoroughly enjoyed this post as a moment of escape from the hell-ish world we live in without thinking of the real-estate inequities involved. I think that should be allowed, too. simply a beautiful house that I enjoyed looking at.

I’m from Duluth, Minnesota, and it’s fascinating to read through these comments. I think it’s really important for people to understand how embedded cabin culture is up north. Most cabins are not year-round residences that leech permanent housing in favor of playgrounds for the wealthy; they’re summer shacks that are accessible havens for the middle class. Or at least, they used to be; my real issue with this post is that it helps drive up prices and make buying in to traditional family cabins much more difficult. The family cabin is supposed to be furnished with the couch your mom won on the Price is Right in the early eighties! The range should be electric, and one burner should not work! The bookshelf should be crammed with well-thumbed paperbacks, heavily featuring Gore Vidal and Robert Ludlum! It saddens me, the idea that buckets of money are required to access the “unadulterated beauty” and “make your own memories.” Sure, replace the windows; but once you replace the melamine plates with hand-thrown stoneware, you’ve crossed the line from Family Cabin to Boutique Micro Hotel.