Cabin at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Middleburg, Virginia
Size: 500 square feet (46 square meters)
Architect: Tim Clites of Clites Architects
Contractor: Richard Williams of Deerchase

The cabin sits in a clearing atop a hill, with views of the Bull Run Mountains. “[It’s] an easy walk from the main house, but it’s just far enough to feel like they are getting away,” Clites says.

The couple hired Clites, who had designed the main house, and contractor Richard Williams to make the cabin work for the activities they envisioned. New elements include openings for windows and doors, a chimney, a small addition (seen on the right with wood board-and-batten siding and a pigmented stain) and a back porch.

The late-18th- or early-19th-century cabin originally sat about 70 miles from where it is now. “[It] basically arrived as a bundle of logs,” Clites says. Williams had a bit of a giant Lincoln Logs puzzle on his hands. He and his team laid out the sills and joists on the ground first to see what they had and to get a measurement for the foundation.

Maintaining an authentic historical feel was the goal, but keeping the cabin frozen in time was not. Williams is passionate about old buildings. He paid meticulous attention to detail and sourced reclaimed materials. He also relied on a deep list of contacts, including expert craftspeople, to help give the log cabin authenticity.

One such craftsperson who worked on the project was Lewis Whitesell, an expert mason. He designed and constructed this chimney from fieldstones in a style that would have been used when the cabin was built. Even the firebox is fieldstone rather than firebrick. The half-barrel-shaped cap is a more modern detail that protects the chimney.

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