If you live in New York City, Long Island, or New Jersey, you’ve likely felt the pull of the Catskills. Whether it’s a weekend retreat, a second home, or a full-time move toward a slower, more grounded lifestyle, the region offers a rare mix of natural beauty, creative culture, and breathing room—all within a few hours’ drive of the city.
The Finger Lakes region of New York is a place where nature, culture, and craftsmanship come together. Known for its pristine lakes, world-class wineries, and charming towns, the area offers a lifestyle that blends luxury with simplicity. If you’re considering building a home here, a custom-built home in the Finger Lakes gives you the freedom to design a space that reflects your lifestyle, values, and vision.
With a brand new year, there comes a brand new list of trends from the world of home design. If you’re designing, building, or remodeling a home in 2025, here are a few trends that will have real staying power for the rest of the decade (and beyond). Several well-worn trends like staunch minimalism and wall-to-wall “millennial gray” color palette have run their course, but there are lots of great and BOLD interior trends that have taken the design world by storm over the last year. Our interior design expert, Kourtnie Clark Whitmore has compiled a list of a few of those trends, along with ways to incorporate them into your custom log or timber frame home.
Our team recently had the pleasure of catching up with two Beaver Mountain clients who built the gorgeous Wayfarer Lodge back in 2014. Nestled amongst the Catskill Mountains, The Wayfarer Lodge takes our classic Lodge floor plan and gives it a modern twist. Owners Dean and John split their time between Upstate NY and Florida and wanted a perfectly tailored log home that would be a summertime oasis when they needed to beat the tropical heat. This custom log home is truly a work of art both inside and out!
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.
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.
In early May 2023, NY Governor Hochul announced that NY State has begun making strides towards becoming the first state in the country to eliminate all fossil fuel equipment in new construction starting in 2026. Under this mandate, all new homes built by 2026 must be fully electric and can no longer include propane or natural gas fueled heating systems or appliances. While there is still a good deal of information we do not know at this time, Beaver Mountain wants to share with clients what we do know so far and the ways it could impact the future of new construction projects.
Designing and building your custom home is an investment in the future for you and your family. Such a well-thought-out decision deserves to be one that you are happy with forever. Careful planning goes into every detail of your custom-designed home for months or even years. For you, there is something beautifully artistic about the intricate detail and noticeable craftsmanship of a house made from white pine or red cedar.
Creating a vision board (also referred to as a mood board) is a great way to start your log or timber frame home design planning. These visual representations of your taste will help us have a clear direction before we start to design your home. These boards can be as simple as a Pinterest page account or as complex as a notebook filled with sketches, notes and printouts. You can check out our Gallery and Floorplan pages, Instagram or Facebook for lots of Beaver Mountain home inspiration. The sky’s the limit!
It’s hard to believe that we’re staring down the last few weeks of 2021 already! Sometimes these holiday weeks can feel a bit overwhelming with visitors, baking, cooking and decorating, so here are some of our favorite tips and tools to help make it easier! We want you to enjoy the holidays!
If you’re like most people, your cutting board could probably use an upgrade! Not only is a large board great for meal prep, but it’s perfect for carving meats, or charcuterie! Catskill Woodworks has some beautiful hand made boards that you might not want to ever put away! They also can teach you how to take care of your wood with oils, making sure it’s something you’ll love for years. (These also make perfect gifts and can be customized!)
For the full 3D tour that you can walk through virtually, visit Camp Kozakis on Matterport.
We’ve seen some interesting trends lately in log home interior design as our clients are creating their homes! Here’s a few of our favorites…
Let’s take a look at those in depth!
Bold patterns are a great way to give your home some personality! You can go for a floral or maybe a geometric pattern to give any room that “pop”. But in 2021, we’ve seen clients mixing those patterns together! You can choose a common color palette, then mix and match to your heart’s content!
Last time we started talking to Carol from Northeast Cabinet Center about ways to increase your storage and keep your kitchen organized. (Click here to read that post!) Today she’s back and has some more tips for us!
Roll out drawers are a really easy way to access everything in your cabinets and come in several widths. These are very helpful in the kitchen to pull your appliances, pots/pans, etc. out for an easy access. No more crawling on your hands and knees retrieving an item in the back of the cabinet. They also aid in keeping a better inventory of your supplies since the items are readily available with an easy glide out drawer.
When you’re designing a kitchen, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming. Countertop choices, cabinet colors, design and layout – it’s a lot! To help make it easier for you, we asked Carol from Northeast Cabinet Center in Hawley PA for some tips and ideas! There’s a lot of great content, so we’re going to break it up into 2 blog posts.
Beginning Monday, June 1st 2020, Beaver Mountain Log & Cedar Homes will be open. The Model Homes & Design Center will be open by appointment only. Please call JoAnn at 607-467-2700 or email info@beavermtn.com to get in touch with one of our Sales Consultants and schedule a meeting.
Our Sales/Design team has moved the Hancock, NY offices to our Deposit, NY manufacturing facility (just 6 miles down Route 17). There are a few reasons for this move and it is something we have been planning for years, but the recent temporary closures made it possible. This will help our team members all collaborate more effectively, and will also make the safety plans put in place by NYS easier to facilitate.
Ready to make your own custom-crafted wood home dreams a reality? We’d love to learn more about your project. The first step is to call (607)-467-2700 to contact one of our professional building consultants to review your vision, budget, and timeline.
Phone: 607-467-2700 or email at info@beavermtn.com
