This idyllic wooden cabin overlooks a lake and the natural landscape of Ontario

If you’re looking for a stunning little cottage to get away to and simply relax, then you’ve reached the right place. Cottages are by far the best type of vacation I’ve come across. They’re a peaceful and tranquil option to abandon your urban life and woes, and simply unwind in nature. They’re the perfect safe haven nestled in the midst of nature, providing you a break from your everyday hectic life. If you’re wondering where to head for your next cottage retreat, then worry not, because we just found the perfect cottage for you to visit this summer – the Algonquin Highlands Cottage in Ontario.

Designer: BLDG Workshop

BLDG Workshop built a picturesque wooden cottage on an island peninsula in a lake of Algonquin Highlands. The cottage overlooks the rocky outcrops and shorelines of the Great Canadian Shield. The cottage was constructed while paying special attention to the relationship between indoor and outdoor space, and the natural landscape of Ontario. The natural elements of the site were amplified and elevated – for example, the sun patterns on the peninsula since they are related to the morning and evening light.

The studio incorporated a large indoor-outdoor space at the front peak of the home, which overlooks the lake and the stunning landscape. This space helps to capture the natural light throughout the day, creating a cottage that is flooded with light at all times. The home features an open-plan layout, as well as a huge interior sliding window enabling the home to serve as an all-day outdoor living space through most of the year. This allows the cottage to function as an open, spacious, and free-flowing dwelling that stays connected to nature.

The cottage comprises of a series of zig-zag overhangs, glazed fronts, and gabled rooftops supported by a wooden framework. It features two storeys that house multiple living zones and common lounge areas. The outdoor space has been equipped with wooden decks that double up as sitting spots too. The wooden cottage is perfect for a cozy getaway with your family or close friends – it is idyllic, intimate, and of course, beautifully designed.

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A cottage in the woods inspired by the surrounding trees reaches lofty heights with it’s open-plan layout!

Grand-Pic Chalet is a lofty cottage located in Austin, Quebec, where the surrounding ferns and birchwood trees inspired the home’s design and construction process.

Austin is a small, quaint, and forested town on the western shore of Lake Memphremagog in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada. Known for its panoramic lake and mountain views, Austin has a certain charm that appeals to nature lovers everywhere. Just northwest of Austin, in the bustling city of Montreal, the Appareil Architecture firm designed a cottage, Grand-Pic Chalet, to nestle right up against the tall, lanky trees, towering above the fern-strewn forest floor.

Measuring 1464sqf, Grand-Pic Chalet certainly is grand, yet still unassuming amidst the surrounding birch trees. Taking note of the wooded area’s flora and saplings, the architects at Appareil let the trees and forest guide their design process.

Inspired by the lanky birch trees around Grand-Pic Chalet, Appareil architects clad the cottage in corrugated steel to complement the organic vertical lines found throughout the forest. Cloaked by lush black facades, come dusk the Grand-Pic Chalet disappears into the dark like a rider in the night.

Glowing from the inside, warm, golden light pours from expansive windows at night and draws natural sunlight in during daylight hours. Maintaining the lofty height seen from its exterior, the open-plan layout of Grand-Pic Chalet makes for soaring ceiling heights that allow for flooding of natural sunlight to fill the home. In this way, the changing lights from day to night mimic the transition between daylight and dusk experienced in the forest.

Grazing the forest floor, Appareil constructed a cedar-paneled walkway that leads residents and their guests from the parking lot to the cottage’s main living space and supplemental storage shed, which also dons a black corrugated steel facade. Moving inside, the difference between the facade and the home’s interiors is like night and day.

In direct contrast to the home’s richly dark facade, the interior walls are lined with Russian birchwood panels that evoke the same cozy appeal as the forest’s surrounding trees. During the day, the home is entirely brightened with natural sunlight and remains a nest-like haven come dark. Centered around the kitchen, Grand-Pic Chalet strays away from unnecessary walls and doors to give the interior an unrestricted and candid personality, much like the forest that it calls home.

Designer: Appareil Architecture

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This low-country tiny cottage embraces rustic minimalism for the ideal winter escape in the marshlands!





Low Country is a tiny home located in Lake Glenville, North Carolina that infuses touches of minimalism with rustic outfittings for a luxurious and cozy winter escape.

Tiny homes have become the blueprint for the perfect winter getaway. If you’re planning on hitting the coast for a warm getaway from the cold or escaping to the woods for a cozy, snowy holiday season, tiny homes can be found near and far. While each tiny home plays to its own personality and environment, some cabins fully embrace the storybook setting to bring guests as close to a wintry, fairy tale as they can get. Located in North Carolina, the Low Country Tiny Home built by architect Jeffrey Dungan from Designer Cottages is one such storybook cabin.

Infused with minimalist details and outfitted with rustic charm, the Low Country cottage was inspired by the marshlands of Savannah and Charleston. Born and raised on a farm in Alabama, Low Country architect Jeffrey Dungan understands southern coziness like his own backyard. Citing the tiny home’s bucolic detailing, Dungan asks of Low Country, “What could be more southern than a porch with bracket supports and hand-made details like carved rafter tails at the eaves for good measure?”

The exterior of Low Country appears like a woodland creature’s hideaway with cedar shake shingles and poplar bark siding completing the cottage’s facades and roof. Interrupting the organic look of the cottage’s poplar bark siding, Dungan implemented sweeping floor-to-ceiling and small dormer cross-bar windows.

Painting them a slate gray to merge the unstained poplar bark with the burnt orange cedar shingles, Dungan tied the exterior’s changing facades together. Ensuring warmth during winter months and a cool interior during summer, the windows are clad with energy-efficient Ply Gem® aluminum.

Inside, a large set of double doors provide generous views of the lush summer greenery or snow-covered patio outside. Sweeping from floor to ceiling, the double French doors bring guests into the cottage’s living room area which merges with the kitchen and finally the main bedroom in the back.

Throughout the home’s interior, Dungan lined the floors with tongue and groove 7” oak hardwood panels. From its oakwood flooring to the cottage’s pine ceiling, the natural coziness of Low Country might as well be written on the walls.

Designer: Jeffrey Dungan

Low Country’s interior embraces rustic minimalism for a bucolic winter escape.

During the winter months, Low Country looks like a snowy haven straight out of a fairy tale.