Category Archives: Design

At Beaver Mountain Log & Cedar Homes, we specialize in helping customers design and build unique custom log homes, log cabin homes, cedar homes, and timber frame homes.

Secondary Spaces, Primary Value

| June 1, 2025

A custom carriage house or accessory dwelling unit (ADU) offers more than just extra space. They can bring a story, a style, and a stunning new purpose to your property.

Smart Spaces for Guests, Family & More

Carriage houses get their name from days gone by when carriages and horses were kept in a large outbuilding with additional living quarters above. Traditionally, modern carriage houses combine multi-vehicle garage storage with a second-level apartment or guest suite. However, we can design any custom carriage house to meet the needs of your property and lifestyle. CONTINUE READING

Find Your Style: Small Homes, Big Personality

| April 30, 2025

In a world that often equates “more” with “better,” there’s a quiet but powerful movement choosing a different path — living well with less. Smaller homes, particularly those under 2,000 square feet, offer more than just efficient layouts and lower utility bills. They reflect a shift toward sustainability, intentional design, and a lifestyle that values quality over quantity. Whether you’re building your forever home or downsizing with purpose, a thoughtfully designed small home can provide everything you need, without the environmental cost of excess square footage. CONTINUE READING

New Home Construction in the Adirondacks

| April 11, 2025

There’s something undeniably special about the Adirondacks. The quiet beauty of the forest, the stillness of the lakes, and the grandeur of the mountains make it a dream location for a getaway or a forever home. But building a custom home in the Adirondacks comes with its own unique set of considerations—from remote sites and challenging terrain to preserving the natural surroundings and meeting local building codes. CONTINUE READING

Timber Components for Contractors

| October 8, 2024

When you think of Beaver Mountain, the first thing that most likely pops into your mind is our custom crafted full-home projects, but did you know that we offer a wide selection of timber components for builders too? From exterior details like trusses, corners, and siding to interior details like accent beams and custom staircases; we can provide the one-of-a-kind handcrafted timber components for whatever your building project requires. Let Beaver Mountain be your go-to trusted source for high quality and perfectly crafted timbers for every project. CONTINUE READING

Custom Home Building Timelines

| July 16, 2024

Designing and building a custom home doesn’t have to be daunting. With clear communication and realistic expectations, the process is quite simple once it’s looked at step by step. At Beaver Mountain, we strive to ensure that our clients have an enjoyable experience and clear picture of the entire design and build process before we even start their home build project. Here is a helpful timeline to put things into perspective. On average, we tell our clients that it typically takes 8 to 12 months for a 2000 square foot home to be completed. With that in mind, let’s dive into the steps that take us through those months so you can visualize what goes into a fully custom-crafted log or timber frame home. CONTINUE READING

Smart Home Tech for Your Custom Home

| May 14, 2024

Did you know that when you design a custom crafted wood home with Beaver Mountain, you also have the opportunity to incorporate Smart Home technology into your custom home? While it might seem overwhelming, Smart Home tech doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some basic principles and ideas that will help you decide if adding Smart Home devices to your home build project is a good fit for you and your family. CONTINUE READING

Renovations & Home Additions

| December 6, 2023

One sure thing about life is that it’s always changing. The home you designed 20 years ago to fit your family’s needs might be feeling a bit cramped and in need of a larger great room or apartment-space above a garage. Sometimes even the most beloved homes are still the perfect size decades later, but just need some sprucing up to give you more space outside. Perhaps you’ve found the perfect property, but it has an older house on site that needs some remodeling. Whatever the reason, Beaver Mountain is here to help turn your home project ideas into the renovations & home additions of your dreams. CONTINUE READING

Micro-luxuries to Enhance Your Home Design

| September 25, 2023

First impressions in our personal lives are always important, but what about the first impression that our homes make? Your home is a reflection of your life, your story and the details tell everyone who steps through the doors about you. Making thoughtful decisions about form, functionality, and personality speak volumes. Whether you’re in the process of designing your log or timber frame home with Beaver Mountain, or if you’ve been enjoying the rustic beauty of your home for decades, you might be looking for a little interior design inspiration. One way that you can incorporate some modern flair into your interior design is by utilizing micro-luxuries throughout the rooms of your home to show off your personality and style without breaking the bank. CONTINUE READING

Why Site-Specific Design Matters

| August 1, 2023

The dream of owning a custom-built log, wood, or timber frame home often goes hand in hand with the dream of living in harmony with the natural landscape, whether it’s nestled in the mountains, overlooking a glistening lake, or surrounded by peaceful woodlands. The beauty of log home living lies not only in the craftsmanship of the structure but in the daily experience of connecting with the outdoors. CONTINUE READING

Tips for Designing Your Outdoor Spaces

| May 17, 2023

One of the most important components of the home design and build process is factoring in landscaping and hardscaping to your property. We had the pleasure of chatting with Kyle Palmer from Palmer Contracting and Hardscaping to discuss why those are an important part of the process for homeowners to consider. Kyle is an expert in his field and offered some great insight into the process to help us better understand the application and functionality of both. CONTINUE READING

Sustainable Building

| January 28, 2022
Prow Front Log Home With 10" Logs

Sustainability is top of mind for everyone these days. For Beaver Mountain log homes, it is not a trend; sustainable building is what we’ve done from the start. Going above and beyond building codes is important to us, not only to provide our customers excellence in service, but also because in doing so, we are honoring environmental and sustainable practices that matter to us personally and leaves a legacy for our children for years to come.

When you choose Beaver Mountain log homes, we understand that you are looking for a home in which to enjoy nature. The very essence of our log homes combines luxury living with the great outdoors. But we take this environmental benefit further with sustainable practices in waste reduction, high performance heating options, and we offer solutions for solar energy and off grid living. CONTINUE READING

Log & Timber Homes are Naturally “Green”

| April 16, 2020
Owls Club Beaver Mountain Custom Home

There is a lot of buzz right now about living “green”.  It stresses being conscious of the world around us and practicing environmentalism, such as recycling and using paper instead of plastic.  The mindset can also be applied to building homes.  In fact, Beaver Mountain has been committed to being green long before it became popular and incorporated this approach into every aspect of the home building project. CONTINUE READING

Don’t Forget the Landscaping

| March 17, 2020
Log Home Landscaping with Fire Pit

With thoughts of spring and building your new Log or Timber Framed home, keep in mind that the exterior landscaping is just as important as your interior décor. For as much time that you put into figuring out your style for the inside of your home, the outside is the first impression everyone will see when pulling into the driveway. First impressions are lasting impressions. CONTINUE READING

Beaver Mountain Log Homes Overlook Retreat

What Are You Waiting For?

| February 20, 2020

Undoubtedly you might think that just because there is snow on the ground and the temperatures are frigid, you can’t begin to build your dream home. This is so far from the truth! Realistically, while the weather and ground conditions are not ideal in the northeast, it’s the perfect time to lay the ground work and begin the process of building. Here are some of the reasons why: CONTINUE READING

Cedar Crest Cabin Cedar Log Home Livingroom

Let Furniture Set The Stage For Your Log Home

| January 24, 2020

Let Furniture Set the Stage in Your New Log Home
Story By: Pellham D.W. DeGroot
Guest Commentary by Log Home Living
There’s no shortage of information about building a log home, whether you’re cutting down your own trees or stacking pre-cut logs.  But precious little tells how to furnish a log home.  Most people wind up OK, or at least think they do, but some regard furnishing a log home as an impossible mission.
No wonder, even if you are blessed with taste and confidence, few people have any experience with log homes, even those who have done and re-done other kinds of homes many times, even a few pros, Logs pose challenges.
There’s the wood, obviously.  But because logs represent more than just a place to live, furniture has to go beyond form and function to convey who the owners are and how they live in their log home.  That means worrying less about a stated theme – Southwestern, art deco, rococo, French Country, Victorian, etc. – and more about setting feelings: casual, comfortable, rugged, outdoorsy, down-homey. CONTINUE READING

Faith vs. Fact

| October 23, 2019
Beaver Mountain Log Homes Grandview Model Exterior Night

There really is no best wood for a log home

By Jim Cooper

A sure way to enliven a gathering of log-home enthusiast the superiority of inferiority of a particular species of wood.  It’s like tossing a gauntlet into a gathering of knights.  You’re almost guaranteed that someone will rise to your challenge.  Wood species provokes probably more heated discussion than any other aspect of log homes. CONTINUE READING

Attention to details can keep your project on budget

| August 8, 2019

By Jim Cooper

A builder recently presented a bid for a log home to customers who had already purchased a package and had blueprints in hand.  They had sold their home to buy land and were temporarily renting in anticipation of their new home.  In their enthusiasm, they overlooked on factor: construction cost. After presenting his bid, the builder was stunned to find a $100,000 gap between it and his customer’s expectations. CONTINUE READING

What is Custom Crafted?

| June 13, 2019

The term “Custom Crafted” means “made to the specifications of an individual customer”.  In today’s world, having your custom crafted, luxury log dream designed to meet your wants and needs has come a long ways from the days of “kit” log homes.  This is not to say that there still companies out there that still produce a cookie cutter home. CONTINUE READING

Best Log Home Award

| April 17, 2019
Beaver Mountain Log Homes Mountain View Exterior Front

Beaver Mountain Log Homes is selected as one of the Best Homes of 2018!

Log Home Living, a magazine devoted to log homes, conducted a vote by their log home enthusiast readers to select the top homes of 2018. Selecting from dozens of companies homes, the voters selected the Mountain View as one of the Best Homes of 2018. It will be featured in their Best Log and Timber Homes special issue. CONTINUE READING

The Gerald Custom Timber Home

The Process Of Designing Dreams

| February 22, 2019

by: Murray Arnott, AIBD

Guest Commentary by Custom Wood Home Architects and Designers

How do you get from the inkling of an idea to a great home? As they say, it ain’t easy, but the end result is worth it. Clients come to designers and architects with ideas on napkins, scraps of paper, or on the backs of maps or parking tickets (it happens — people driving past a home with a feature they’d like to incorporate scramble for anything to write on). Then we must do a certain amount of digging before the actual digging begins. We not only consider structure, supports, and seismic issues — we play the role of psychologist, teacher, and occasionally mediator between competing visions of different family members. CONTINUE READING