Log Home Ideas

A lot of people who buy land and build log homes or log cabins like to get away from it all, choosing locations that are deep in the wilderness. Unfortunately, it can cost a fortune to get electricity run to a home that is far from access points.

The answer may be to power your home with solar panels. In many climates, you can get enough energy from the sun, year around, to power your cabin 100%. Though the initial cost of purchasing the equipment can be pricy, you can save a lot of money in the long run–no monthly energy bills and no costs for hooking up to the access point, which might be miles away.

Alpine Survival sells on-the-grid and off-the-grid solar panel kits and systems.

One of the hard parts about building a log home can be figuring out how to light it effectively. You need some sort of ceiling illumination to brighten your living space and show off your soaring beamed ceilings, but the idea of drilling holes into that lovely wood for recessed lighting can make you cringe. Just relying on floor and table lamps probably isn’t enough, so many log home owners decide to work with track lighting.

Relatively easy to install, track lighting works well strung across high, beamed ceilings or in cozy low-ceilinged areas such as kitchens. The light heads are easy to move if you decide you want to spotlight something different later on, or you can add and remove fixtures as needed. Since track lighting is quite popular right now, it’s easy to find lots of different colors and styles of fixtures, rustic or modern.

More ideas in Inside Log Homes: The Art & Spirit of Home Planning and Decor

I like perusing the backs of log home magazines in order to find interesting builders to visit and all sorts of accessories for log cabins and homes, but if you’re actually planning to build a home, random listings won’t help you much. You need to find someone who can help you build a home in your area. Sometimes doing a Google search will help you find builders or contractors, but if logs are your dream, you could also visit the Log Cabin Directory.

There you can search listings by state, and you’ll find a more comprehensive list of builders than you can get just looking in the backs of magazines. They also cover timberframe builders, if you enjoy the look of wood with exposed beams and supports, but you’re not ready to go all log.