Modern meets Rugged in this 950sqft Minnesota Cabin
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2025The Northwoods of Minnesota is a region of boreal forests, wetlands, and glacial lakes stretching from the Mississippi River’s headwaters in the central part of the state to the North Shore of Lake Superior on the east. Nestled within its varied topography are cabins, traditionally of the seasonal variety.
Mention a cabin “Up North” and what usually comes to mind is a ramshackle structure. Plain on the outside, whether made of split logs, plywood sheets, or some other commercial material, the typical cabin has few windows. Inside it’s dark, which nonetheless helps retain heat generated by a propane tank or wood stove. The décor is probably “woodsy,” with a bear, white-tailed deer, or moose motif.
All of which leads family members and visitors to refer to the cabin as rustic, nostalgic, or quaint. It’s a base from which to fish and canoe, to hike and relax, to rough it albeit with a roof over your head. That’s not the kind of cabin, however, that the Walsh family had in mind.
“We’ve been going up to the North Shore for the last ten years or so, since after our daughter was born,” says Daniel Walsh. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter. “We love it and have always rented cabins. But having big dogs has made that increasingly difficult.” By big dogs, he means big—a Samoyed and a Newfoundland—so the Walshes decided to build their own cabin in the woods.
Table of Contents
- An Unbuildable Site
- Windows for a Modern Feel
- Using Every Square Inch
- Clean Simple Living
Three years ago, they found a parcel overlooking Caribou Lake, which they’d kayaked and enjoyed. “The property once had a cabin, which had sat on railroad ties, but it had been removed,” he says. The Walshes weren’t looking to build anything similar.
“I’ve always been a fan of modern architecture, and have always wanted to build something modern at an affordable price point,” he says. The cabin also had to be as low-maintenance as possible, exceptionally dog-friendly (meaning, durable and easy to clean) and built with local, sustainable materials.
He found Sara Imhoff, owner, and principal of Imprint Architecture and Design, LLC, Minneapolis, to bring the family’s cabin idea to life. She’d worked on several LEED-certified cabins in Washington state.
“In many of those projects, we made sure, upfront, that the wood sourced was coming from a sustainable forest, a local company, or from the property itself after a windstorm,” she explains. “Sourcing materials upfront was a driver to make sure the cabin would be LEED certified. The Walshes wanted a similar approach.”
An Unbuildable Site
A primary challenge was the property itself. The three-acre parcel includes one-half acre along the lakeshore, a county road that bifurcates the property, an elevation change of 30 feet, and surface that’s mostly solid rock.
“Set back requirements between the lakefront and the centerline of the county road made the property unbuildable,” Walsh adds. “But we got a variance for a set up that matched old cabin, which meant we had to stay within that building footprint. We were fine with that. A smaller footprint meant we used fewer materials and resources, and it made the cabin more affordable.”
“Now, given the way windows are made today to be energy efficient, architects can use windows to capture light and solar heat gain, and foster that connection with the outdoors—without the need for artificial sources of electricity,” she says. “Windows are a big driver in making a cabin feel more modern.”
Walsh adds that because of the cabin’s size, large and floor-to-ceiling windows would bring in “lots of natural light from every angle, warmth from the bright winter sun, and a feeling of living outdoors.” Two operable windows downstairs, along with the screen porch, capture breezes off the lake in the summer, as do operable windows upstairs, eliminating the need for air conditioning.
Radiant heat in the polished concrete slab—finished with a water-based sealer, and easy to clean after big dogs with dirty paws have come in from the lake—keeps the cabin warm. A wood-burning stove provides ambiance and another source of heat. An inside door on the lower level can be closed to maximize or minimize heating zones.
Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.
