The rustic off-grid Woodsman’s Cabin
Surrounded by birch, ash and oak trees, this tiny owner-built cabin sits on the shore of a small lake in the Dordogne region of France. Despite initial appearances, the Woodsman’s Cabin is a recent build given an old-time rustic look with naturally wavy live-edge wood siding.
The French doors take you directly into the living space, which consists of a tiny kitchenette, dining and sitting areas. Most of the walls have a lime plaster finish, accented by some dark wood paneling and window trim.
In one corner is a highly-crafted winding stair with a branch for a handrail. It leads up to the cozy attic bedroom with exposed log beams. The bathroom, accessed by a handmade door next to the kitchen, is housed in a small lean-to-style extension attached to the side of the cabin. There you will find a composting toilet and a stone basin sink.
The Woodsman’s Cabin is off-grid but it does have basic modern conveniences. The kitchen stove and fridge are both run off propane. Water from the lake is pumped into storage containers in the attic, where it can gravity-feed the sinks. It is filtered and purified to be safe for drinking. If you want a hot shower, the water can be heated by a coil in the woodstove, which is also the cabin’s only source of space heating. A couple of solar panels generate electricity for the water pump and the 12-volt LED light fixtures, handcrafted by the owners from tin cans mounted on pieces of branch.
The Woodsman’s Cabin is available for vacation rentals through Covert Cabin. Enjoy the photos!
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Photographs courtesy of Covert Cabin.
Text copyright 2015 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.
This is super quaint – the setting really makes the house! The only critical comment I’d have is about the woodstove. I’ve noticed a lot of the tiny houses use these super-small woodstoves. It makes sense, from a space standpoint – but is highly impractical, as anyone who’s ever owned a woodstove will tell you. The small size is no doubt adequate to heat small spaces, however, it can’t hold much wood – plus, the wood needs to be chopped into itty bitty pieces, unlike a regular-sized woodstove which takes full-sized, half- and quarter-split logs. Even with the right-sized wood, his stove would probably need re-filling every hour, which makes it impractical to heat overnight – or any other time, really, if it’s your primary source of heat in a cold climate.